North America's 10 Smartest Cities

"Today's cities demand 21st century solutions to accommodate their growing populations in ways that not only maintain the quality of life, but also improve it. That's where smart cities come in," writes Cohen. "Smart cities find ways to become more efficient, to deliver more services via mobile technology, to optimize existing infrastructure, and to leverage citizen participation to create better land-use decisions and to break down bureaucracy in order to stimulate a creative, entrepreneurial economy. In short, smart cities are innovative cities."

By refining his methodology to include information from the cities themselves, Cohen has developed an updated ranking for 2013. The result is a new top dog: Seattle.