Iconic cities are not born, they are made. It was never a sure thing that New York would become more influential than Philadelphia or that San Francisco would birth more startups than anywhere in the world. Rather, the cities that become great at something do so because of very deliberate action taken by residents and governments. While San Francisco is hard to beat at its startup prowess, cities all over the country are rushing to become the next 'hub' for something. Cleveland is aspiring to become the bioscience capital of the world, the northwest wants to rule on green energy, and Boston wants to rock it on med tech.
