A new study [pdf warning] released by the East Coast suits at Citigroup says San Francisco is only the fifth most competitive city in the United States and the 18th most competitive worldwide. Since we here on the West Coast are either too stoned or too busy inventing new things to put avocados on to be worried about trampling over one another, we are perfectly OK with this ranking.

Apparently Baghdad by the Bay ranked high on "Institutional Character" — a metric meant to quantify a city’s legislative ability. Unsurprisingly, the notoriously chill Tech sector brought us down a couple notches because it is financially (and emotionally) immature. On the other hand, we won points for an effective government and the city's HealthySF initiative — which readers will remember was very famously marred by a giant loophole.

Down in Los Angeles, where everyone and their sister is trying to break into Hollywood, the city of Angels beat out San Francisco to become the second most competitive city in the US and we're sure they're pretty proud of that.

On the other hand, San Francisco also got bonuses (or should it be deductions?) because of our reputation as one of the most liberal and accepting cities. So we don't really care when New York (where Citigroup is located, mind) goes on about how they're always the #1 most competitive city on the planet.