It is ok depending on your means and living situation. Lived there one year, 2004, and quality of life for me was not that great. Had to have a roomie, which sucked. I think if you are making 6 figures/more, it could be a heck of a great place to live. Also the crowds and constant noise left me with a level of anxiety that I had not experienced. Loved the non-native New Yorkers, of which there are many. Natives are brash and the accent is horrid.

Great city! I always find something new to do every time I visit the city.

Once the center of the universe, post Giuliani New York has become Cleveland with taller buildings. The corporate takeover is 99% complete and the Mom'n'Pops that made the city great have almost completely disappeared. Rents are so high, the kind of adventurous young people who brought artistic excitement to New York can't afford to move here anymore. Still. you might find some archeological sites of interest, and you might find something to do off off Broadway if you search diligently.

UPDATE:

If you like disco dancing to twitchy music, shopping at the same stores you can find at your local mall, and paying $3,000 a month to live in a tenement, NO FUN CITY is for you!

However, if you like the real thing, try to time your visit to THE FIVE POINTS BAND at Rodeo Bar, or a SEA MONSTER show.

(Note: Rabid Motley Van Cooper / Billy Joel fans should feel free to ignore this good advice.)

UPDATE:

Two more of my favorite venues for real rock'n'roll in New York City...

Otto's Shrunken Head

Kenny's Castaways

New York CITY! Who doesn't like NYC? Ok, so there are many people who don't like New York, but I would bet that most of those people haven't truly given NYC a chance! There is shopping and some of the best restaurants that you could imagine. Time Square is a popular tourist destination, but there are plenty of things to do in each of the five Boroughs.

The best is central park on a nice summer Sunday hanging out at sheep meadow on a blanket drinking a couple beers

I used to hate NYC, but it really has grown on me. There is something in the city for everyone. The people are really not all that unfriendly. I think people get intimidated by the size of NYC, but once you get the hang of the city its wonderful! A great place to visit!

New York City is one of those places where everyone seems welcome, because there is a place where everyone can connect to the city. The city is filled with so much history, and it is that history that connects with the city’s technological present to make it the city that it is. Activities in the city are wide ranging. There truly is something for everyone.

I am rating the city based solely on my experience as a visitor. So much to do and see, very neat place to visit. I have been to quite a few different places, oceans, mountains, etc., but nothing hit me like my first flight into NYC.

I do love New York. I miss being on the East Coast and I really would like to stay there. The last time I was there it was the Fourth of July with the fireworks and they were so beautiful. I had to go back and see Ground Zero. I had worked temp before at the World Trade Center. I love Greenwich Village and Soho, etc. There is so much to do there. The arts there are so alive. I would go and see the art galleries and there are the plays. My nephew goes there to see the plays from Connecticut. There is nothing like it. It has such hope and also distress.

I didn't always love New York. When I first saw it for the fashion school I was really disappointed. I hated 42nd Street and the YWCA. Many people from Connecticut don't like it. I got used to it and later went back there. At the fashion school one of the art teachers went to another teacher, "Look what she's drawn it's Central Park." The other teacher said, "No it's not, it's Connecticut." Maybe I can love it and hate it like others on here.

Seriously, it has been going through a trying time from what I had read. It has always been a bit difficult to work there and I think it has gotten worse. There were not many ads for secretaries, etc. when I was there the last time.

I cannot seem to complete my list on things to do in NYC. I will have to go again to do the remaining. Just unbelievable! After about a decade absence, I thought that it is filled with crime, and is unsafe- I was wrong. I did explore the suburbs of Long Island and I fell in love with them- they had lots of trees lining their neighborhoods and I did occasionally see some wetlands while riding on the LIRR.
There is PLENTY of public transportation- you don't really need a car to enjoy the area! I feel that with all the museums, landmarks, parks, gardens and water, this city is a paradise for photographers from beginner to professional. The people were friendlier than I expected- this does want me to see the city again and possibly live there despite of the high cost to cross bridges each way.
Every outsider will love New York, I guarantee it!

