[urban_encounter]

The Top 20 Large Cities for Doing Business for 2007
By: Michael A. Shires Inc.com Magazine
Employment base of 450,000 or more.


1 Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev
Manufacturing, Business Services, Leisure

2 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.
Retail, Business Services, Leisure


3 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Business and Financial Services, Education and Health


4 Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla.
Business and Financial Services, Wholesale, Leisure


5 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.
Retail, Business Services, Transportation


6 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla.
Business Services, Leisure, Transportation


7 Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
Education and Health, Government


8 Honolulu, Hawaii
Information,Transportation


9 Northern Virginia
Business Services, Retail


10 Salt Lake City, Utah
Business Services, Education and Health


11 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.
Business Services, Leisure, Retail


12 Jacksonville, Fla.
Business Services, Leisure, Education and Health


13 Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria, Va.
Business Services, Wholesale


14 Nashville, Tenn.
Business Services, Retail


15 Sacramento, Calif.
Leisure, Business Services


16 Austin-Round Rock,Texas
Business Services, Wholesale


17 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
Business Services, Transportation, Utilities


18 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett,Wash.
Business Services, Information, Manufacturing


19 Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md.
Business Services, Leisure, Education and Health


20 Portland, Oreg.-Vancouver-Beaverton, Wash.
Business Services, Manufacturing

Complete rankings formulas etc.....

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070501/features-boomtowns-07-large.html

[Great_Hizzy]

interesting that they break Baltimore-Washington up into so many smaller groups... "Nothern Virginia", "Washington, DC, Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia", "Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Frederick, MD".

[pj3000]

^ Yeah... I never knew that there was a city called "Northern Virginia".

[holladay]

DC really does function as multiple markets in some ways. The job market and housing market is not exactly uniform between NoVA and MD.

[MayorOfChicago]

I think it was just misleading then to call it "20 Best Large Cities..."


They should have just called it the 20 best markets/submarkets.

[PhillyRising]

Why do I have the feeling there is going to be a lot of fur raised and poms poms being thrown over this list???

I won't be shocked if this happens.....:lockd:

[Marcu]

It's amazing how completely different these "best place to __" lists turn out depending on what factors one uses. For example...

Chicago Declared North American “City of the Future”
for Its Economic, Business and Financial Strength
Financial Times’ fDi Magazine Awards Chicago the Top Honor

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Financial Times publication, fDi Magazine (Foreign Direct Investment), today announced that Chicago is North America’s “City of the Future” for 2007/2008. The award distinguishes the city as having the best prospects for inward investment, economic development and business expansion in the NAFTA region (USA, Canada and Mexico).

Chicago was chosen based on more than 60 criteria including everything from cost effectiveness to human resources to infrastructure. An independent panel of experts looked at data submitted by each individual city, and Chicago ranks number one overall in its category of “major cities” (cities with populations greater than 2 million people) in the publication, which is distributed worldwide.

Scores were given to each city based on seven selection factors. Chicago was the only city (in any size range) to rank in the top five of all seven selection factors:

# 1 - Best Economic Potential
# 1 - Best Infrastructure
# 1 - Best Development and Investment Promotion
# 2 - Most Cost Effective
# 3 - Best Human Resources
# 3 - Best Quality of Life
# 5 - Most Business Friendly
“Chicago has the most diversified economy in the country,” said Mayor Richard M. Daley. “The combination of this and our tremendous talent pool, dynamic quality of life and unmatched infrastructure have made us a truly global competitor.”

“No other city has dominated any of these benchmarking exercises anywhere around the globe in the way Chicago has in the Major city category,” said David East, Publisher, fDi - Foreign Direct Investment.

fDi Magazine researches and awards the honor every other year. Chicago was also awarded “City of the Future” in 2005, when there were separate award categories for the USA, Canada and Mexico. This year, being grouped together, Chicago takes the honor for the whole region, making the title more competitive. Additionally, this year fDi Magazine reported twice the number of applicants as in 2005.

“We are striving to showcase Chicago’s tremendous business, cultural and human capital resources to the world,” said Paul O’Connor, executive director of World Business Chicago. “Winning this award consecutively proves that our strength as a global competitor is being recognized internationally.”

