I'ved lived here in NYC for over 30 years. I am over Manhattan, no question about it. The shopping also stinks; I shop online like everyone else. I live in Brooklyn, across the street from the park, and I like my neighborhood, the deli, my neighbors, some of the local stores.

There are parts of the city (Manhattan) I used to absolutely love. Rockefeller Centre. Grand Central. Driving south on the FDR drive. The Financial district. The theatre district. University Place in Greenwich Village when Cedar Tavern was still around. I hit my "enough already" point about 3 years ago.

I love visiting family in the suburbs and going shopping in a mall where the stores actually have stock (our Targets suck), or I can get everything done - oil changed, grocery shopping, nails done, take-out, etc. The convenience of the suburbs. NYC is supposed to have everything but the stores don't have half of the stuff you can get in the stores outside NYC.

I knew I was teetering on the brink when I envied a friend who lived in Jersey City. Easy access to Manhattan, but not Manhattan, manageable cost of living (not so sure about it now).

I bought in Brooklyn years ago and my mortgage is very low and is paid off next year. It's not the cost of housing.

What I do like here is the diversity. Work and socializing isn't as integrated as New Yorkers would like people to believe, but you do encounter everybody. I'm taken aback when I'm out of town and a family member has people pegged into little stereotypes because they don't run into a hijab that often, and they have to comment every time. I like that it's pretty hard to find the leggings, oversized shirt, blonde hair and perma-tan I see everywhere else (we get that, but it's not EVERYWHERE. It's not the default mom gear). There's not a lot of "beachy layered hair." I like that there's a bit of the European style sensibility where people focus on a couple of things - hair, maybe their coat - and relax about the rest of it. There's no head-to-toe "looks" where everything has to go together. I also like the trend of married couples where the woman makes the money, so on the weekends she's the one who looks like a schlub and the guy looks like he's a wannabe rock star. AND I like how the kids dress, which is pull anything random out of your drawers - polka dot leggings, plaid shirt, rainbow tutu style skirt from Old Navy, and a parka, and it's fine. Brooklyn, at least, has radicalized how little girls dress. Nobody's trying to look like Kate Middleton dressed them that morning.

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