Well said. It's especially easy to forget about simple, natural, and poetic cadences when you live an environment whose purpose is to crush those very things, i.e. cities.
And yet most will not even get close of being an ecosystem. "Green" and "parks" are mostly consisting of 2-10 species of plants, not more, and none of the species having a fully life cycle (seed to humus), also taking the space dozens of other species would otherwise fill (insects, funghi etc).
Im regents park london, they let some cut trees rot on purpose, years later there are still no funghi visible growing on them, while in a forest that happens. Ive also not met a single mosquito there in years.
Most city parks are mere deserts to me.
It sure still is healing to be outiside, but calling that "nature" is a blunt lie in my ears.
Luckily, those urban green spaces have a similar positive effect on our systems as a full forest would.
Separately, I would like to point to a place like Prospect Park in NYC, where one can find themselves in the equivalent of a new growth forest complete with the majority of applicable local flora. There are also botanic gardens, where one can experience a number of different groups of blooms throughout the year. We're capable of having this be part of our urban experience.
If that is your focus, over here (Hamburg, Germany) there also are real (mostly untouched) forests, which also include life. They are not extremely huge but at least many centuries old.
One is like 8min from my door, could even take a bus since there are stops on the edges.
Naive question: Are there any such cities in the US that have all that and all the other perks you'd want from a city (active dating scene; diversity of food, people, culture, museums, restaurants; good public transit; good schools; etc)?
I've been trapped in the concrete-jungle part of SF for a while, and — while I do really want to escape to a better, greener city — it's oddly difficult to find an alternative. I wonder if NYC may be the only viable candidate.
Even though not asked for, maybe consider european cities, too, especially the bigger older ones.
They are not skyscraper-level breathtaking like many US cities and not as dense - but have lots of advantages (walkable, good public transport, rich cuisine, higher food quality in general, less homelessness or other social issues, … not even talking about working here with much more vacation/free healthcare/…).
Ultimately you mentioned museums - well Europe has stuff that is thousands of years old. Lots of stuff to see and discover. I personally like to go to authentic medieval festivals or viking meetups for example.
I believe it is one of the greenest cities in the US, I used to know a few people from there that I'd connect with over the years at business conferences, and they absolutely loved it there.