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I grew up in both So Cal and Nor Cal, living in SGV and Sacramento. I moved to SF in 2006 and most recently moved back to LA in 2008 and have been here since.Both have their West Coast charm, tremendous weather (although locals of either will still complain about the faults in climate), great food, fun nightlife, and amazing points of interest and a bounty of activities. They are very similar in terms of finding enjoyment and overall lifestyle amenities, but the primary differences between the two are as follows:Size:LA is MASSIVE. How massive? This massive:You can fit all of these cities into the confines of LA city alone. And this does not even touch the borders of LA County, which holds so many other seats of commerce and attractions. And everyone else outside of LA wonders why Angelenos don't walk. We do, we just unfortunately live in Venice or Long Beach and work in DTLA or Hollywood. Walking is what we do at the farmers' market or Disneyland or on hiking trails. If getting around SF or Manhattan is tough, just you wait. Which brings me to the next item...Transportation:SFLASF has BART and Muni and plenty of taxis and Uber drivers to hail down or request via mobile app, or walking and biking will do the trick. But consider the map above. Size matters.LA has Metro, both lightrail and bus lines, and now has more accessibility throughout the county than it has in decades since the Red and Yellow Cars of the noir era. But it still has a ways to go, and it may never get passengers directly to LAX because of the cabby unions. At least not until my midlife crisis. So if you don't have far to go, walk it. If you can't walk it because of sketchiness or it's too far to hoof it, bus it or bike it. And if it's even further, take the subway or get Lyft or a cab. Or Metrolink and Amtrak for farther destinations.Sadly, in LA, you have to plan your trip. You have to take traffic into consideration, because all of LA drives. You have to know the peak driving times, which is pretty much ALL DAY, and the busiest freeways, which are pretty much ALL OF THEM. So you give yourself more time to get to where you are going, you have cash ready in case you need to pay for parking (which is absolutely common today), and you have that iPod playlist updated. The best way to handle these hurdles is to set your sights on one location and spend all the time you can there on that particular day. Discover all the nooks, crannies, etc. of that spot, and make a day of it. Because getting there and getting back may be an odyssey (and most Angelenos have come to enjoy the trek as best they can).Crowds:SFLALike the suffocating traffic, crowds of LA are just as unforgiving. You can guarantee that beaches (except from December to March), movie theaters (mostly IMAX), theme parks, parades, sporting events, and concerts will be full. Most of us just have to deal, but we find ways of ducking around the mobs and find those small places to tuck ourselves into and let the waves pass us by. With all that said, we still get jazzed about being in the middle of the action. There is never a dull moment in LA, and you will be sure to find something you like to do, regardless of how many others like it as well. Sharing is caring.SF is not much different. The ODDS (outdoor drinking season) festivals and music megafestivals bring their crowds just as badly, but on a regular day in Union Square or the Wharf, crowds are commonplace. LA has more occasions for crowds, but SF can grow a crowd just because it's a Sunday. And nothing brings people in SF together quite like a pub crawl.Bad Weather:SFLASF might as well be in the Pacific Northwest with its gloom 10 months out of the year. But I got to enjoy it the whole time I was living there. Maybe it was due to the fact that I just enjoy the City that much. But if you never liked the cold winter-like summers of SF, then you may be more comfortable in the nearly omnipresent sun of LA.LA does NOT have bad weather the way the rest of the country experiences bad weather. Pretty much everything from Santa Barbara down to San Diego is a year round beach day. LA will have its pockets of storms and flooding, but never like rain in SF. And the rain in SF is nothing like snow storms everywhere else.And the heat is still very mild. Those hot August summers they speak of? They don't arrive until September typically. Then it gets humid (but not really). After October, we are back to smooth sailing until that pocket of rain hits us in January or February.Do be aware of slick street conditions when driving in LA after an initial rain. A lot of oil slicks form after the first rain of the season, and can be very dangerous to drive at high speeds. Seeing as that we have to drive most everywhere in LA.Business:SF has many different industries, just like LA. The majority are finance, tech, education and public professionals. LA has everything as well, but the largest is the entertainment sector, and all of the categories that lie within. Finding work has been difficult as it has everywhere else, but the number of industries is far greater here, and many can find opportunities to start in another line of work at almost any time. Sadly, you will not have as concentrated of a population of advanced degree holders and innovative thinkers as in SF and the Bay Area in general, but we have the numbers. They are just so spread out that finding other like minded intellectuals and creatives within arms reach can be tougher, but luckily not at all impossible.LA is following SF in the tech and entrepreneurial space, but it is working to catch up faster than many expected, and the talent is right under their noses. Attribute that to all the sunny weather, I guess.Living Costs:SFLASF is downright expensive. I have heard stories within the last year that a 1 bedroom apartment (without a parking space) roughly starts at $2600 a month to rent. And that's in a gentrifying area. Of course, what you pay for to live is made up in not needing to drive, but you will still need to pay for food, entertainment, nightlife, etc. Luckily, SF has many free activities and you can find a club for almost everything to partake in physical recreation and various other pastimes. A night out, like say on a date night, may be more expensive in SF than LA, but all of that can be adjusted accordingly.LA has a prominent "hermit" factor in that having your own home can allow you to not bump into anyone for days at a time. I'm far too social to be that way, but if I chose to, I could omit natural light from my daily routine. This factor could easily minimize the cost of living for an individual, and paired with a lower rental cost (average is $1800/month for a 1 bedroom with parking), you can live well below your means. That, or just bike everywhere and waste little to no gas per week.Employees in SF on average are paid more than LA's workforce given the higher living costs. But there are very few deals to be found today even in the outer reaches of the City. In LA, the most desirable areas command the highest rents, obviously, but in SF, almost everything is desirable or will be desirable very soon. LA is slower in the gentrifying game, but you can bet that it will be moving closer by the month. Expenses are just shifted given what city you live in.Final Thoughts:I find visiting SF and living in LA has worked to satisfy my overall love of each city. If it were the other way around, I'd say I would visit LA more often than I presently visit SF; call it a love of sunny weather. But I would love to split time between the two more frequently. They are both very much home to me more so than anywhere else in the world.

