Like Hemingway in post-WW1 Paris or Hunter S Thompson et al in 1960s Haight Ashbury, one part of it is the city/neighbourhoods, one part culture, and the biggest thing is the people who create the culture and local businesses that make the neighbourhoods interesting.
If you hang out with interesting people (or in modern times share their information networks) then you'll find these cultural hot spots.
It's worth it for major cities to invest in fostering this sort of thing but often it happens naturally as a side effect of circumstance (post war Paris was cheap and booming with fun bars/cafes and plenty of artists, SF/Berkley was in the center of the free-love movement, Tokyo was in the Japanese capitalist tech+cultural boom/etc).
That being said, almost every major city has interesting people, you just have to find them. Some cities have much more than others. Some aren't even cities but unique towns/small communities. And some cities are riddled with poor planning or active policies that are anti-fun/creative/risk taking and scare away interesting people.
To add: I recently read a book about the the history of cocktails about how a few big European cities experienced a second cultural boom (after WW1) when the US started Prohibition in the 1930s. Most of the best bartenders moved to Paris/London/etc to open bars and ply their trade, which spread cocktail culture widely and created some legendary bars in Europe.
A good example of how local political decisions can scare away talent and culture (with good intentions of course).
If you hang out with interesting people (or in modern times share their information networks) then you'll find these cultural hot spots.
It's worth it for major cities to invest in fostering this sort of thing but often it happens naturally as a side effect of circumstance (post war Paris was cheap and booming with fun bars/cafes and plenty of artists, SF/Berkley was in the center of the free-love movement, Tokyo was in the Japanese capitalist tech+cultural boom/etc).
That being said, almost every major city has interesting people, you just have to find them. Some cities have much more than others. Some aren't even cities but unique towns/small communities. And some cities are riddled with poor planning or active policies that are anti-fun/creative/risk taking and scare away interesting people.