The Ten Most Dynamic Cities

Las Vegas has also moved beyond the Strip geographically. Bedroom communities like Henderson house a growing middle class. A typically Western entrepreneurial spirit thrives here, even as Sin City has long since retired its wild edge. Pensioners are a big source of growth, and will help fill a new MGM resort-and-residential-condo community, one of the first of its kind in Vegas.

The impact on jobs is already striking. In the first quarter of this year, while the number of jobs in the United States grew 1.6 percent, the number in Clark County (Vegas and its surrounding area) grew nearly 7 percent. Most of those were in the casino sector, but jobs in financial services and manufacturing (in firms making things like plastics and metal products) were up more than 5 percent, year on year.

Even if its values are increasingly mainstream, Vegas's growth is an outlier. Its population has been rising nearly a full point faster than the next fastest-growing U.S. city (Charlotte, North Carolina), and that poses challenges on a scale unique for the United States, like how to create social stability in the face of a huge influx of unskilled labor, and how to open and staff a new school district each year. Still, plenty of struggling second cities would love to have the neon mecca's troubles.

Rana Foroohar

City of Substance

There are many would-be 'gateways to Asia.' this one's for real.