riddle - Which US city is it?

This is a more advanced punzzle with a first level based on the same concept as this one. Each of the questions below is answered by the name of a US city which could be pronounced in a way that has a pun relationship with the question. These questions do not generally make use of the literal name in English or other languages (e.g. you won’t find a pair like …do they have a large population of heavenly beings / Los Angeles) so some creativity is required; a round of Mad Gab might be a good warmup.

Any close-to-reasonable pronunciation one could get out of the spelling of the name is fair game. It might help to think of how English language learners (who incidentally have an SE here) might try to pronounce the city name. (This means that puns on the correct pronunciations of places like Worcester are out).

The answers to those questions then provide input to the sequence of strange events and question that follows. The overall punzzle seeks the identification of a single city as the solution. Of course, please share your intermediate steps.

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I started out looking for some cities, wondering in which one...

1. …are they never buyin’ things?


2. …do small sets of connected computers make music?



3. …do they have a good supply of backcountry cooking gear?


4. …do people give negative answers all over again?


5. …do people have overproductive livers?


6. …did they have to dig deep to find water?


7. …would you find yourself at the center of a river crossing?


8. …would you find your Wine house?


9. …would someone give a terse response to a Question of Scruples?


10. …would you find the Scottish girl?


11. …do people take a vendor’s unique perspective on “take ‘em or leave ‘em” situations?


12. …do they make cloths to protect relatively large passenger vehicles?



13. …would you find a comedy crew practicing on the river?


14. …do they add font weight?


15. …is it impossible to make ice?

After finding these cities, I wanted to ZIP up to City Hall, where I might find the mayor, but I lost the first number.
So I had to go around a lot of times and make a letter instead.
Unfortunately, I tripped, and everything got jumbled up.
When I brushed off the mud, I found two animals.
The leathery one moved away, and the sly one asked me where I might find results of the process of formation of the only thing that still remained.
It was very hard, and I hadn't yet thought of the answer.

Where is it?

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Here's a constraint that might help if you get stuck:

All cities have population >100K.

User ev3commander adds the following resource to make things easier than the constraint alone:

List of cities with population >100k

Here's a hint if needed:

It is significant that at least one clue in the list is missing punctuation, where it might otherwise go.

Folks on The Great Outdoors.SE might be able to help on #3. Their chat is here.

As a bit of a hint for #3,

Both the city and the pun are titles of (different) Wikipedia articles.

Answer

Collecting others' answers to the original clues so everything's in one spot.

1 …are they never buyin’ things?

Renton, WA: They're always "rentin'" rather than "buyin'." (From AggieKidd)

2 …do small sets of connected computers make music?

Lansing, MI: Local Area Network + sing

3 …do they have a good supply of backcountry cooking gear?

Charlotte, NC (a lot of charcoal, probably wrong...verified incorrect)
Nashville, TN (There's a company called Nash that makes backpacking coolers...? Verified incorrect.)
Berkeley, CA (They have a lot of Kelley Kettles?) or
Killeen, TX (They have a lot of Kelley Kettles?) or
Gilbert, AZ (They have a lot of Ghillie Kettles?)
Soon we'll have guessed all 300 or so cities!
Mesquite, TX: "Mess kit" (explanation from Brad Sandman)

4 ...do people give negative answers all over again?

Reno, NV: "re-" meaning to do again, plus "no" (From Joe Z.)

5 …do people have overproductive livers?

Mobile, AL: mo' bile

6 ...did they have to dig deep to find water?

Lowell, MA: a "low well" (From Joe Z.)

7 …would you find yourself at the center of a river crossing?

Hartford, CT: heart, aka center, of the ford

8 …would you find your Wine house?

Miami, FL: My Amy [Winehouse] (From ColleenV)

9 ...would someone give a terse response to a Question of Scruples?

Plano, TX: in Scruples, "no" is the shortest (most terse) answer on a card. You'd "play no" on the question somebody is asking you. (From Joe Z.)

10 …would you find the Scottish girl?

Dallas, TX: In Scotland, a girl is often called a "lass, so we have "da lass." (From AggieKidd)

11 …do people take a vendor’s unique perspective on “take ‘em or leave ‘em” situations?

Salem, OR: Vendors don't "take 'em" or "leave 'em", they "sale 'em" (From AggieKidd)

12 ...do they make cloths to protect relatively large passenger vehicles?

Vancouver, WA: "van cover" (From Joe Z.)

13 …would you find a comedy crew practicing on the river?

Rochester, NY: "row jester"

14 …do they add font weight?

Boulder, CO: "bolder"

15 …is it impossible to make ice?

Fresno, CA: "freeze no"

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Meta puzzle

After finding these cities, I wanted to ZIP up to City Hall, where I might find the mayor, but I lost the first number. So I had to go around a lot of times and make a letter instead.

I think this means to take the ZIP code of City Hall in each of the cities, then drop the first number from each. After that, go around and around (mod 26) and convert the result to a letter.

98057 → 8057, 8057 mod 26 = 23 → W
48933 → 8933, 8933 mod 26 = 15 → O
75149 → 5149, 5149 mod 26 = 1 → A
89505 → 9505, 9505 mod 26 = 15 → O
36602 → 6602, 6602 mod 26 = 24 → X
01852 → 1852, 1852 mod 26 = 6 → F
06103 → 6103, 6103 mod 26 = 19 → S
33133 → 3133, 3133 mod 26 = 13 → M
75074 → 5074, 5074 mod 26 = 4 → D

75201 → 5201, 5201 mod 26 = 1 → A
97301 → 7301, 7301 mod 26 = 21 → U
98660 → 8660, 8660 mod 26 = 2 → B
14614 → 4614, 4614 mod 26 = 12 → L
80302 → 0302, 0302 mod 26 = 16 → P
80306 → 0306, 0306 mod 26 = 20 → T 93721 → 3721, 3721 mod 26 = 3 → C

Unfortunately, I tripped, and everything got jumbled up.

WOAOXFSMDAUBLTC

When I brushed off the mud,

WOAOXFSMDAUBLTC - MUD = WOAOXFSABLTC

I found two animals.

FOX and COW, leaving ASABLT

The leathery one moved away, and the sly one asked me where I might find results of the process of formation of the only thing that still remained.

Process of formation of BASALT

It was very hard, and I hadn't yet thought of the answer.

BASALT is hard. The word even derives from Latin for "very hard stone."

Where is it?

Not sure yet. If the "B" is somehow an "M", it could be PLASMA, which of course is made in Sunnyvale, CA

Perhaps in Basalt, Colorado? Or in Hilo, Hawaii?

Rockford, IL or Round Rock, TX or Little Rock, AK?

Las Vegas, NV (Lava gas)?

Thanks to @MatthewGreen:
Charlotte, NC: a char[red] lot, because basalt is formed from cooling lava, so after a lava flow you're likely going to have a lot of charred material on what would then be a "char lot."