This is why cities like San Francisco and Washington DC are considered Beta cities while cities like Warsaw, Toronto, and Chicago are Alpha cities. All in all, these rankings put a heavier emphasis on economic output rather than culture, politics, and quality of life. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network created the alpha, beta, gamma, ranking system based on four indicators of producer services. In addition, the quality of life in Honolulu is too good to be ranked as a global city (just being honest). This isolation causes a scarcity of resources. The city is hard to do business in because of the isolation.

This is arguably due to the size of the city, which is limited by the size of the island. Honolulu is a great city, it does serve as a link between Asia and the United States, and it is known on a first name basis across the world, but the city does not meet enough of the criteria for being a global city.

November 30, Aplenty- Honolulu is neither an Alpha, Beta, nor a Gamma city. Maybe one day Honolulu will become an alpha or beta city. The rankings change and cities can fall in and out of favor as an alpha city. The city was only ranked at number 32 worldwide, but the mercer report tends to favor cities that have universal health care. They were followed by San Francisco, and Boston. I was reading the Mercer Quality of Living report, and Honolulu Ranked as the highest American city on the list again. Honolulu has plenty of culture and history, is an international city, and has a high quality of living. It's a shame that Honolulu doesn't rank in the list of global cities. In some other ways, perhaps quality of life (as someone pointed out), it could rank near the top, but that's a different ranking. I'm just saying it's unrealistic to put it in the same category as New York, London, or Tokyo in terms of being an international economic and cultural hub with worldwide influence.

I'm sure Honolulu is a nice place, and I don't mean to speak negatively about it.

How many top-100 multinational corporations are headquartered in Honolulu? How about top-100 universities? How about a stock exchange? A famous fashion designer, symphony, or theater district? An airline hub? A major league sports team? A major league anything?

Chicago global alpha city