Assuming you're referring to Palm Beach County (though several of the things below that relate to climate or geography apply to South Florida in general):It's warm/boiling most of the timeThere are dozens of places where you can live within range of retail centers (with dozens upon dozens of restaurants and stores).There can be a ton of heavy tropical rains, lizards/iguanas, bugs, birds, and general animals (giant, house-eating snails, alligators, parrots, herons, panthers, boars, etc..).. Everything grows faster and bigger here.You have massive amounts of food of every kind of culture, to the exclusion of deep-dish pizzas, coney dogs, and usually Chicago-styled hotdogs. There are lots of marinas to take good friends or out-of-town visitors to, and just relax.There are tons of software-development jobs for C# and Java people, largely within marketing and mobile gaming.There are no basements in houses. We’re a swamp and it’s us versus the ocean.There are canals everywhere used to route the water (South Florida, specifically).We're generally always experiencing a water shortage.Every few years there are a couple of weeks where it gets close to snowing, and sometimes does.There are people fishing everywhere, even if it's standing on a pipe at the side of the road, in the canal.There's a massive amount of crime, some of them unthinkable. Most of the bad areas are between the water and the good areas, usually in strips either on the East or the West of I-95 (depending on whether there is a downtown area by the water).I live in Boynton Beach (awesome place to live, with low crime and low noise, but huge amounts of retail and restaurants), and live somewhat equidistantly from Boca and West Palm (both are heavy tourist and shopping districts). If you want to go have a date-night or just hang-out, I consider both of those areas and those in-between to be all one big neighborhood. I'm familiar with most areas of Palm Beach for twenty- or thirty-miles up/down I95, and will often find myself at destinations throughout that whole length (instead of largely where I live or where I work).Every so often, you will drive A1A up and down the adjacent island at night, which is largely enclosed in a tree canopy and studded with continuous mansions.There are no good hard-rock stations [any more].There are churches everywhere. There are a lot of lost people, and armies of people trying to save them in their own way.The culture is very materialistic, between retail and plastic surgery.You don't have to be rich to live here, but you're not going to pay less than $1500 for three bedrooms/month, whether purchased or rented, if you don't want to live in a bad area.There's a tax for renting short-term.The driving sucks between the old people, the young people, and the tourists. The first and the third are constantly trying to take a turn that they weren't prepared for, and the second are trying to cut them off.We're big on Jewish delis/restaurants here.There are limited numbers of mechanics open over the weekend.Almost all of our crime is driven by drugs. There are hangings, murders, drive-by shootings, and gang-related activity every-bit as potent as the worst neighborhoods of LA.The more accepting a church is, the more likely there will be a drunk person there, every so often.We're victimized by drunk kids every Spring (applies to Florida in general, though).Yes, we're monopolized by Comcast just like everyone else.The westside of the state is colonized by people that came down on I75, and the eastside of the state is colonized by people that came down on I95. Therefore, there are a ridiculous number of people from New York, here.Unless you live in a house or in a bad area, there's like a one in eight chance that your next-door neighbor will be a seasonal resident, and gone most of the time.People generally diffuse from New York to Palm Beach. Almost no one seems to go in the other direction.A ton of companies were/are started here because the top couple of guys were successful, and either wanted to think about retirement, realize a dream that included sunshine and beaches, or wanted to appear awesome by being able to advertise sunshine and beaches to prospective clientele or employees.You're a very short trip to Ft Lauderdale, and a short trip from FL to Miami.No matter where you are, you're a few of miles away from some property owned by some famous person that you've heard of.There are a lot of world headquarters here.EDIT: I was asked about the difference between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach:There is an island that travels up most of the eastcoast of the state and hugs the mainland. As far as SE Florida goes, some of the downtowns are there, most of the public beaches are there, and most of the mansions are there (where there *aren’t* downtowns or public beaches). Many of the cities become smaller hamlets once you cross the bridges to get there. I live in Boynton Beach, but, once you cross the bridge, it becomes Ocean Ridge. When you’re in West Palm Beach and cross the bridge, you enter Palm Beach.Palm Beach has a couple of small downtown areas in Palm Beach, including Worth Avenue (a very wealthy shopping district), a length of beach that people have access to, and 99% of the rest of the property is either country-clubs or houses shrouded behind colossal privacy hedges. There is a limited number of foot traffic, no loud noise, and a slower-paced