They also offered subtle knocks of the competitor cities.
Officials in the transportation industry said they did not fault Mr. Walder for making a reasoned decision, saying the outlook for transit and infrastructure in New York is far grimmer than its competitor cities around the world.
Planners have the answer, and it's not by relaxing controls on building in flood-prone areas in order to gain quick wins at the expense of competitor cities or even countries.
Indeed, the high-stakes contest for Boeing has stirred not only the pride of the competitor cities, it has also created a sideshow to the effort to find a suitable home for Boeing and wrest tax breaks, subsidies and other concessions out of the process.
Diversa's chief competitor, Redwood City, Calif.-based Maxygen, is enzyme-hunting with several partners, including oil giant ChevronTexaco and Novozymes.
And while competitor Circuit City stopped selling big appliances, Best Buy has held on to this segment, which now makes up 6% of annual sales.
But it won't be pretty - given that Garry South (who ran his gubernatorial campaign) now works for his competitor, L.A. City Councilmember Janice Hahn.
London is gaining attention as a competitor to cities outside Europe, however.
Competitors: Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd.
In a call, the startup's founder and CEO Stuart Sunderland told me that competitors to City Pantry include traditional corporate caterers, sandwich retailers, pizza delivery places, and to a lesser extent, the newer breed of restaurant delivery companies such as Deliveroo and Uber's UberEATs.
