Travel
The Best Large and Small Cities in America
What investing in the $413 billion “destination branding” economy can get you
Manhattan’s cityscape at day’s end, in New York.
Photographer: Michael Marquand/Photolibrary RMDrum roll, please: In a just-released ranking of the best cities in America, the decisive winner is the love-it-or-hate-it, 20-million-strong metropolis of New York.
That’s according to Resonance Consultancy, a 10-year-old firm at the forefront of the $4.2 billion “destination branding” industry. To produce the rankings—now in their second year—the company collects troves of objective public data on big and small cities from coast to coast, focusing on 27 criteria that include crime rates, air quality, housing affordability, entertainment offerings, cultural diversity, and economic vitality.