Eat It, Portland: Seattle Is the Smartest City in the Country

At least according to Joel Kotkin, an expert in urban futures. As Kotkin notes, “smart” is now synonymous with “green.” And while our neighbors to the south are consistently on the top of any list of the greenest cities in the country, Kotkin says that’s a narrow way of defining “smart.” Why? Because commuting to work by bike only does so much when you’ve got fewer jobs to commute to.

The green-only litmus test dictates cities should emulate either places with less-than-dynamic economies, like Portland, Ore., or Honolulu, or one of the rather homogeneous and staid Scandinavian capitals. In contrast, I have determined my “smartest” cities not only by looking at infrastructure and livability, but also economic fundamentals.