I ended up using this migration (tested, it works, and rolls back successfully):
class AddPropertyToUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
add_column :users, :someprop, :string
execute "UPDATE users u, profiles p SET u.someprop = p.someprop WHERE u.id = p.user_id"
remove_column :profiles, :someprop
end
def self.down
add_column :profiles, :someprop, :string
execute "UPDATE profiles p, users u SET p.someprop = u.someprop WHERE p.user_id = u.id"
remove_column :users, :someprop
end
end
I like it because it avoids the row-by-row updates on a large database.