Alpha City, World City, Global City- whatever you want to call it, there is a certain elite group of cities that have status and influence on the world. These are the producer cities, places responsible for creating and incubating ideas, fads and trends that other places adopt, as well as more tangible aspects such as being financial, trading, cultural, or manufacturing bases. In the case of Los Angeles for example, the film/TV/design/music aspect of "Hollywood" plus the major role LA plays in trade between the US and Asia (almost half of all things imported into the US come in through the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach super-port, the busiest port in the US, and one of the top ten in the world).
* Starchitecture- This is famous buildings and /or buildings by famous architects. Not just iconic landmarks (i.e. the Eiffel Tower) but contemporary or relatively modern subjectively famous structures that are well studied and admired (Gaudi in Barcelona, Mies van der Rohe's Lake Shore Drive buildings in Chicago). In the case of Los Angeles, mid-century modern and contemporary post-modernist/deconstructivist work is well represented. In the case of the former, places like the Neutra houses in Silver Lake, Case Study Houses scattered among the hills, and Eichler houses in Granada Hills. In the case of the latter, the work of Frank Gehry is perhaps most well known, notably his Walt Disney Concert Hall along with buildings such as the houses along the Venice Oceanfront Walk.
Also, Richard Meier's Getty Center
and Renzo Piano's expansion of LACMA. LA also has many buildings designed by America's most well known architect, Frank Lloyd Wright including the buildings in Barnsdall Park.
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* Micro-brewed craft beer and micro-roasted coffee- Once the soley the domain of wine snobs, contemporary tastes demand lots of locally sourced "designer" beer and expensive gourmet coffee. Angel City Brewing, Eagle Rock Brewery are examples of the former and Intelligentsia, Syrup, Coffeebar and the cafe at LACMA are examples of the latter. Bars with lots of craft beer on tap are the ones held in the highest regard. Also notable is that LA was the birthplace of the ice blended drink which was co-opted by Starbucks as the "frappuccino".
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* Culinary trend-setting/gourmet options/gastronomy- High end restaurants and world-famous chefs as well as being the birth place of new culinary ideas are the mark of distinction among world-class cities. In the case of Los Angeles, Wolfgang Puck and his restaurant Spago, which gave us fresh fusion California Cuisine in the 1980s (things like barbeque chicken pizza). LA is also the birthplace of pop-up eateries (where chefs have a brief residency somewhere and come up with new dishes and ideas which are unique and site-specific like performance art) and cross-ethnic fusion food, best exemplifed in Kogi (Korean-Mexican street food). This also brings us to another area that LA popularized- the gourmet food truck.
From humble beginings with late night taco trucks known to the uninitiated as the "roach coach", there are now food trucks that are held in very high regard (even a reality TV show) and food truck scenes in every major city, though LA still has the most gourmet food trucks, and the most famous- Kogi. It should also be said that Los Angeles is where sushi was first introduced to America, where the California Roll was created (and by extension Western-style sushi which has the rice on the outside), and where it first took off before spreading to everywhere else in the US and becoming second nature to American tongues.
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*High culture/high-brow- The presence of major institutions of art- museums, opera, theatre, ballet, symphony, and world music/performance art is often a major indicator of a city's world class status. Besides the fine arts and the classics, having the most cutting edge and avant-garde experimental examples are usually the bonus point earners. Los Angeles has major venues such as LACMA, the Getty Center, the Norton Simon, The Huntington, LA Opera, LA Philharmonic, etc bus also has MOCA, the Hammer, and the very cutting-edge REDCAT. Also I would like to note the very contemporary spaces such as Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre, Machine Project, and Materials & Applications.
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* Boutique hotels- Savvy jet-setters demand a nice but unique space to stay. Perhaps the best example in LA is The Standard (with locations in Downtown LA, West Hollywood, as well as New York and Miami). Also the W Hotel (in Hollywood and Westood and cities around the world), and the classics like the Chateau Marmont, the Andaz (formerly "Riot Hyatt"), the Roosevelt, and Mondrian.