New york,New york, City so good they had to name it twice..lol Its my hometown so i have to give it up to new york. Has some of the best food in the entire world.(sorry Chicago). But chicago really earns its title to be 2nd city trully,i live in chicago so its in good company. Traffics a little crazy but ull get the hang of it once u get hear..lol

Greatest city on earth! I love it everytime I visit : )
I've visited several times and found something new to do everytime.

You love or hate it. I grew up there and hate it. When I visit, I feel like I'm in a foreign country. I find myself saying "Back in the United States, simple things like food shopping aren't such a hassle." New Yorkers are know-it-all assholes who think they're better than Americans, especially Southerners, and think NYC is the world's best, even though they've never been anywhere else. They think they're sophisticated when, in fact, they're provincial.

New Yorkers will tell you they have the country's best mass transit system. Wrong, every expert rates Chicago's as the best. NYC subways don't work as well now as they did when I was a kid 50 years ago. You can't take a train from Manhattan to any of NYC's three airports. The closest, La Guardia, is the least accessible. In Chicago, the subway/el goes directly from downtown to both OHare and Midway. NYC subway stations have an electronic display to inform passengers of temporary delays and route changes. It's not used. Notices are hand written with magic marker and taped to station walls while the expensive electronic system displays generic messages.

The only industries still based in NYC are finance, Broadway shows, publishing and fashion. When the bottom falls out of finance, as it did in 2008, there's not much left to sustain overpriced housing. Plus, there's a backlash across the US against a financial system built on sand that caused everyone to lose half his or her retirement fund.

Popularity with tourists does not define a great city. If it did, Las Vegas and Orlando would be the winners. I judge greatness by efficiency, by how well the city works. By that measure, New York is the LEAST efficient city in the US.

A nasal New York accent makes me cringe. God, I hate the place.

Expensive but fun

  Well, what can one say about NYC? I always used to proclaim to anyone paying attention to me, "It has the best of everything, and the worst of everything."  From the time I was a tot, my parents used to bring me there regularly, and I always thought of it as the center of the universe (my family, adopted and biological, originated in Yorkville, the Bronx, and Brooklyn). As I got older, that opinion didn't change. As a kid, we made school "field trips" to the U.N., off-Broadway shows, and Radio City Music Hall. As teenagers, we'd hang around Times Square, eating Tad's Steaks (cheap, cheap, cheap), watching grade-Z horror movies in the crumbling theatres surrounded by sleeping winos and hustlers and pimps, making fun of the old perverts trying to score with the transvestite hookers (we once cried with laughter at 2 old ladies who stood in front of one of the dirty books stores that proliferated in the area, shaking their Bibles at the store, crying out, "Out, Spririts of Iniquity; out, proclaims our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!", or scoring cheap bootlegged Kung-Fu and horror videos, and even cheaper booze and drugs. As I got older, I began hanging out in the Village, patronizing the truly independent movie theatres, or book stores like See/Hear, the Strand (I once saw Allan Ginsberg buying books there),  or St. Mark's Bookstore. I bought movie posters and stills at Jerry Ohlinger's or records at Bleeker Bob's or videos at Kim's. I attended concerts at Madison Square Garden, the Palladium, or the Ritz. I drank at bars in the Bowery, or at my favorite hang-out, Ryan's Irish Pub in the East Village, where the young Irish barmaids were actually good-natured enough to let me leave thinking I had made a "positive impression" upon them. I ate Ukranian food on 14th Street, Thai food on 23rd Street that was so fiery it raised blisters on the soft portion of my upper mouth, got physically sick from bad Indian food consumed at the East Side's "Little India" section, or reverently touched some of the bullets holes that had been left in the walls after the underworld assassination of "Crazy Joey" Gallo at Umberto's on Mulberry Street. I carved up a 5-inch thick steak at Sparks, where Big Paul Castellano was shot down by gunmen working for John Gotti, and had a rat nearly as large as Big Paul brush by my legs as I ate cheap pizza in midtown. I took dates to the Hayden Planetarium, the Museum of Natural History, or the Museum of Modern Art (maybe I'd have been better off if I had taken them to Umberto's downtown). I tried Vietnamese food in Chinatown, attended a memorial service for William Kunstler at St. John the Divine, played pool on the Lower East Side. In recent years, NYC has become a different place and I haven't been there lately. Although Herr Giuliani likes to claim credit for the transformation of Times Square, it was actually David Dinkins and Ed Koch who started the process that made it as innocuous as Des Moines, Iowa. Most of the independent book stores, unable to afford astronomically high rents, have been bought out by Borders and/or Barnes and Noble. Luchow's is long gone, Virgin Records is going out of business, if you want porno you have to access the internet, Umberto's has moved to an entirely new location where they don't have the bullet holes or the ambiance, and the veal parmigiana at Luna's has gone steadily down hill. Hell's Kitchen has become Clinton. Still, even though I haven't been there in several years, NYC will always be the place that has the best of everything and the worst of everything. At least for me it will.

