Poll: Tel Aviv One of the World's Top Three 'Most Innovative Cities'

Is Tel Aviv the most innovative city in the world? Maybe: it's one of the three finalists, with New York and Medellin, Colombia, in the Internet poll of the world's "Most Innovative Cities."

The three cities beat London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Chicago, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Toronto, and Vienna in the online competition conducted in the Citibank advertising supplement in the Wall Street Journal. The winning city, by virtue of its tradition of innovation in research and technology, will be announced on December 31.

Until then, each web surfer can participate and vote for the city of his choice once a day.

This competition for innovation supremacy is one of many similar contests, in which the Tel Aviv municipality has energetically sought to promote itself. Tel Aviv enters itself in numerous contests, solicits expressions of support and admiration from well-known personalities, and invests in publicity and public relations.

Even Benjamin Netanyahu has been recruited. The prime minister's Facebook page calls on its followers to vote for Tel Aviv in the preliminaries of the WSJ-Citibank competition, earlier this month.

In fact, "Innovation Month" opened Sunday in Tel Aviv. With events including a city-initiated conference at the Academic College of Tel Aviv featuring lectures by “hundreds of entrepreneurs from around the world” including mayors, city planners, real estate magnates and applications developers concentrating on “the code of innovation.” There will also be a focus on projects and digital solutions to challenges faced by the urban world in the 21st century. Members of the city council opposition have raised objections to the fact that the conference will not be open to the public.

Canada’s Globe and Mail had already listed Tel Aviv as one of the world’s ‘most creative cities’ in January this year. Tel Aviv appeared alongside London, Sydney, Stockholm and Shanghai as a global center of technological innovation.

In addition to innovation, Tel Aviv has been featured on other lists by leading newspapers and websites. In 2010, the National Geographic magazine published a list of the world's 10 best beach cities and rated Tel Aviv alongside Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Nice (on the French Riviera) and Cape Town.

"Call it Miami Beach on the Med. Tel Aviv is the Dionysian counterpart to religious Jerusalem," it was written in the National Geographic article. "In the 'bubble,' as it's known for its inhabitants' tendency to tune out regional skirmishes, some restaurants, discos, and clubs are open until dawn."

In the same year, the Lonely Planet travel guide named Tel Aviv third in a list of the world's best cities, praising the coastal metropolis for its art and music scenes and relaxed, liberal culture.

In 2008, the New York Times called Tel Aviv “the capital of Mediterranean cool,” adding that the city “has been getting more and more practice at being a host over the years, and it’s starting to show.”

The website for sublets, Airbnb, featured Tel Aviv second in its list of top tourist destinations and Gaycities.com tapped it as the world's premier gay tourist destination.