The “City of the Future” feature is one of a global series of regional reports led by the fDi research staff. Unlike other frequent media rankings led by opinion polls, this competition reflects independent analysis of factual data. The selection process is similar to the way executives and site selection consultants weigh potential locations on many critical selection factors as they develop a list of preferences out of an extensive list of alternatives.

[Modern Design]

No tampa?no DFW?no atlanta?Dever should make this list....very wierd list...:shrug:

[Jersey Mentality]

interesting that they break Baltimore-Washington up into so many smaller groups... "Nothern Virginia", "Washington, DC, Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia", "Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Frederick, MD".

The three of these make up just about the entirety of the DC area, excluding of course Baltimore but they might as well have just said the D.C. metro. This skews the data in that we dont get to see what other cities should have or could have made the list. In my opinion the fact they divided them up like that takes up two extra slots on the list that could have listed other cities.

[Visiteur]

Oh look, not a single one in the Northeast...what a shocker.:rolleyes:

[bobdreamz]

bizzare list...8 Florida cities yet they don't mention Miami but a bunch of it's suburbs.

[KB0679]

The three of these make up just about the entirety of the DC area, excluding of course Baltimore but they might as well have just said the D.C. metro. This skews the data in that we dont get to see what other cities should have or could have made the list. In my opinion the fact they divided them up like that takes up two extra slots on the list that could have listed other cities.

Well, the full list for the large cities/metro areas/markets can be found here (http://www.inc.com/bestcities/best.html?size=1&year=2007).

It appears as though they used both the MSA and metropolitan division designations here.

[shovel_ready]

sprawl, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl, sprawl.....

It's kinda funny how most of these places are "cities" that HAVE NO FUTURE once the cheap energy fiesta (to paraphrase a certain special someone) comes to a grinding halt.

[BTinSF]

These business magazine lists always do their rankings based on freedom from regulation and taxes--so-called "business friendliness"--not business success or business worthiness. I'll admit that Sacramento (just for example) is a whole lot more business-friendly than the Bay Area and I wish it were otherwise, but the fact remains that the number of highly successful businesses started in the Bay Area greatly exceeds the number in Sacramento (even per capita, I bet). Not being a business person, I can't say exactly what is the attraction, but people remain willing to put up with the ridiculous hassles of a business-unfriendly environment, whether in San Jose, San Francisco or New York City, for a reason--and it works.

[GeorgeLV]

^ Yeah... I never knew that there was a city called "Northern Virginia".

You can't even mail a letter to Paradise, NV, yet for some reason the census decided to hyphenate Las Vegas with an unincorporated place that only exists for tax purposes.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Wow, they're all in the US.

[BrianSac]

These business magazine lists always do their rankings based on freedom from regulation and taxes--so-called "business friendliness"--not business success or business worthiness. I'll admit that Sacramento (just for example) is a whole lot more business-friendly than the Bay Area and I wish it were otherwise, but the fact remains that the number of highly successful businesses started in the Bay Area greatly exceeds the number in Sacramento (even per capita, I bet). Not being a business person, I can't say exactly what is the attraction, but people remain willing to put up with the ridiculous hassles of a business-unfriendly environment, whether in San Jose, San Francisco or New York City, for a reason--and it works.

I dont think people are willing to put up with a business-unfriendly environment. SF is not growing very much, and as not for a long time. The bay area pals in comparison to population percentage growth to many other metros including Sacramento. If you really want to compare SF with more business friendly environments, Sacramento was not a good choice; afterall, Sacramento happens to be in California, and California is not exactly the most business friendly state. Better comparions would be Dallas, PHX, and Atlanta. Your issues with Sacramento are based on ignorance. To your surprise, many outsiders LOVE Sacramento.

[LMich]

Why are you taking his critique so personally, and especially considering he was talking particularly about business?

[BrianSac]

Why are you taking his critique so personally, and especially considering he was talking particularly about business?

Your reading too much into what I said. I am not taking it personally. What makes you think I'm not talking about business. Business and population growth are directly related.