San Francisco is one of the world's 15 best cities, according to a new report. But San Franciscans might be none too pleased to learn which other California city finished ahead of their hometown.
Resonance Consultancy ranked San Francisco No. 15 on its annual "World's Best Cities" list, based upon six core categories: Place, People, Programming, Product, Prosperity and Promotion. San Francisco ranked No. 9 in People, factoring in the region’s high percentage of foreign-born residents and residents with at least a Bachelor's Degree.
"Job opportunities and infrastructure buildout pave the way as the world continues to rush in, despite the haters," read the company's top-line description. Resonance also wrote that the city's "immigrants have sowed the seeds for the city's open-minded attitude toward, well, everything."
San Francisco finished well ahead of California neighbors Sacramento (No. 95), San Jose (No. 54) and San Diego (No. 28), and it also was fourth-ranked American city. Yet Los Angeles' No. 8 ranking – second only to New York among U.S. locales – stood in the way of San Francisco earning statewide bragging rights from the listmakers.
"(Given) the pent-up demand to get past this nightmare and on with California dreaming, breaking tourism records and rolling out one multibillion-dollar infrastructure project after another, LA will not be down for long," the report’s authors wrote of the Southern California city.
San Francisco ranked no lower than 27th in any of the six categories, but Resonance claimed the city is "deeply wounded" due to some "companies leaving for (Austin, Texas) and Miami" and the city having only the 123rd-lowest unemployment rate of the locales examined. However, the company believed that delayed travel plans caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will, ultimately, give San Francisco tourism a shot in the arm.
"The pandemic shredded massive plans for 2020, including monumental anniversaries like Golden Gate Park's 150th and San Francisco Pride's 50th. But all of these delays have only filled a visitor pipeline," the report said.
You can find the full top 15 cities below.
1. London
2. Paris
3. New York
4. Moscow
5. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
6. Tokyo
7. Singapore
8. Los Angeles
9. Barcelona, Spain
10. Madrid, Spain
11. Rome
12. Doha, Qatar
13. Chicago
14. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
15. San Francisco
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