Chicago and Charlotte have more in common than just the first two letters of their names. They are both textbook examples of how residential developers who are willing to take a chance and cities in need of another chance can turn vast tracts of wasteland into thriving, vibrant neighborhoods.

Chicago south of Grant Park along South Michigan Avenue is sort of old hat to me. When I first visited the city in August 1999 for the National Hardware Show, I walked south from my hotel to the McCormick Center on a Sunday morning, winding in and out of areas that were in the very early stages of redevelopment.

Some warehouses already had been converted into condos or rental apartments. A block east of South Michigan along Indiana Avenue was new construction, three-story townhouses that looked as if they had been plucked from the late 19th century.

A railroad bridge across Indiana Avenue identified the houses as part of "Central Station." Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley Jr. had just moved there, and a day or two before I arrived, there had been a widespread power outage caused, the mayor maintained, by the increasing strain of redevelopment on an electrical system that had been neglected for years in favor of the suburbs.

This was the Prairie District, Chicago's oldest residential neighborhood, and the John J. Glessner House, built in 1839 and the city's oldest home. This was, after the Great Chicago Fire in 1971, "Millionaires Row," "Palace Avenue," and "The Sunny Street that Held the Sifted Few."

In the first 30 years of the 20th century, however, the area lost its wealthy residents, many of the grand houses were razed or fell into disrepair, and the city rezoned it as commercial/industrial, and it filled with warehouses.

Since I began walking those streets, 25 high rises either planned or in place replacing empty lots, surviving older mansions being restored or carefully converted to high-end condos, upscale businesses catering to the new residents springing up almost everywhere.

Most of these new high-rise projects are sold out long before the ground is broken. Others, such as the restoration of the Marshall Field Jr. mansion on Prairie Avenue by UrbanStreet Properties, will turn architect Daniel Burnham's red brick Queen Anne masterpiece into six one-of-a-kind homes, some with master suites of 1,000 square feet.

In 1999, a Sunday stroll along these streets was a solitary enterprise. In 2006, dog walkers and bikers fill the streets, and mothers and their children play in the park surrounding the Glessner House.

Back in 1999, houses in Central Station were selling for $150,000 to $600,000. Resales now start at $600,000, if you can find someone willing to part with one.

On my trek from my hotel to McCormick for the last day of the Kitchen and Bath Show in late April, I stopped to admire a beagle that reminded me of the one I have at home.

"I remember when I first walked through this neighborhood in 1999," I said. "It has changed phenomenally since then."

"Wow," the dog walker said. "In 1999, you were really taking your life into your hands back then."

The same could be said of Charlotte's downtown 25 years ago. Looking out over the city from the 59th floor of the Bank of America Corporate Center, J. Dennis Rash, a retired senior vice president of the bank, recalled when the city's per capita murder rate was closing in on Detroit.

Yet Rash and other movers and shakers, including city and county officials, architect David Furman and host of others began their two-decade-long effort to bring the downtown to life.

These days, life in downtown Charlotte is as close to 24/7 as you can get, with restaurants, theater, sports and other activities. One recent Saturday afternoon found downtown crowded with people taking part in an East Asian cultural festival, shopping, or taking in the sights.

Bank of America senior vice president John Saclarides pointed out the downtown wards of the city to a the National Association of Real Estate Editors and focused on how they had developed. One of the most dangerous public housing projects in the city's Fourth Ward was razed and turn into mixed use.

A walk later in the day through that neighborhood, now filled with new and renovated houses showed that change is not only possible, but welcome. Prices in Charlotte's downtown have continued to appreciate, with new townhouses in the First Ward starting at $350,000.

As opportunities for growth dry up in the suburbs, as gas prices make long commutes increasing expensive, redeveloping cities like Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Philadelphia and others prove to be no-brainers for investors and developers.

Meaning, of course, that I get more opportunities for long and safe walks.