IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: A Tale of Two Cities. “America’s first and second cities — New York and Los Angeles — are doing their best imitations of That ’70s Show, but without the laugh-track or anyone with Kurtwood Smith’s natural authority to tell them to stop being dumbasses. If you had to bet a hundred bucks right now on which city could turn it around, which would it be? LA? NYC? Both? Neither?”