Originally Posted by Arliss

I live in New Jersey. The NYC area can be a big and scary place for people who didn't grow up here. But it's also amazing. There's a gritiness to New York that underlies it's culture and class, and that's what makes it great. Most culturally diverse place you will ever see and the best part is probably the food. Any kind of food from anywhere in the world, you can find it any time of day here and it'll be good. The biggest problem in NY is that it's obscenely expensive. The "cool" place to be for the last 10 years or so has been Brooklyn, and there are lots of nice neighborhoods.

For me, the issues are driving and traffic. I live in NJ (grew up here, love it), and where I am it's about a 60 minute/50 mile drive to JFK; longer to LGA. It's expensive, about $30 round trip just in tolls (!!). Also, the traffic on the Staten Island Expressway, Belt Parkway (to JFK), and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (to LGA) can make you want to eat a bullet. Early in the morning though, the roads are empty and it's easy. It also doesn't help that I drive a stick.

So yea, the NY/NJ/CT area can be a great place. If it wasn't so desirable then there wouldn't be such a problem with housing cost, so that shows that people want to live here.