I now live back in the city in Florida that I grew up in. The old patch is more prosperous, more densly populated, and with almost all ordinary people enjoying a better life than they would have had fifty years ago. And I would feel deprived without a smartphone, PC, internet access, cable TV, and a large flat screen TV — things that were near science fiction when I was a boy.
I can tell you’re a Florida boy because you said city versus town. So which city is that? I may have missed you mentioning it.