Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Which city do you think is most significant and successful on a national and global level at this point in time?
Factors to take into consideration might be historical significance, current job market, projected future growth, variety and quality of leading industries, GMP, media recognition, city/metro population, etc. Hope for a good discussion!
I honestly don't think US history regardless of era has much global appeal/significance.
In the current state of affairs I'd give the edge to SF. The shift towards Asia and being the de facto global hub of tech and large tech companies gives it a decent lead over Boston. Also I think both cities will have relatively equal longterm outlooks so I don't expect this to change. May be Boston's biotech or robotics will push Boston higher in the future but I think most of the economic focus is on plain tech right now.
As for media, California wins in general. I don't think movies or tv are set in the Northeast at anywhere close to the rate they are in CA.
Location: Watching half my country turn into Gilead
3,530 posts, read 4,175,298 times
Reputation: 2925
Quote:
Originally Posted by Northedge
I honestly don't think US history regardless of era has much global appeal/significance.
In the current state of affairs I'd give the edge to SF. The shift towards Asia and being the de facto global hub of tech and large tech companies gives it a decent lead over Boston. Also I think both cities will have relatively equal longterm outlooks so I don't expect this to change. May be Boston's biotech or robotics will push Boston higher in the future but I think most of the economic focus is on plain tech right now.
As for media, California wins in general. I don't think movies or tv are set in the Northeast at anywhere close to the rate they are in CA.
You have to clarify this statement to exclude NYC. If we're just talking Metro Boston/Greater Philadelphia compared to all of California, and not just San Francisco, than I agree. Include NYC, though, and it's much closer. I also don't understand why you would make this an entire Northeast vs California comparison to begin with--this thread is about Boston vs. Philadelphia vs. San Francisco, no?
If you look at venture capital investment, it's all pretty obvious. California gets roughly half of all VC investment with most of that concentrated in the Bay Area. Massachusetts and New York are in a dead heat tie at #2 but at 10% of what California sees. Pennsylvania isn't even a blip on the radar screen. Where the investment capital goes is where the good jobs go.
You can also look at this using real estate prices, median & top-5% income, millionaires per 100,000, poverty rates, or whatever metric you want and you'll see similar data. The Bay Area is the most prosperous place in the United States. Metro-Boston inside the I-495 belt is #2 along with NYC despite a far lower population. Philly lags behind.
That's not to say that there aren't nice places to live in the Main Line towns or in little pockets of the city proper. Or that Philly doesn't have a strong economy with a lot of very good jobs. It's just that it doesn't crack the top-5 in any category.
today would have to say SF, Boston, Philly in that order
Yeah, I would agree with this order.
SF (including the Bay Area) as the home to Silicon Valley is the most influencial economically and culturally. Google, facebook, apple, twitter, uber, airbnb, etc. So many corporations that are fundementally upending business models and changing the way we live.
Boston would be the next. Although not a glamourous or as big as the SF Bay Area's tech scene, Greater Boston has a very solid "knowledge cluster" anchored by 2 of the most influential research universities in the world (and a few other very good ones) and a very vibrant advanced sci/eng scene, particularly in the life sciences. Nothing has really scaled up into a corporate jugernaut the way Facebook or Apple have, but Greater Boston is a major node in the global innovation economy. Plus, the city has a solid ho-hum mutual fund/insurance economy. Not as flashy as Wall Street or even Chicago, but a key driver of the regional economy.
Philly is a very solid city economically. But, it is more on par with the solid corporate economy of Atlanta or Dallas. A few big companies, most importantly Comcast, and some smaller startups. Penn is a major presence, but it has spawned a spill over inovation economy to rival Bos/SF. The city is doing much better than most of the US, but it isn't quite in the elite "Bos, SF, Sea, DC, NYC" knowledge center strata just quite yet. It's more like a smaller Chicago. Some very good corporate stuff at the high end, but still a lot of lower value added blue collar stuff.
Boston is probably a more "elite" global city than generally recognized on this forum but is behind SF in some ways. With its major R&D, Biotech, Financial, robotics, nanotech, medical, VC, etc. engines all chugging full bore it is very strong. Philly is seeing a major resurgence and is a big city but it is not recognized as an elite or global city by many of the groups that bother with those analysis. All are doing well and have their advantages for average people, but the rating the OP seems to be looking for is probably SF, Boston, Philly at this time. Boston and SF are both on the ocean and from an aesthetic perspective that is a major plus for many people.
Does this survey include the whole bay area or just San Francisco? A good chunk of the tech jobs are in San Jose, if you don't include San Jose in this list than I would argue that the Boston metro area is more influential than SF or Philly. If you include San Jose than San Francisco definitely wins.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
