I'm sure Franzese was referring to families still in high end operations. He said 9 relevant families for some reason. Based on what he was into, I can't think of a better criteria to determine what he meant.

I don't think Cleveland and LA had any high end rackets going by the 80s.

"...the successful annihilation of organized crime's subculture in America would rock the 'legitimate' world's foundation, which would ultimately force fundamental social changes and redistributions of wealth and power in this country. Meyer Lansky's dream was to bond the two worlds together so that one could not survive without the other." - Dan E. Moldea