Much-Maligned San Francisco Ranked 7th Best City In The World

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego

October 6, 2023

San Francisco, a daily target of criticism from Fox News and other conservative media, was nevertheless ranked as the 7th best city in the world this week.

The annual ranking by Resonance Consultancy, a Vancouver-based company that provides marketing and banding services for cities around the world, acknowledged that San Francisco is hurting, and noted that it had fallen from 5th place last year.

“Despite San Francisco’s meticulously documented challenges, job opportunities andinfrastructure buildout pave the way as the world continues to rush in like it always has,” Resonance said its report.

San Francisco continues to be a global magnet because of “high salaries that draw global workers,” the “number one place for start-up innovation” and a level of individual wealth trailing only New York and Tokyo.

Resonance noted that cities across the world have been “hobbled this decade, exposing the long-ignored foundational and institutional problems that manifested on their streets,” and San Francisco is no exception.

“But they’re also leading — like they always have — the recovery and future-defining next stages of innovation, livability and sustainability,” according to the report.

World cities were ranked on prosperity, livability and “lovability,” with San Francisco ranking 5th, 20th and 28th in those categories.

London led the rankings, followed by Paris and New York. Among other U.S. cities, Los Angeles ranked 15th, Chicago 16th, Washington 17th, Boston 24th and Seattle 34th.

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