>>The large cities have become weird places.
Not all the top cities are large. Vienna has less than 2 million population, ditto Auckland. Basel doesn't even have 200K, or around 500K in its whole canton. Smaller size may be part of the desirability- which carries the seeds of its own destruction. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
