I see plenty of medium and large dogs running with their owners on the lakeshore trail, and most parks have fenced off dedicated dog parks.
Cities work fine for all these things, it just requires that the city has shared space for people with hobbies that don't fit in an apartment.
Most suburban back yards are still far too small for RC flying so I'm not sure what the living suburbs gets you for this hobby that you can't have in a city.
DC is a special case because the entire city is subject to special flight rules[1]. You're SOL if you live there.
Autocross/Track days
Sporting clays
Golf (dragging clubs on the subway is not fun)
Kayaking
Camping
There are other things to do, but NYC is a bad place for a person making less than 6 figures to participate in a lot of outdoor activities.
Festivals
Concerts
Bars
Shopping
Food
Gyms
Meetups
Zoo(s)
Aquarium
Beach
Bike/Jogging trails (606/lakeshore)
Holiday Parades
Holiday Events (Christkindle/July 4th, etc)
Architecture
Very accessible social circles (walking, public transit)
etc, etc
These are what I worry I'd be giving up if moving to the suburbs as a renter currently.
(edit) Can't figure out a hard-return for formatting
(edit 2) Trying to get into a bowling alley is ridiculously hard though, having an hour wait to bowl never has happened to me in the burbs.
Also, if you like loud motorcycles, could you please f$%k off to the suburbs. Thanks.
If you want to have a garden, or a wood shop, or race around RC cars or drones, or big pets, a city just won’t work well for you.
Most people are happy in cities because their lives aren’t much more than sleeping, eating, going to work, and then maybe going to some social events or watching tv, which is a perfect description of millennial life so far.