AKRON, Ohio
Population: 198,100
Unemployment: 5.0 percent
Top University: University of Akron

“Rubber City” has remade itself into “Polymer Valley.” Polymers, critical in the manufacture of computers and mobile phones, are not only produced by more than
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BOULDER, Colorado
Population: 103,166
Unemployment: 3.8 percent
Top University: University of Colorado

Home to TechStars, a business incubator similar to Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator, Boulder has become one of the nation’s hotbeds of innovative startups. Th
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BURLINGTON, Vermont
Population: 42,284
Unemployment: 2.9 percent
Top University: University of Vermont

About a quarter of the city’s residents are students at the University of Vermont but despite that, or because of it, Burlington has one of the nation’s hi
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DETROIT, Michigan
Population: 688,701
Unemployment: 7.7 percent
Top University: Wayne State University

Many residents say they haven’t seen this kind of energy in Detroit for decades. TechTown is an internationally recognized urban research and tech business p
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HESPERIA, California
Population: 92,147
Unemployment: 8.7 percent
Top University: University of California, Riverside

Sometimes the biggest innovation local governments can do is cooperation. Hesperia and four neighboring desert cities (Adelanto, Apple Valley, B
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LONG BEACH, California
Population: 469,428
Unemployment: 7.3 percent
Top University: Cal State Long Beach

Home to one of the world’s great, and busiest, ports, Long Beach was one of 14 cities from around the world chosen to receive a grant from the Bloomberg P
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PORTLAND, Oregon
Population: 609,456
Unemployment: 5.4 percent
Top University: Portland State University

Rip City discovered long ago the benefits of going its own way: In the ’70s it created a bicycle plan and converted a freeway into a riverfront park and no
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RALEIGH, North Carolina
Population: 431,746
Unemployment: 5.1 percent
Top University: North Carolina State University

Having the distinction of being one of the country’s first planned cities, innovation pretty much seeps from this city’s bricks. For an exam
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SAN DIEGO, California
Population: 3,263,431
Unemployment: 5.0 percent
Top University: University of California, San Diego

Operating smarter is a civic obsession. A few examples: a national leader in electric vehicles, San Diego installed solar-to-electric chargi
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TAMPA, Florida
Population: 352,957
Unemployment: 5.3 percent
Top University: University of South Florida

USF not only has one of the largest enrollments in the country but its 104 patents awarded ranked 10th in the nation—besting the likes of Harvard and Penn�
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