A natural-sounding, colloquial, idiomatic phrase for "in my city"

Recently, a student of mine said a sentence that I felt was ok grammar-wise, but sounded a bit weird. The sentence was:

I attend medical conferences in my city

In my native language the expression "in my city" can have both a literal meaning and a slightly idiomatic meaning. In the latter usage, it means something along the lines of "in my area" or "locally". My question is: are there any idiomatic or colloquial expressions in English that conveys the idea of doing something in someone's city, without sounding too literal and stiff? Or maybe I'm too picky and "in my city" sounds just fine?

"in my city" definitely sounds a little stiff. at least in midwestern usa english i think we would name the city, e.g. "i do x in Cleveland" or say sth like "at home" or "back home".

but "in my country" is a different matter, fwiw. it would be completely idiomatic to say "we do x in my country", but a little weird to say "we do x in my city".

I'm assuming "I attend medical conferences" is but one example of a general activity, so I'll use others here.

Examples that occur to me:

I get my hair done in town.

Kyle's jazz band regularly plays in the area.

I heartily recommend the local bodega.

There's a good annual antiques convention around here.

Everyone knows about the concert hall around these parts. (rustic or "country" in tone; probably not what you want, but here anyway for your interest)

There are also other idiomatic phrases more specific than "in my city", and similar in informality:

Why don't you try the corner pub? (pub is at one corner of a nearby intersection)

We usually go to the mall downtown. (mall is in the central business area of the city)

We usually go to the downtown mall. (contrast with above; may also weakly suggest there is more than one mall)