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* Shopping- High end brands like Gucci, Armani, Versace, etc that can be found on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills are distinctions of major cities but I like to measure more by the "anything factor" as in anything I'm looking for I can find and own. In LA there are stores selling dungeon furniture, jewelry made from bones, salvia, and old movie props, but also any CD or movie you could want at Amoeba (the world's largest indpendent record and film store), and just about anything amusing, whimsical or provocative can be had at Wacko. In addition, items from any religion or country can be found and purchased.
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* digital start-ups- A measure of aspiring world cities is the level of tech savviness and a economy sustaining jobs in that field that require lots of educated, wealthy, young, liberal people. Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area was the model, and now everywhere adds the "Silicon blank" moniker. In Los Angeles, "Silicon Beach" (Venice and Santa Monica areas) is where the bulk of tech companies in the LA are located and with the correlation of demographics and businesses catering to those people. Yahoo, Google, Myspace, Imax and others are located on the Westside of LA, and also ICANN, the internet's domain management organization has its offices in Marina del Rey. The internet was partially invented in LA, at UCLA in the late 1960s (when it would take a day to send a small message from a computer in LA to a computer in the Silicon Valley).
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* music scene/indie/festivals- Having a thriving music scene (especially indie pop/rock/dance) is usually seen as a healthy sign of city-ness. In LA it is often hard to sift through the transplants, commercial heavyweights who take up residence here, and overall "Hollywood" aspect of things in order to fnd home-grown music. But look close enough and you find local scenes of many genres and the venues that sustain them and also home-grown music that is fundamentally associated with LA, such as the Doors, X, Sublime, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, NWA, Snoop Dogg, and Black Flag. In addition current scenes can be found in the following categories and with relevant venues: psychobilly (at venues like Spike's, the Redwood, Weber's, Juke Joint), black metal (the Black Castle, Five Stars Bar), indie rock/pop/dance (the Echo, Satellite, Los Globos), and skacore and punk which should noted have the particularly underground LA aspect of being thrown anywhere (usually backyards, warehouses, and parking lots). There's also the famous Sunset Strip with its venues catering to touring acts and transplant start-ups or local youth bands - places like the Whisky, the Roxy, the Key Club, the Viper Room and the House of Blues. Festivals are perhaps one of the most visible and tangible signs that a city has a big music scene. In LA FYF is the big indie music festival, and the world's most famous, Coachella, is only a few hours away in the desert east of LA. [Famous ones in other cities include San Francisco's Outside Lands, Austin's South by Southwest, and Chicago's Lollapalooza]. As a major world city, LA is never missed on any tour by any band, and is also the location shows by foreign music acts.
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* hipsters- this is a loaded word often used as a put down and is a word no one would willingly describe themselves as, nevertheless the presence of hipsters is indicitive of major city status. Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a hipster as "a person who is unusally aware of and interested in new and unconventional patterns". Places famous as being hipster havens include Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Wicker Park in Chicago, Little Five Points in Atlanta, most of Portland Oregon, most of San Francisco, and the areas just northwest of Downtown Los Angeles (Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park). In Fact Silver Lake was ranked by Forbes as being the "hippest hipster neighborhood" in America from a compilation of factors that were looked at (including farmer's markets, microbrews, coffee, independent businesses, small music venues, a large number of people with artistic occupations, and bike culture). San Franciso's Mission District was in second, followed by Williamsburg. Since hipsters often look to Europe for inspiration and as the standard of many things, a world city's hipster neighborhoods are often the most "European" in character. Silver Lake (and adjacent areas like Echo Park and East Hollywood) usually stand apart from their counterparts in other American cities by the "grittiness" that they still have and the high levels of diversity and low levels of gentrification and displacement relative to similar places in other cities.
