Satellite towns have made sense for a long time. They are the best trade-off for those who want affordable housing, urban lifestyle, and access to a decent job market. Remote work doesn't change the situation much, because most jobs still require human contact.

The recipe for a satellite town is simple. Create a fast and frequent rail connection to the central city and build dense mixed-use areas around the station, with lower-density areas farther away. The rail connection is the key. Car-centric satellite towns create too much traffic and often can't reach sufficient density to support local services.

Yes, but it's nice to live in a small town that just happens to be embedded in a great world city and all the amenities and concentration of interesting people that comes with it.

Small towns are not for everyone. It's hard to escape small towns, everybody knows you and the cultural activities are just very limited. I feel quite trapped in my small student-city, there's just nothing new anymore and I am quite bored of the usual activities. In those superblocks you are still living in the city and it's easy reach other parts. But you don't have to for your day-to-day needs.

I am starting to think that living in a small town is not for me either. My wife and I have been living in a beautiful small town in the mountains in Central Arizona for 20 years. It is beautiful here, and we get a million tourists a year to verify that. What I miss is culture, things like music, museums, lots of ethnic food, stage productions, etc. Without success so far, I am trying to talk my wife into permanently renting our home, and downsizing to living out of 7 or 8 steamer trunks that could be shipped efficiently. To start with, I would like to live in apartments for about 6 months each in Quebec, Santa Barbara, near family in Rhode Island, etc., etc. I figure we could do that until we are ready for moving into an nice assisted living place.

Montreal definitely ticks all your boxes!