The Los Angeles of my childhood was smog-ridden, dirty, hot, filled with angry minorities and lacking many of the basic staples of middle-class life. Returning there as a professional adult was a bracing experience. Los Angeles had world-class restaurants, a wonderful climate and Vince Vaughn getting phone numbers from beautiful babies.

I've repeated this realization to almost anyone who will listen. But I do think there may be some truth to my recollection of Los Angeles. In the late 80s, L.A. was recovering from the worst property bust the U.S. had seen in two generations, and was sorting out how to deal with an influx of millions of migrants and the first children of the Great Society. The economic boom of the 90s, the recovery of the property market and the ascension of California as America's economic engine had yet to truly get underway.

When people learned I was moving to New York, they warned me to stay away from certain neighborhoods and avoid certain situations. Obviously, they were living with a generation-old schema of NYC as crime-ridden ratfest. Even the arguably worst neighborhood in NYC, Brooklyn's Redhook, was fit for a leisurely Sunday stroll to Ikea.

Economic transformation is powerful, but it can go both ways. I wonder which city will be the U.S. answer to 1970s New York and 1990s L.A.? Las Vegas and Phoenix are early favorites.