[eropple]

I find that it depends quite heavily on the city in question. I live in Boston, where a lot of folks do generally keep to themselves, and it does suck sometimes (if I could get a good gig in a city that wasn't worse--hello, New York, hello, San Francisco--I would), but there are plenty of cities that emphatically don't feel this way. Portland, Oregon comes to mind. Both Dublin and Galway, in Ireland, too.