I live in the suburbs, because I recognize that I get all the benefits of cities with almost none of the downsides. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. As long as I can afford the suburbia and as long as it leads to a better life, I’ll take advantage of it.
But in the vast majority of cases, its the cities that provide the value (IE: job creation, center of commerce and innovation, location of efficiency with public transit / steamworks / useful infrastructure)… while suburbs are basically trying to live as close to the city as possible without taking on the responsibilities (IE: taxes go to the suburb schools / suburb cops without paying into the city that makes the suburb livable)
Jury Duty is just one more thing that proves the pattern. People mostly don’t commit crimes in suburbia, because no one is doing commerce in suburbia (its more efficient to centralize commerce into the city). So when crimes are committed, they’re usually in the city (white-collar, suing, traffic crimes, etc. etc.). So the overworked city-justice system (already at a disadvantage due to higher crime due to being the center of commerce) is then overworked some more as they usually can’t recruit jurors.
Doubly-so for cities like New York City who are supporting the suburbs in New Jersey. New York City cannot cross state lines and grab jurors from New Jersey, even though we all damn well know that New Jersey residents constitute a huge portion of the traffic, commerce, crime, and other problems in NYC.
Less so for cities closer to the center of a state… especially if the State can better distribute jurors / taxes and have a more fair system.