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1) Washington D.C. - The federal government is an incredible force to be reckoned with, and it has become arguably more powerful and noted in recent years. Related to this is the growth and prosperity of Washington's media such as the Washington Post Company, the Gannett Company, the National Geographic Society, National Journal Group, PBS, BET, NPR, etc--many of which have an influence disproportionate to the size of their fanbase. Also related are the various think tanks that play a large role in influencing the rest of the populace and innovating new trends or technologies. Outside of the federal government and the media/think tanks, the city has some fairly prestigious universities and other institutions that are also influential. Perhaps more importantly is DC's position slightly ahead of the curve in terms of urban renewal/change. DC has gone through massive changes, generally for the better, at a faster pace than perhaps any other US city. The revitalization it is seeing is spurring even greater changes with expansion in public transit and some restructuring of its public school system--which could be expanded to the rest of the US due to DC's high number of tourists, large media coverage, and proximity to the lawmakers of this country. Fugazi.
2) New York City - This one is fairly obvious. New York City is by far the largest city in the US and plays an incredible role in media, education, international politics and finance. The city may have taken quite a beating in recent years (and it has become apparent that Washington can flex some muscle in this city), and the prosperity it saw in the last decade and a half may be at an ebb, but it's still immense.
3) The Bay Area - It probably seems like LA should be next after New York, but in terms of national importance, the Bay Area has been a much greater contributor in recent years than LA has. There have been many basic structural and systematic changes in how we go about our lives and the Bay Area, Silicon Valley especially, has been responsible for these changes. It is undeniable that new media and social media have changed basic social interactions along the world. These changes aren't of the direct sort that you would see from the large media presence in other cities (DC, NYC, LA) and seldom immediately point themselves to the Bay Area as their origin, but the very basic nature of how we interact with each other has to a large extent sprouted from the Bay Area. eBay, Google, Yahoo, Intel, Apple, Wikipedia, Facebook, and countless others have become of not just national, but global importance. In essence, the Bay Area has created the medium and has mostly left the details to others. Added to this are the the very large and productive institutions of higher education and research parks based in the area dealing in myriad fields. SF is also home to a very large financial services industry and some behemoths in the field. A well-known fact is that SF and the East Bay have also been and continue to be a locus for progressive politics, and has served as the base for various publications and agencies related to such. The city practices much of what some people in it preach by its strong commitment to public transportation, aggressive legislation against chain stores and big-box stores, stances on gay marriage, and various other practices that occasionally make its way to the AP wire as a possible example for other cities.
4) Los Angeles
5) This is a lot harder to gauge, but possibly Boston, Chicago, Dallas or Houston
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