Nice place, and highly underrated, but it’s been fighting off a decline for about a half a century now. It’s fought valiantly, and the city is in great shape compared to most midwestern metropoli, but it’s inland position, the decline in importance of the Mississippi and horrendous climate make me doubt that it will ever be more than a backwater. Good place to raise kids though, if you want big city amenities and a relatively low crime rate at a price you can afford.

“Madison”

Too small, but swinging above it’s weight category, like Omaha or Des Moines.

“Frankfurt & Berlin”

An especially interesting possibility. As the gravity shifts from the anglosphere to the Germany-Russia-China entente, I wonder if one of those might not become a center of action.

“Dubai”

A bubble in the desert.

“Lagos”

NEXT!

“Colombo”

Naw.

“Prague”

Meh.

“Muskat”

This is an interesting one. Oman is the only really functional country in that entire region. Whether or not they’ll ever be able to capitalize on that fact in a meaningful way is another matter, but if they do, Muskat could replace Dubai as the center of the Gulf States.

“Alright, you want to come here and work? Here you go. There’s no regulations, no minimum wage, and you can come and go. If you really want to work, you can make it here- and if you make it here, you can get into mainland America. On an EB-5.”

This too is why Shanghai has the role in China- even though all the savvy MNCs have major offices in Beijing as well to be close to the political action.

But really … I would have to put San Francisco + Silicon Valley closer to the top 5. This is the epicenter of technological innovation in the world, and there is some degree of finance in downtown SF.

Sydney: Too far away from the rest of the world. Kuala Lumpur: Too sleepy.

Ultimately, though, I don’t know the advantage of being a global city in terms of wanting to live there. Nothing in these places is really to human scale (with the exception of DC, which isn’t that big). And of course what difference, at this point, does it make where you live as long as you are within a 2-hour plane ride of someplace important?

Some cities with bright futures that I see are Minneapolis, Madison, WI, Frankfurt & Berlin, Dubai … perhaps Lagos … Colombo Sri Lanka, Prague, another Middle Eastern city such as perhaps Muskat, Oman.