Well okay, he's not about to argue that the city isn't corrupted and violent, neglected, abused, generally fucked up from all sides. He's on board with her there, though he struggles to imagine how it all works in practical terms.
"Does it ever work?" He asks, shaking his head, still skeptical because even in a perfect city, people still gonna be people, right? Her theory sounds a bit idealistic, or like those sci fi utopias, the ones that are all still inevitably fucked up under the surface. "Can you really change human nature like that?"
Would his brothers, his father, his uncles all be what they were if their city was more cohesive? Would his mom still be alive? It sounded like a nice idea, but no more than that, an idea, broken again the rocks of reality.