New York City, NY

New York is somewhat nicer than Chicago. Much safer, too. People here are definitely much friendlier than in Chicago's collar county area. One huge drawback, however, bicycles are ILLEGAL in New York City. Bicycles can not be ridden upon any street, alleyway, parking lot, or sidewalk within New York City. "Bike" lanes are strictly for motorcycles. Operation of a bicycle or any unpowered vehicle within New York City, street or sidewalk, carries a sentence of up to 5 years on Rikers Island.

The capital of the world. Without question, the greatest city in the world. If you're a city person, there is no greater place on earth. But, you must be a city person. If you prefer strip malls and tract homes, visit the Midwest or something.

It's a gigantic mess. Way too big, way too crowded. Staten Island was my favorite place there.

New York City is the largest metro area in the United States. New York is also the fourth largest city in the world behind Tokyo, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Regardless of how it's defined, the "Big Apple" is among the richest and most complex places to live in America. As a leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. As host of the United Nations Headquarters, it is also an important center for international affairs. As of July 2010, the population of NYC is approximately 12,129,952. Boroughs include Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens, with the total metro population at 20,610,000. Suffice to say, this area is huge. The city of NY has countless skyscrapers and historic sites. The area offers a full assortment of amenities, with world-class dining, shopping, outstanding performing arts, museums and architectural attractions. The city also has... Read more

Can't wait to go on vacation! Will post all my findings. <!-- google_ad_client = "pub-9645239879759239"; /* 468x60, created 7/9/10 */ google_ad_slot = "5152433517"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //

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 HeadKenny's Casta... Read more

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 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!

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... Read more

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... Read more

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, p... Read more

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.

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

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 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

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.

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.

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 ther... Read more

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 ha... Read more

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 ... Read more

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.