type of crowd. Palm Beach isn’t the type of tourist destination where you rent a hotel, but many people do commute to see its beauty and take pictures while the wealthy people wait for them to leave.WPB, by comparison, *is* a destination spot. There are many downtown areas, many malls, the county seat, and many, many shopping areas (CityPlace and Clematis), good Indian food (none of the other cities in PBC even have Indian), huge numbers of people there on vacation, and, on Thursday and weekend nights, all of the intoxicated people in the area (Clematis). West Palm, though, has many, many, many areas to see, no matter the mood that you’re in.One more thing about PB? A couple of weekends ago I had to drive ten miles out of the way when Trump was back at Miralago. I was on The Island and there are only bridges every three to five miles. Miralago is couched against one of them. WPB only just has the normal golf course…I was going to include pictures, but it would just take too many to give you a proper, minimal impression of both cities.

Life in New YorkFrom Times Square, if you draw a 50-mile radius circle, you will define the New York City Metro area which holds more than 20 million people. If you draw that circle with a 100-mile radius, you will define the New York City commuting region which encompasses more than 30 million people, all using one of New York Cities mass transportation systems all directed to Mid Town Manhattan which assumes a population of 15 million every week day.Who hasn’t heard about the Long Island Railroad, New York City’s subway system (biggest in the world), AMTRAK (fastest trains in the USA), Metro North, Con Rail, the PATH Subway (New Jersey to Manhattan), Penn Central Station (700,000 commuters per day), Grand Central Station (biggest train station in the world), The World Trade Center mass transportation center (longest escalators in the world) and the Port Authority Bus Station (biggest in the world). International connections are provided by New York City’s five major airports, La Guadia, Kennedy, Newark, White Plains, and Newark.New York’s mass transportation system provides extensive interconnections to Long Island, Westchester County, Southern Connecticut, Downstate New York, Northern New Jersey, the Jersey Shore, Eastern and Northern Pennsylvania, and of course, New York City itself consisting of Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island and the island of Manhattan. These areas contain every kind of disparate neighborhood known to man, of distinctive cultures, ethnic groups, races, colors and social economic variances, from poor too extremely wealthy, but basically middle to upper middle class.It is not the gargantuan size of the region, or the crushing and suffocating commuting to a small Mid Town Manhattan space through tunnels and bridges that defines New York City, it is the diversity of people and everyday experiences that generate the excitement of living or working in New York City. Just think, 37 per cent of New York City residents are foreign born and each ethnic group has its own colorful neighborhoods, restaurants, Badagas, social styles with its own ethnic parades like St. Patties Day that millions watch and hundreds of thousands march in on 5th Avenue. There are similar parades for Halloween in Greenwich Village, the Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern peoples and that grand daddy of all, Wall Street Ticker Tape Parades.New York is not about whom to hate but who to love, because hating would be fruitless in this widest expanse of diversified humanity on earth and loving is so much fun . . . and Godly!It is because this gigantic collage of differentiating humanity is thrown into a bucket and stirred around and mixed up really well, the result being a salad bowl with political opinions and life styles that are so different and varied that the typical ideological wars between Republicans and Democrats or Whites and Blacks seem like child’s’ play, like confrontation 101. Believe it or not, everyone gets along, because they want to keep the peace and because they have learned to enjoy each other.New York’s life style has always been to “Live and Let Live.” They work together, socialize at the dance or night clubs, date and marry, go to church and have sex with each other, and now you can understand New York City. It’s all about connecting to the world in a small space, the island of Manhattan. The culture of New York City extends well into the 100-mile radius of the commuting region with the performing arts, academic intellectual curiosity and liberal social life styles.Life in New York CityThinking about moving to New York City? Here's what you should keep in mind before you put down stakes in the Big Apple.Honking Horns are a New Yorker’s Ambien. Ads for an apartment often say “cozy.” At first, you’ll think this means a nice little one-bedroom, maybe with some exposed brick or a fireplace. Nope: It means you can probably touch your fridge from your bed. Seriously, there are hundreds of apartments in this city that are 200 to 300 square feet. Sometimes you’ll have to shower in your kitchen or store your clothes in the oven. And many of them cost upwards of $1,000 a month.In New York City your job is your life - 10 hour days are the norm (even if you’re just an assistant). This means that by Tuesday, you’re exhausted and in need of a cocktail. The good news for you is that