By David Horsey
A new report from the group graded cities based on five categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. The three top towns were no surprise: New York City, London and Paris, in that order. But, coming in at number four is Seattle.
The Emerald City ranked so high because of our stunningly varied and beautiful geographic setting, our great cultural institutions, such as the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, and our diversified economic base with a major tech sector led by Microsoft and large manufacturing led by Boeing, as well as other big employers, such as Amazon and Starbucks.
There were some negatives that kept Seattle from rising even higher. The biggest minus factor was poor governance which, in this international study, meant national governance — the chaos and ineptitude of the Trump administration. (Hey, how come we get blamed for Trump? Seattleites did not vote for him.)
Those of us who live here know there are some problems we need to deal with, but that is true of New York, London and Paris, too. I love all three of those great cities and am always happy to make return visits, but I love Seattle most of all. It is nice to see my hometown get placed right up there with the premier cities in the world.
Founded in 1851, Seattle has had to play catch up — New York had a few hundred years head start, Paris and London had millennia — but it looks like we got there.