Flyover country, by and large, is simply not a comparable good with major metropolitan cities. There are a couple of major cities the author didn't mention (Chicago, for example, is lovely), but if you're used to and enjoy urban living, you're not going to find anything like it throughout most of America.
Most American cities are more like San Jose. Sure you've got a big population, but only because what would normally be classified as suburbs have been folded into the municipality, with only relatively small pockets being amenable to the urban life. LA is an interesting case, because it's a lot like the Bay Area as a whole: a cluster of urban spaces, connected by a continuous mass of suburban, single-family homes.
IMO, a simple test of the urban characteristic of a city is a bar crawl. How far can I wander through a city on foot, with a sufficient concentration of bars that it doesn't turn into a hike? For SF, you can make some long crawls: China Town to Fisherman's Wharf is probably my favorite, but if it wasn't for that pesky last call you could easily cross the entire city.
Most American cities are more like San Jose. Sure you've got a big population, but only because what would normally be classified as suburbs have been folded into the municipality, with only relatively small pockets being amenable to the urban life. LA is an interesting case, because it's a lot like the Bay Area as a whole: a cluster of urban spaces, connected by a continuous mass of suburban, single-family homes.
IMO, a simple test of the urban characteristic of a city is a bar crawl. How far can I wander through a city on foot, with a sufficient concentration of bars that it doesn't turn into a hike? For SF, you can make some long crawls: China Town to Fisherman's Wharf is probably my favorite, but if it wasn't for that pesky last call you could easily cross the entire city.