okay.
Cons:
New York is a dirty, dirty fucking place.
The apartments are, indeed, nearly Tokyo-like in their size. I live in BOSTON so I thought I was prepared for high rents and small spaces, but I've been shocked nevertheless after seeing several apartments that are literally just wide enough for a bed + 3 feet walk-by space and only like 20 feet long, for like $2400/month.
You have to get into the New York thing--the city operating 24 hours a day is a lot more noticeable than you would think, once you're there. There's just no logical endpoint for the night, if you go out, so you find yourself sitting in a bar at 8am being like "Jeez, why is the sun up?"
Most people I know end up getting sick of New York after a while--few years, sometimes less. They just can't keep it up anymore.
Pros:
The tremendous diversity of the city, which I don't mention because of some dumb liberal feel-good "I live near brown people" shit. I mention it because you can get ANY sort of ethnic food you want, and it's usually GREAT. I said that once to a girl and she laughed me off and was like, "Yeah, right. How about BASQUE food, eh?" and I went online and pulled up two Basque restaurants in Manhattan within a minute.
AND everybody delivers. Everybody.
Mass transit is a big plus...yeah, it's filthy and creepy sometimes, but you can get ANYWHERE you want to in the city at any hour of the day or night. You don't have to worry about catching the last train home or applying for a job at a place that doesn't have mass transit access.
The social-ness of people in NYC is great, too. Whenever I've been there, I always end up striking up random conversations with people in bars and on the street who I'll never see again. I haven't felt the kind of willingness to socialize in any other city I've spent a comparable amount of time in (Boston, Philly, and to a smaller degree DC and New Orleans, plus of course Connecticut cities). It's awesome.
