Small, dense, walkable. Does it exist in America? I don't think so.
The time of the slow sparse public transit or the costly Uber ended up having me still just drive everywhere, and then worry about parking everywhere I went.
Figure out the major muni train or bus stop I'm trying to get to, and then either walk to it or walk to a shared bike dock and bike to it. Same thing on the other side, if necessary. Often I just bike the whole way to get some exercise and see the city: "it's about the journey, not the destination", right?
The hills make it less walkable than other cities, but if you are healthy you should get used to the hills pretty quickly. I loved walking back to Nob Hill or biking back to NoPa after work. The hills are daunting at first. Sometimes you'd need to get off your bike and walk up parts. But once you get used to it it's not a huge issue.
The cool weather also helps cooling down after you get to your destination. Compare that to somewhere like Austin, TX, where you start sweating the minute you get out of the AC and into the year-round humid weather...
I used to take Muni daily as well, but just doesn't run active enough for me, and was not competitive with UberPool pricewise.
Experience with docks wasn't often good, sometimes it wouldn't register my bike was docked, or the dock is full, or the dock is empty, or the bike is out of battery or smeared with poop. Plus was worried about sharing bikes with COVID. Just personal experience.
I lived there for 14 years or so and never lived there more than walking distance from a grocery store. I think the farthest I lived from school or work was a 40 minute walk or 20 minute bike ride. I wasn't rich either. I worked through college at PSU.
Santa Fe
Burlington
Most of America is a 1/10, they're 6/10s, which isn't bad. All ranked by my totally arbitrary scale. But what I'm looking for is a 9+/10. Aspen, Colorado is a good example, but I would never be able to buy a house there as they start at $8 mil.