I completely understand where everything on the list of cons is coming from but none of it is entirely true.
New York is $$$ and yet millions of people find away to make it sort of work. (consider community resources, free events, no spend days.)
New York is loud and yet there are quiet parks, and nearly silent neighborhoods (like my old haunt in Bay Ridge where I almost went crazy from the silence and listening to the waves every day.)
New York is smelly & yet, there’s fresh air by the sea, over the rivers, on secluded streets (& many more good smells like bakeries, and laundry, the sea–again!–, and dusty stores, and the bleach smell of nearly cleaned sidewalks)
& you don’t have to be young to live here. Most people aren’t. (The old people are the best.)
No matter where you go, if you only look for the negative you will find it. But in a city this big you will find the exceptions are the norm.
