City Rankings and the rise of the city-state

I typically enjoy travelling and I've travelled to many a major city on this big blue marble. Noting the differences and the potential across cities in part led me to create my own City Rankings matrix. The larger motivation, however, was the onset of the smartphone wars and how this would change cities and their role in the national and global economies. As I've written in the past:

Talent, money, jobs, wealth, power, learning, opportunity -- all are made *mobile* by the smartphone. How can a city attract, retain and grow these, ensuring prosperity and power in a highly global competitive economy?

As I began to notice the immediate impacts of the smartphone wars, and posit how this would remake the global and local economies, it became apparent that, like others have stated, such as Creative Class, that cities would become even more important to their country's economy. In fact, cities would become far more important on the global scene, as well. Most importantly, as the global smartphone wars are fundamentally transforming the economy, this would lead to some cities faltering and some rising. The fewer its great cities, the weaker its cities, the weaker the nation.

What would be core factors that caused a city's potential to rise or fall? Which city could more effectively compete against another? How could city leaders ensure prosperity and relevance for their city? The following seemed most important to me, as they are deeply connected with the mobile web, smartphones, the creation of new wealth, the destruction of old wealth:

• Hyper-global and hyper-local connectivity
• Density (for as smartphones destroy space and time, they create a vacuum in global human connectivity that is countered by remaining in close physical proximity of one another)
• Youth (they will lead the transformation of the new local and global economy)
• Education (for this new world favors the very smart, then the smart and connected, then the smart)
• Social infrastructure and security (financial and physical), as this supports risk-taking, innovation, adaptability and opportunity

And, of course, a non-open, non-innovative, non-competitive wireless Internet will become a serious drag on America's poential.

By creating a ranking tool, my hope has been that others can use this and determine where America's cities are weakest, which cities are best positioned to thrive in a new global economy, which cities must (all the people of America) work on and improve? Because, yes, the globally stronger a city such as San Antonio, Texas is, the stronger all America becomes. The stronger we can make, say, Cleveland, using the full capabilities of the federal government, for example, the better off all America becomes.

I started this process a year ago. Let me say, this has been a rather thankless task. I do it, however, because if America is to prosper and lead both during and after the smartphone wars, America's cities must be able to effectively compete against *all* cities, and especially against *the best* cities aywhere in the world. A year later, an article in Forbes titled A New Era for the City-State? reminded me why I do this:

The city-state, a relic dating back to Classical or Renaissance times, is making a comeback. Driven by massive growth in global trade, shifts in economic power and the rise of emerging ethnic groups, today’s new independent cities have witnessed rapid, often startling, economic growth over the past decade.

In a world where cross-cultural trade remains an ascendant phenomenon, we are likely to see the emergence of an expanding number of city-states over the coming years. Athens, Carthage or Venice may have constituted the great city-states of the past, but the 21st century is likely to  create its own batch  of luxuriant successors.

Smartphone-enabled services, an abundance of hyperlocal meeting places linked with always-on, real-time hyperglobal connectivity, and favoring the smart, the social and the young. That is the future of successful cities. Old markets, old industries, gatekeeper cities and regions will be irreversibly destroyed. Others will rise up, rapidly, better able to compete in this new world.  My city rankings are to be used as a guide and hopefully can help one influential person in each city in the country.

I do this for you, America.