I have a terrible time with work because of distractions, but the noise pollution in a city doesn't bother me much at all. Loud motorcyclists are a pain, but it helps to live in places where there aren't too many of those (i.e. places with culture). Sirens are the main thing that you can't get away from, but those really aren't that common unless you live in a really dangerous place perhaps.

Even working in a cafe using WiFi is a nice experience for me. Cafes I've sat in don't have people yakking on their phones; I've never seen that as it seems to be quite forbidden by the unspoken social code of such places. There might be some phone beeps, but it's not that big a deal, and I don't have much trouble shutting it out.

The problem I see, and have personally, isn't noise in a city, it's noise in the workplace, because of the open-plan office. I could concentrate far better in a city park or a coffee shop than I can in those stupid open-plan offices, where I'm constantly overhearing (whether I want to or not) the conversations of coworkers, and constantly worrying about coworkers sneaking up behind me. Honestly, I would do far better having a remote-only job where I'm required to work in a coffee shop all day long than I do in open-plan offices.