Lord Mayor Graham Quirk is rolling out the accolades for Brisbane, clearly relishing being the Mayor of the hippest, fastest growing, smartest and most business friendly city on the face of the planet.
The praise comes from a variety of sources, with the latest label being added to Quirk’s Christmas Tree by the 2thinknow Innovation Cities Index which puts us at number 60 on their list of innovation hubs. 60 might seem like a long way from the top but Quirk quotes this as being in the top 15% and a leap of 25 places in one year, over the cities of Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Geneva, Edinburgh, Kuala Lumpur, Auckland, Wellington, Kobe, Shenzhen, Jakarta, Mumbai, Bangkok, Rome, Pittsburgh, Bristol, Madrid and Bonn.
The Hippest City in the Australia tag comes from Lonely Planet, which does not think Australia the hippest country in the world despite its down under roots. Similarly the Insight Index rating of Brisbane as the most business-friendly city in Australia is a local rating by a local agency.
Still the London Times Financial Magazine rates us as one of the ten top Asian cities of the future, though how far away that future is, and whether the residents of Shanghai, Manila and Hanoi consider us Asian remain unanswered questions.
Far be it for Westender to rain on Lord Mayor Quirk’s parade. We enjoy a good gong as much as the next goon and will line up with the mainstream media to eat hors d’oeuvres in our collective honour. Just a pity we have sworn off the booze, forever. I bet there is a nice sparkling chardonnay being flung about City Hall by the hospitality crew to celebrate the occasion.