I was about to say. Miami is the only city on LA's pace in terms of boom and growth of influence in a short span. Miami was basically Myrtle Beach status a little over 35yrs ago. Maybe even lower than Myrtle, because at least Myrtle has hella tourist attractions to choose from. Miami didn't.
Miami was a backwater resort town where old Jews from NY went to die. Fast forward to now, it's now a global arts/cultural destination. In the words of Macon GA rap legend Jeezy:
Thank God for those days, thank God for those nights. Though it may seem wrong, thank God for that White.
Blasphemous line. But it applies to Miami so well. Cocaine made the city cool. Cool brought in more tourist. Tourist brought revenue. So on and so forth.
Miami was already a major city 35 years ago (1985), but that's the only point I'll disagree with you on...
Miami is very much a young city and following LA's trajectory, coming from obscurity to be a global player. Unscientific, but I put Miami about 35-40 years behind LA in development, seems it really "introduced" itself as a real city in the 30s and 40s, and has picked it up with each passing era...
As it stands now, it ain't an equal to LA (LA really has no equals, because it ain't quite equal to NY, just closer than any other city); by any measure Miami is significantly smaller than LA, Miami is definitely international but not quite to the degree of LA, Miami has the smaller and less diverse economy, etc. But Miami is definitely the city in the LA mold of how they burst on the scene to surpass most of the legacy cities before them...
LA will remain the #2 US city for quite some time unless there's a significant shift in lifestyle (pandemics, wars, and depressions being the type of things that cause cities/nations to fall from grace), and Miami will probably be what LA is today, in 35-40 years, unless some significant lifestyle events occur to knock them off track...