Reddit reviews Legends & Lairs: Citycraft

This is a random encounter table for the city of Sigil (from the Planescape campaign setting). It's certainly not a guide on how to make cities interesting and not all things there can be found on any game world (like factions, for example) but overall it is so well put together that it has a ton of cool ideas to use on any city on any world if you just read through it https://www.reddit.com/r/planescapesetting/comments/429gp7/2e_sigil_random_encounter_tables/

If you're willing to invest in an entire book on the subject I suggest City Works. It is written for D&D 3e but most of its material will work in any version of the game or other fantasy settings https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Lairs-Works-Mike-Mearls/dp/1589940970

As a DM, myself, what I usually do is try to come up with a few interesting places per town. If the city is big enough, then I chop it up into a few districts (rich, poor, market, docks, etc) and then come up with a few locations per district instead.

Locations vary from unique places with unique NPCs, like an arena or a wizard guild which could have a dozen NPCs and quests inside - to just normal places but with a pinch of creativity. For example, if we're dealing with a small fishing town, which wouldn't have much sense having some fancy buildings and powerful NPCs, I could just make all standard locations fish related - the inn is a retired ship brought to land, its staff all ex-fishermen who really don't quite fit the job (but try hard have big hearts); the shop there sells healing potions made with fish oil and require a saving throw to avoid becoming sick and dizzy for one round after drinking them; the town guard uses spears and hooks as weapons, and maybe they even have a couple of merfolk enlisted in their ranks.

Finally, another great thing about towns is that you can always come up with new locations if you need to. Specially big cities where players simply haven't visited every road and corner, there will always be new things to find if you so choose. Even smaller towns can have new businesses opening up or the city itself expanding when they come back there later on, with new things to find - or changes on the places they already been too.

Honestly though, I find it much harder to DM and describe a rich city full of activity and a lot going on at once than a wilderness or dungeon adventure. Sigil, mentioned above, is probably the highest challenge for any DM of any setting and I always felt I sucked at it but my players seemed to enjoy it anyway. So just go ahead and do your best, hope my tips here help somehow!

Well, I found it after a bit of hunting.

City Works by mike mearls, a legends and lairs supplement for D&D third edition.

https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Lairs-Works-Mike-Mearls/dp/1589940970

The city building chapter it had was what I was trying to recall.

Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe is a great resource

Legends & Lore: Cityworks is a 2003 book by Mike Mearls well worth checking out

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There's always Legends & Lairs: City Works Link