There's no need to build another New York City when we already have New York City. It would be folly for the federal government to stand up a competitor to New York City.
But! It's not folly for Illinois or California to try. Competition is good.
they're not that bad, but they're not everyone's cup of tea.
But I really didn't like the culture, the roads, the housing, the way people drove. I'm just not suited for east coast life.
These cities aren’t competing on crowded, dirty public transit. They’re not prioritizing “walkability” (i.e walking through human feces and crowds of homeless people). I could definitely see the population of say, the combined TX metros overtaking NYC. Heck FL recently surpassed the population of New York state for the first time in history, not many seemed to notice. They’re not competing, they’re winning.
If you don't, you will only concentrate all kinds of problems on your largest cities, and even invent some wild new problem because cities can not survive all by themselves.
That said, a tax based on what city you happened to be born or identify with is the kind of weirdness that my culture can't assimilate. But it may make complete sense there (maybe because it's more traditionalist? do they want to be that traditionalist?).