it's really great

New York City has a more "feel" to it than Chicago.  Its more like your living the high life when you are there and your more connected to the city, its people, and Mayor Bloomberg.  The downside is that the people here are just flat out rude if your not from New York.  You won't find that attitude in Chicago.

Not bad for a big city.  People are actually quite friendly and even sociable, architechture is great, Times square is really cool with its neon sign faced buildings.  Much safer than chicago, too.  The only (major) drawback of New York City; bicycles are illegal in the city.  Otherwise the rating would be 4 or 5 stars.

the CITY of North America

Greatest city in the world. Period  People who say it is to expensive need to get off the beaten path.

Lots of stuff to do, but very overrated. None of the attractions are, in my opinion, worth a second visit. Museums are pretty mediocre, and living in New Jersey, I've visited all of them at least once. Skyline is nothing special, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Freedom Tower. Great eating opportunities though.

uhh  I really dont like NYC. too big, too cocky, too loud, too in  your face.  I would prefer any of the other 4 large east coast cities to NYC any day.

Great food and fun! A great place to visit although I wouldn't live in the city and after 8 PM at night, don't walk there. Its overall a place of fun.

love this city kinda dirty but what do you want from a huge city like NYC, people are nicer than others say. a couple of wierd/crazy ppl here and there but all around great city

It has lost its previous glamour, although it is still a great place. It is also too expensive.

I wish I could give it 6 stars. What's not to love about NYC? More than 3 decades later, I still have very fond memories of the Bronx (where I grew up) and Manhattan. Chicagoans are going to kill me, but the bustle of New York, the speed, the chutzpah, the sheer variety of museums (loved the Met and Natural History), and the city lights that burn all night long truly make NYC a first class city. I thought it would fade (last time I was there was in the '80s) but when I stayed there for a week in 2004, I felt the magic all over again.

 New York is indeed the greatest city in North America; it has a fast-paced hustle & bustle, a non-stop exciting vibe that really can't be explained, you'd just have to experience it for yourself to really see what I mean. But there's a dark cloud over Gotham Town. It's still arguably the greatest city in the world, but it doesn't hold that title with authority the way it used to. The dark cloud that claimed San Francisco is now slowly (but surely) descending on Gotham City.

The city is gentrifying itself to death! Condos are everywhere, no ordinary, afffordable apartments at all. Yuppies are moving north of 96th street (by choice!). Native New Yorkers are being priced out of the city the same way native San Franciscans were priced out of San Fran ten years ago. The soul of New York is slowly dying out, just look at the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, Greenwich Village, hell, even Bushwick! And the South Bronx (!) is next! The restaurants, the pizzerias, the great delis, the awesome subway system, they aren't going anywhere. But soon the only people left to enjoy them will be lame suburban yuppie transplants, the same people who were once afraid to live in the big city (ANY big city), the same people who used to badmouth the big cities, instead of the heart and soul of New York: the Brooklynites, the Bronxites, and the Queensites, and that's just sad!

New York is the greatest city in the USA. It's great because it is a city in every sense of the word. There is just so much to see and do that it never gets boring, is always happening and just has a vibrancy and life that you wont find anywhere else in the US. New York has some of the best bars, restuarants, entertainment venues, shopping, nightlife to offer. Many places you may have heard of are in NYC. It takes a thick skin and some street saavy to get around the city but there is just so much to offer that it makes it's faults enough to deal with. New York is a great walking city as well. Walking and the subway are the best way to go unless you really need to take a cab. Life on the city streets is great as well. It's a great place to just people-watch. I've got a lot of love for New York. I never thought I'd feel that way and that tells me (you) just how great this place really is. Very cosmopolitan as well.

