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- Huntsville, Alabama
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Washington, D.C.
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Athens, Georgia
- Olympia, Washington
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Austin, Texas
- Flagstaff, Arizona
- Raleigh, North Carolina
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Richard Florida
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OK, so I haven't yet read the original article, but WTH does the cost of living have to do with resiliency? Maybe expensive cities are expensive because they are resilient, and maybe some of the also-rans listed above appear resilient because they have nowhere to go but sideways. And a cursory glance indicates that some are on the list courtesy of you & me the taxpayer subsidizing their "resiliency".
There is a striking pattern here: all of these cities are based on government creative-class activities that far outweigh private sector activity there. Huntsville and Albuquerque have NASA and Sandia National Labs, respectively. DC, Olympia, Madison, Austin, and Raleigh are capitals; the latter three are also home to major public universites. Charlottesville, Athens, and Flagstaff are also homes to major public universities (well, Northern Arizona University might not be major, but Flagstaff is pretty darn small -- it wouldn't take much for NAU to be the biggest player).
Conclusion: when government funds the creative class in your town, and when that's most of the game in town, you're going to be resilient.