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* global conferences- major conventions, events, and meetings such as Comic-Con in San Diego or E3 in Las Vegas/LA. This implies the world looks to that city for its market testing, new patterns of consumption, etc
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* Fashion- this goes into the aspect of a major city being a producer of ideas and goods instead of just a consumer. London, Milan, Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles are usually where fashion is created, first marketed, and then spreads from. Each of those cities also has a certain look or feel that is brings to the table (the table being gloabl fashion). LA is known in particular for its summer wear, sunny recreational casual wear, and is increasingly becoming known for its streetwear/urban/skate brands. Look at any young man with his flat billed snap back cap, skinny jeans, Vans, and shirt from The Hundreds or Obey and you are looking at LA street fashion. Subcultures in LA have also contributed- with things like Ray Ban Wayfarers, boots, and cuffed jeans. LA's main incubator for fashion is FIDM (the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising). For other forms of design, the La Cienega Design Quarter and the Pacific Design Center are major world players.
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* Media- world cities have a global sway in the form of TV, film, studios, record companies, promoters, news sources, websites, etc. This aspect of LA's world class status is perhaps best known under the umbrella term "Hollywood".
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My additions to the list would have to be tied into the idea that a major city is where all of humanity is represented in its ethnicities, colors, religions, subcultures, and lifestyles.
* ethnic enclaves- I would say perhaps more important than if a city has good coffee and bike lanes is if it has ethnic enclaves- both unofficial pop-ups mostly for people of that culture and officially recognized ones that sustain curious visitors and admiring savvy locals. In Los Angeles there are countless examples of the former (Reseda's Vietnamese community, Sawtelle Boulevard's Japanese community, San Gabriel Valley's Chinese community, numerous Latino/partcularly Mexican neighborhoods, etc) and many of the latter. Of the latter, the officially recognized ethnic enclaves of Los Angeles (the kind that would appear in a map or guide book), there are : Little Tokyo (Japantown), Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Ethiopia, Thai Town, Little Armenia, Little Bangladesh, Persian Square, Little Saigon (in Orange County), Little India (in Artesia), and Little Cambodia (in Long Beach). There is also the historic Mexican pueblo part of LA around Placita Olvera near Union Station. Los Angeles has many measures of diversity putting it at number 1, including most non-white population percent (70%), most languages spoken (137),
second highest foreign born percentage (36%) after Miami (though Miami is disproprtionately Cuban and other Carribean), highest in absolute numbers of Latinos, Asians, and Middle Easterners including the highest outside respective borders of Thai people, Mexicans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Armenians, Israelis, Persians, and massive numbers of Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Russians, Japanese, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Argentines, Chinese, Ethiopians, and many other groups with every religion represented. 
* lifestyle enclaves (including "gayborhoods")- in world cities, people can seek out areas in which to live and or spent most of their time that is a haven for their lifestyle. It can be a hipster haven, a chic urbanite sophisticated area or many things most notably an area catering to the LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender) community.
In LA, West Hollywood is that part of town (mostly for the "pretty boys"), along with Silver Lake (especially catering to the bear/leather daddy/type subculture). Other lifestyle havens would be subcultural spots, such as a goth club, specifically sub-genres such as the industrial/powernoize/EBM/aggrotech club called Das Bunker in the Mid-City section of LA. For the chic sophisticated urbanite loft-dweller type, South Park and the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles are enclaves. 
Similar places would be the Pearl District of Portland or South of Market in San Francisco. A city such as Los Angeles will also have a scope and scale that includes levels of obscurity, mixture, and site-specificity. An example of this would be the Latino Morrissey fans. In a public park, someone can rest while dressed like a pirate for no particular reason.
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So there you have my somewhat brief overview of collected thoughts about the nature of world-class city, with examples largely drawn from Los Angeles. The world is an increasingly urbanized place and cities are increasingly inter-connected and more similar than they are different. It is my hope that they can find a balance of being unique while also having similar aspects of urbanity, including some of the measures of top-tier urbanism found in the list above.
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