Los Angeles, CA

This ranking had to include America's second-largest urban center in terms of population (13 million) and GDP ($1 trillion). The Global Smart City Index 2020 assigned LA a BBB rating. According to the GSCI study, locals were pleased with the recent online voting experiment, which was implemented in ten community councils, including Downtown Los Angeles, in 2019. Surprisingly, Angelenos are less enthusiastic about their city's cultural offerings than residents of Denver and Seattle.

Best smart initiative: In 2019, Los Angeles became the first city in the United States to make an earthquake early warning app available to the public. ShakeAlertLA delivers an alert to users when there are early warning signals of a magnitude 5.0 or larger earthquake, using a network of seismic sensors located throughout the greater Los Angeles region.