Try's to be to much like Chicago

What can you add to the greatness of the Big Apple? I have been there so many times and had so many great experiences. It is too bad that you can afford to live there any more.

Despite the looming skyscraper's and that sinister Gotham city feeling, New York has an energy unlike any other city in the world and is a great place to live and work. It's not as overpriced or as depressing as London U.K either although New York's summer heat can be quite unbearable at times. The subway is better than London's though, for it's alot cheaper that you can actually afford to live in the suburbs and go to work in Manhattan, not to mention that it's reliable. Food on the go is also great with a variety of wonderful little deli's scattered all over Manhattan offering the kind of food that would cost you an arm and a leg in a good restaurant. The only downside I found is that people can be very abrupt at times, not rude but just a bit too abrupt for my liking.

Greatest city in the world. City with the most skyscrapers and the largest park in the world. Also the most diversity. Almost every ethnicity in the world is represented in the city, I dont know another city you can say that about. Also has the most things to do. At any given time there are hundreds of things to do such as visiting times square or taking the ferry to historical Ellis Island. NYC is a must see for everyone

An amazing city. Definitely one of the most exciting cities in the US. I haven't been any of the other boroughs besides Manhattan, but I highly doubt it matters. It's just really nice being there, and walking around. Definitely one of the best cities to explore, as there's always something going on 24/7, anytime of year in various different parts of the city. There's lots to see, thousands and thousands of store fronts, endless amount of places to go and of course Times Square is a place everyone should go to before they die. I also like how some of the districts are so different from one another (like Greenwich Village compared to midtown), and the fact that the whole city is one huge multiple downtown area. It's the kind of city that you can't see all of in one trip. You have to keep going multiple times, and you never run out of things to do when you're there, no matter if you've lived there all your life. My only complaints is that it is very very expensive. Not only to live there but also to have a good time, you're gonna need to spend some cash when you're there. Also, it's gotta be one of the worst places to get around. If you drive, you might hit loads and loads of traffic, and you're gonna have a hard time finding parking. The subways can be very confusing, especially for a novice, and it can be costly getting around, especially if you live in neighboring states. Also, you're gonna have to do a lot of walking, and if you're in the tourist areas, you're going to have to maneuver around hundreds of people on the sidewalks as well. That said, I think all of that is worth it. It's the kind of city you're gonna want to keep going back to.

My favourite city, full of fun, angst, pleasure, danger, fortitude and joy.

I can't stand the Yankees, but I guess every city has to have some urban blight.

NYC is great in many ways, yet it is overrated. It has become the Wal-Mart of counter-culture.

One of the world's greatest cities. The greatest city in North America. No city in America comes close. 5 stars all the way. Culture, nightlife, daylife, great food, five star shopping, great jazz, great architecture, all on a grand scale.

My first impressions were very positive when approaching Manhattan by bus from JFK for the first time. It was evening and the skyline against the backdrop of the sunset was very spectacular. This was pre-2001. The view from the top of the WTC and the Empire State Building also impressed me. However, at street level I was pretty underwhelmed particularly with Greenwich Village and Times Square as they're a much smaller and less impressive than TV would have you think. Macy's is also quite ordinary compared to Harrods. Oh yeah and the quality of the roads was as bad as those I saw in Calcutta.

If you keep pricing the artists out of NYC with high rents and an astronomical cost of living, NYC is going to be a sanitized urban version of Westchester or Fairfield County: Nice and clean and really bland. NYC is filling up with a lot of Bobby Flays and Rachael Ray's....lots of attitude, not a lot of substance. Lots of people realize that the Disneyland/tourist friendly NYC is not what made NY great. The edge is dying a slow but sure death. And yes..I am a native NYer.

