"Vibrant cultural life" is a function of more than just city size. Smallish towns I've lived in (5-10k people) have far more vibrant cultural life than the lar

"Vibrant cultural life" is a function of more than just city size. Smallish towns I've lived in (5-10k people) have far more vibrant cultural life than the large suburbs I've lived in (because in the suburbs, people just go to the nearby larger city, but that's simply not an option in small towns). Just to pick one random example I'm familiar with, Burlington, VT (~40k people) has a great cultural scene largely because it's more than 100km from the next larger city. Nitpicking aside, I agree with the general thrust of your argument, especially point #1.