I totally relate, I was born and raised in Salt Lake. It's not the most urban of cities, but we have a lot of air pollution (and it gets trapped here in winter by the inversion). I really wasn't intending to push for more urbanization - only for thinking about the far future when the planet may be so crowded and polluted and hot that we need to "dome in" our living spaces.

Trust me I'd rather have open air and open sky also. I'm not a city person at all. There is just no place as wide open and unspoiled as many of the lands we have here in the West, and I do cherish and appreciate them.