Yes, New York City has world class museums, the opera, the Broadway theater scene, the ballet. It is a world headquarters for all the performing arts.
Undoubtedly, some people like living there because of those amenities. Many other people would not take those into consideration, in deciding whether to live in New York City.
New york is a sports lovers dream, considering they have multiple teams in the major sports, such as major league baseball, NFL football, NBA basketball, and NHL hockey.
But do those positives for sports fans override the negatives of living there? Obviously everybody has to decide for themselves if they would want to live there.Considering all the pros and cons.
And we go there, for those experiences. We go to Jersey for the beach, too. And in both places we have stubborn relatives who persist in living there.
But my parents moved to PA when I was a baby so I wouldn't grow up to be a leftist or a statistic. It was a Green Acres kind of story. "I love you but give me Park Avenue." It took a while for Mom to get used to it and just yesterday someone commented on her NY accent though she has been here in PA over 20 years. People notice immediately we're not from a local hive. But none of us have any regrets. We came to a place where guns are like any other tool (except more awesome), and criminals get locked up while often, houses and cars don't. Public schools are disgraceful here too but there was never a question of putting me in one.
Nothing compares to the low cost of living here. I owned my own home, fully paid for, before I was 21. Taxes are peanuts here. We've got farms, internet, coal, beer, bears to kill. Makes up for a lot of the Broadway, Bergdorf's, and beaches that we lack.