I own a couple of citys and have experienced 9 th gen civic. Civic is way better in almost everything. I suggest you take a test drive of some 9 th gen before making any decision. Its transmission may not be the best but its cockpit like interior makes up for it. In terms of maintenance, from easiest to hardest to maintain are in this order :
City
Civic
Aqua
If some thing goes wrong with aqua expect atleast a full day at workshop. The only pro to aqua can be jdm quality or fuel economy which wont matter since your distance is not much. New city would be tension free but it will lack some goodies.