Born new yorker, lived here 22 years so i know what I'm talking about... Around the mid 90s it was awesome; slums were slums, times square was a squalid porno paradise, you could walk outside in pajamas without fear of reprisal by an unspoken fashion police, there were still smug assholes but everyone called them "businessmen" and ghettoized them in Wall Street and 5th avenue, and...drum roll.. a middle class actually existed 06? my opinion: gentrification has crowded out everyone not lucky enough to be DINKs, SINKs or, even worse, yuppies... times square is a disney/mtv/hbo merger come to life...Charmingly down-to-earth nooks and crannies have been razed in favor of "faux bohemia," ; cops, nurses, teachers, students (in other words, the original manhattanites--useful, decent, earthy human beings) have to spend about 75% of their income to live in a shitty 12th street flat made a "hot property" because one of the Strokes lives around there. Most noticeably, the city seems to have been infiltrated by an exponentially growing number of smug, self-image-conscious Europeans. Smug euros + Smug new yorkers= perfect storm of smugness seriously you are either deluded or a tourist (or both) if you don't realize manhattan caters to rich, pretentious assholes and socialites and wannabe assholes and wannabe socialites who advocate diversity and vote democrat while not giving two fucks about people with sub-50k salaries. And you are either deluded or a tourist if you don't believe that about 4 million people are constantly asking themselves the question: "What the hell happened to New York?"

I wish I could afford to live there.

New York is a cool city if you meet the right people. If you hang in a particular group (as most New Yorkers do) that you get along with, your okay. But the problem with NYC and the main reason why I cringe when it is dubbed the "greatest city in the world" is becuase New York is still fundamentally at the heart of it, a totally racist city, filled to the brim with a bunch of proud and ignorant conservative bigots, who pretend to be 'hip' sometimes but still choose their neighborhoods by the complexion of their neighbours. Black skin is still feared in such a childish way, one wouldn't even know it is the 21st century. Even half-the-Haitans running around Manhattan spend half of their lives, claiming they are from Paris. So much for real New Yorker. And now that Guliani finally "cleaned the place up", as every bridge-and-tunnel or 'regular' American patron always says, more of these uncultured folks are coming to lay down their foundation, transforming the what was great about New York into the generic boring landscape of Home Depots and Best Buys that we have come to know previously as middle-America. So, yeah.. New York is worth the visit. But once you get beyond the hype, there's not much to hold on to and rest of it, going down the toilet anyways.

there is no better city in America than NYC. If you want it, it is there.

The most impressive and exciting and heart touching city I've been to! It's, as far as cities go, PERFECT! I hope I can live there some day!

There's nothing like going to a show on Broadway and seeing the ORIGINAL stars in the production. There's nothing like going to the restaurants the rest of the world knows and refers to and walking the streets you see in the movies and hear about in history. My favorite sites are: the Gracey Mansion tour (see it while Bloomberg is mayor because he doesn't live there so they've opened the upstairs) to learn about NYC's beginnings and see a mansion that used to be a farm; and then the East Side Tenement Museum tour downtown to see and hear how "the other half" lived. They have restored 3 apartments to the way they were when 3 different immigrant families from different decades and different countries lived. Then reward yourself with a drink at the Campbell Apartment Bar in Grand Central Station where an eccentric millionaire had his private office (now restored) that's been hidden away for decades. NYC history, poverty, wealth...you'll have seen it all!

Waaay overrated. Costs so goddamn much to live there. I rate it 2.5 (I said 2 because I had to pick 2 or 3).

It is my home.A bit overrated but I would not really want to live elsewhere.

with the new Freedom Tower and the 4 other new buildings that will be build and the memorial in Manhattan, New York City will become a magnificent and better city .It will be the city of the 21th century ,the City of future.

