Noise from electric cars is practically non-existent compared to cars (particularly trucks, SUVs, and motorcycles). I'm sure the pollution from tires and brakes isn't great, but that's like saying that if we cured cancer people would still die. Duh, but we should still cure cancer.

I agree with the general point, but the answer for livable cities still has to be fewer cars. Lower speed limits help a lot: there's a point around 30mph where the greatest source of noise goes from being the engine to the tires, so we have a lot of room to make cities better by getting people onto e-bikes or into smaller low-speed vehicles which use orders of magnitude less energy.

Regenerative breaking significantly decreases break pads use.