Tel Aviv competes for title of most innovative city

'Wall Street Journal' pits Tel Aviv against New York City, Medellin, Colombia in online poll.

By BEN HARTMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Tel Aviv 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS)
Tel Aviv 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS)
The Tel Aviv municipality is anxiously awaiting the results of an online poll that could see it named the world’s “Most Innovative City,” in an online poll being run by The Wall Street Journal.
Tel Aviv is pitted against world economic capital New York City and Medellin, Colombia in the battle for the top spot. If Tel Aviv wins, the online poll will join a string of similar Internet accolades in the White City’s digital trophy case, including “Best Gay Travel spot” in a 2011 poll by Gaytravel.com as well as a spot on Foreign Policy’s 2010 top 50 Global Cities list.
The competition tests a city’s capacity to adapt and re-imagine itself and the municipality’s ability of forward thinking, as well as cities’ integration with and influence on global markets, culture and innovation, the Journal said.
Other cities that competed for the title but did not make the final voting round include Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle, Sao Paolo, Singapore and London.
The Journal touted Tel Aviv’s light rail construction, begun in September 2011 and long from completion, as well as the UNESCO honored White City, and cooperation between CA Technologies and Tel Aviv University for a new multi-million dollars innovation center.
The TA City Hall greeted the nomination with a healthy dollop of enthusiasm on Sunday, sending out a press release in which Mayor Ron Huldai touting how “ever since 66 families founded Tel Aviv in the heart of a sandy wasteland, the city has been an important and groundbreaking leader in innovation.”
Huldai also touted what he said is Tel Aviv's status as “one of the biggest technology innovators in the world” The announcement came a day before the start of the “Cities Summit Tel Aviv”, a two-day conference hosting a number of civic leaders and entrepreneurs from cities around the world.
While initial rounds split the weight of the results between the public voting and selections made by the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the current final round of voting will be based solely on the public voting.
The winner will be announced on January 24, 2013 online and will be covered in the February 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal Magazine.