I have the impression that too many people think about actual examples (like: I hate New York - or insert your hated city name here) rather than the idea of a city.

I have lived in a couple of large European cities and each was very different from each other, so I can't draw a "generic conclusion".

Cities can become what people imagine they would like - which sometimes is wrong/sometimes is right (in the sense: sometimes they imagine they would like X but when they have it they are more unhappy, other times they are more happy). But we should talk more about what we like and wish rather than where we want to be or not (city/country-side).