[MonkeyRonin]

• I prefer smaller slightly smaller & more compact cities, but densely built and that still pack a good urban punch & is large enough to host the usual range of metropolitan accoutrements.
• A fine-grained built form, with narrow streets & building frontages and predominantly a mix of 19th/20th-century rowhouses and tenements, with modernist high-rises scattered throughout.
• Heavy on the brick.
• Lots of greenery. Slightly scruffy public realm, with graffiti and lots of overhead wires for all the streetcars.
• An older, established, low-growth city. Somewhere that's busy & vibrant & creative, but not overly expensive or choking under the weight of mass tourism. Somewhere that still has some industrial-age ruins that haven't been turned into condos yet.
• Diverse and immigrant-heavy, but still with a sense of place.
• Fairly flat terrain that's bike-friendly; but hillier/more mountainous outside of the city.
• On an ocean (or at least a large lake). Beaches, canals, and rivers are all nice.
• Humid subtropical climate with four seasons.

Pretty much Amsterdam with less tourists. Or London in the 90s.