I have lived in New York City for 7 years, moving from Toronto/Canada. New York's positives are obvious to me and before actually moving to NY, I liked the city alot more. 4 Stars because New York will always be an exciting vacation. Positives: (1) It's a big city with variety in everything. (2) There is a lot of interesting history in New York, (3) New Yorkers, contrary to popular belief, are not that rude but a friendly bunch. However, New York has many negative aspects that you might here about from wherever you live but never realize how intense that these problems actually are, until you make the leap and move. I was warned but I ignored it. Negatives: (1) New York is extraordinairly dirty city to the point that your skin may even be effected and your shoes will need to be cleaned on a regular basis. (2) New York can be a very expensive place to live unless you are extraordinairly rich. I do not even mean, millionaire, when I say rich. I mean, unless you are a multi-millionaire or have family to take care of your expenses, New York will be very expensive at times, mostly due to real-estate/rent and travel. (3) Commuting. Where you live in the New York area means everything and will decide your stress factor. Traffic is insane. (4) Divisions/Race Problems: On the surface, New York tends to look like a melting pot but the city has many distinct groups and these groups tend to seperate themselves in peculiar ways. While I have always heard New York is a racist place, I find the question now difficult/perplexing/complex. Perhaps, New York is not as divided by race as a person's economic class/wealth or even social group. Nevertheless, deeper discussions with people in New York will often be tainted by latent/blunt references to race that will take some getting used to, at least, if you are not accustom to this. Areas in the city will be shunned because of race/class/social group and New Yorkers or maybe even most Americans, regardless of their skin-color, are probably more apt to group people like this without much thought. Positives/Negatives depending on who you are:(1) New York's culture is more mainstream than I thought it would be. The counter-culural elements to the city are pretty limited to the Village. For instance, your average Manhattanite listens to Top 40 music, wears conventional clothing, joined a fraternity/sorority in Univeristy, grew up in a suburb, shops at Macy's/Bloomingdale's and lives a pretty 'normal' bland lifestyle. Movies, TV and film can paint a deceptive potrait of New York as unconventional, wildly outrageous and 'underground'. I have hanged out and met a wide range of them and find New Yorkers to be pretty conventional, traditional and maybe even conservative. They tend to lean towards what is more popular, acceptable and mainstream and live a non-risky lifestyle. (2) New York can be very over-rated or over-hyped, depending on what you have heard. Blame film, TV and hearsay. If you think New York has the best everything - club scene, bars, restaurants, even people and whatever else and you have never lived there. I think you will be somewhat disappointed if you are already from a big city. The city has some wonderful aspects but just as many average ones.

I visited NYC about eight times in my life, but have not been there in the past 20 years. I never got to check out the nightlife in New York, which I would have loved to have experieinced. 3 of 8 of my trips were school class trips. I got to see the usual school-trip haunts like the Statue of Liberty, U.N. building, and Radio City. In 1973, we stopped by the newly constructed World Trade Center. If somene would have told me that it wouldn't be around 28 years later, I would have told them they were nuts. The 4th time I went, my mom took me on a bus trip to see Annie. The play was Okay, but I we had 3 hours to kill after the play and being with your mom is not a good way for an 18-year old to kill time. The 5th and sixth time was to visit my brother in Staten Island. We didn't venture out to Manhattan. The 7th time was with my school's rowing team to race Columbia. It was in March and New York just had a freak snowstorm. We were just 100 yards from the Columbia Boathouse, when a horrible exploding sound was heard in the bus. Tenament punks had hurled blocks of ice and riddled our fragile wooden shells with several holes. Our coach was in tears. We ran up to the apartment rooftops, but never found the assailants. Maybe that was a good thing, because I'm sure if we did, there would have been a fatality. The boats were miraculously repaired and we raced on time. My boat (a 4-oared boat), had the lead halfway through the race, but finished second out of 4 crews. The last visit was a Navy day visit with my ship. I got to drive the ship through busy New York harbor, which was thrilling. That night, a group of us went to Madison Square garden and watched the rangers lost to Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers, 7-5. Gretzky's greatness was that it seemed like he hardly did anything, but finished the game with a goal and 3 assists.

*rent is outrageous *road conditions are at third world standards *unions run the show here, which is one of the reasons why everything seems to be under construction all year-round (workers can walk off the job when they please and not get fired) *John F Kennedy International Airport is an embarassment. It is probably the most confusing, under-developed airport of any major city *it is extremely segregated racially and culturally *the work environment in the metro area is tense and brutally competitive *don't expect people to come to your aid if you're getting attacked (unless you happen to be a hot chick) *despite the recent changes, the public school system is pathetic *somebody here pointed out the radio stations suck -- I second that!! *the accent is annoying This is all coming from a native!