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Washington, D.C., tops Forbes 2014 List of America's Coolest Cities

Forbes Magazine named Washington, D.C. as the “coolest” city in the nation. Boston, pictured here, came in at No. 10. But what makes some cities cool and others not? Dennis Hoffman, economist and director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute, offers an explanation.

2014-10-13

From Forbes Magazine, August 6, 2014: “We’ve entered an era now where certain cities are magnets for young, innovative, productive workers,” says Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.  ”It’s having this magnetism that a number of the rest of us in places that are not on this list are trying to aspire to: the Salt Lakes, the Phoenixes, the pretty much anywhere in Middle America.” Read more About Dennis Hoffman: Professor Dennis Hoffman is director of Arizona State University’s Office of the University Economist, where he is responsible for projects that examine how ASU contributes to regional prosperity. Hoffman is also a professor of economics, a Dean’s Council Distinguished Scholar, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute and faculty director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Hoffman joined the faculty of ASU in 1979. He has served as a trustee of the Arizona State Retirement Board since his appointment by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2010. He developed and maintains the ASU General Fund revenue-forecasting model that has been used as the primary guide for budget development by the Governor’s Office for each year since 1983 — serving seven different governors over the period.  

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