[mhays]

Yes, but that was just science, engineering, product development, and so on. This is Innovation, with branding.

More seriously, cities have highly variable levels of innovation going on, whether in the depths of old-line companies, in start-ups, or in university research where the big cities are in the 10 figures. It's appropriate and necessary for cities to try to improve in this regard, even if the same was true 40 years ago. San Francisco doesn't need branded districts to improve beyond what it is, but some cities can benefit from that sort of thing.