Dennis RomeroL.A. ranks high when it comes to such things as traffic, potholes and rich people. What about global competitiveness? You know, the “ability to attract capital, business, talent and tourists,” as the latest “Economist Intelligence Unit” report puts it.
Not bad. We come in 19th place among 120 world cities.
Not bad, but still:
Places like Washington (8), Boston (10) and Vancouver (18) — Vancouver? — beat us out. Really?
We take in more crap from China than just about any American port. We're the biggest city in a state, California, that we've noted is pretty much the richest place on earth despite the Great Recession, which has been worldwide.
Even San Francisco (13), a fraction of our size, outranked us. (Of course, remember that L.A. is the most-hated city in America. That could explain it).
According to a summary of the Citi-funded Economist Intelligence Unit report the metropolises were ranked on “economic strength, human capital, institutional effectiveness, financial maturity, global appeal, physical capital, social and cultural character and environment and natural hazards.”
The 120 cities examined represent 29 percent of the global economy, according to the study.
Leo Abruzzese, the project's global forecasting director:
Economic dynamism is definitely rising elsewhere, especially in Asian cities, but U.S. and European cities have legacy advantages that give them a strong competitive edge.
Interestingly, L.A. is the American city most connected and intertwined with Asia if you ask us.
Why we didn't rank higher must be a matter of what economists call “hateration.”
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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