NYC has one of the best bar scenes on Earth (we have a cocktail named after our most famous borough,Manhattan) - and you never have to worry about drunken driving (subway!).At first, you’ll move to the City and the sound of traffic will keep you up. But then, a strange thing happens: The traffic begins to soothe you. “It’s like the ocean, no?” you’ll explain to your bewildered mother. Then, when you go visit your parents in the ‘burbs, the sound of silence will literally freak you out. “Am I about to get murdered?” you’ll lie awake thinking—as you count the hours until you’re back in the city.Without a car, going to the grocery store is a hassle. So New Yorkers get almost everything they eat and drink from their corner bodega. This means your bodega guys sees it all - that 3 a.m. bottle of cheap Chardonnay you’re using to console yourself after another bad date, your affinity for Chubby Hubby and Cool Ranch Doritos after a long day at work. It won’t take long before the two of you are on a first name basis—and it won’t take long after that ‘til you start to dish on your problems. After all, with the rent you’re paying, it’s not like you can afford a real therapist.Sure, pizza in NYC is incredible, but when it comes to bagels, we rule. Soft on the inside, crusty on the outside, and slathered in cream cheese, mmmm.Driving in NYC is best left to the taxi drivers. The traffic is insane, no one obeys traffic lanes and you can forget about parking for less than about $20. You’ll take the subway or taxis everywhere—and pretty soon, you’ll come to love it (just read on your iPad and chill until you’re deposited at your destination). Years go by, and almost by accident, you wonder if you’ve forgotten how to drive—but you don’t really care.NYC has some of the best food on earth - at all price points. There are more than ten thousand restaurants, diners, and street counters. And then there are the thousands of Halal food carts. You can easily spend $200 at Per Se for one of the best French meals of your life or $1 for a slice of pizza that will blow your mind. And you can get pretty much any type of food delivered anytime you like. You’d think all these delicious eats would make the pack on the pounds, but they won’t - you literally burn them off because New Yorkers walk everywhere (that restaurant’s one mile away - no problem!). Oh, and thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, you’ll be forced to look at the calories on menus of any chain restaurant, so you can forget about your appetite after that!Living in NYCNew York City occupies a special place in the American consciousness as the tumultuous seat of our financial markets and the buzzing capital of our culture.New York is celebrated for its wealth of nationalities, ethnicities and languages. But why would anyone want to live in NYC? It's insanely expensive, there are too many crazy people, it's bundles of energy and famously, "If you can make it inNew York, you can make it anywhere." And lots of people love the challenge! Most important, it’s the city that exemplifies American pluralism, the “melting pot” that attracts new immigrants looking for work and college graduates drawn from their hometowns by the promise of excitement and opportunity. Its appeal hangs on its image as a city where everyone can try, get, and be anything. It has been my home for more than 40 years and I love it for its social and economic freedoms. My education and computer technology background fit right in and I found great career and social successes. Am I wrong or what?But NYC is not a panacea, it has its own problems just like any other city. First of all, it's terribly expensive, living costs are very high, you live in a small apartment that cost a fortune or commute from far away distances. Taxes are high to pay for all the social services, city employees and infrastructure support. The New York City government's budget is the largest municipal budget in the United States. In 2016 the NYC city government had a budget of $80 billion a year. The best jobs are in NYC and unless you are wealthy, you must commute and the hours required while being stuffed on packed trains and subways which are actually a frustrating second job. Second, the City is densely crowded. People are piled on top of one anther. Third, you will never get a good job unless you have a great education, NYC is comfortable for skilled and educated people only. Others scrape by! NYC is also being seriously gentrified, wealthy people move in to replace poorer people who are moving out.On the other side of the coin, NYC is certainly a playground for adults. There's never a dull moment in NYC. It's the city that never sleeps. It offers a thousand different interesting things to do every day. Besides high paying jobs for the talented in the business, banking, financial, advertising, business, performing art’s world, there is Broadway, Greenwich Village, China Town, Little Egypt, parades galore - St. Patties Day, Halloween, Macy's Thanksgiving, street theater and theatrical Flash Mobs, thousands of restaurants, bars, night clubs, museums and parks to pleasure your life away. Living or commuting to NYC is like being a member of Delta Force. It ain't for everyone but if you can do it life is great and you are a very special person.So let's talk about NYC. The New York City immediate Metropolitan area represents the largest city and metro in America with more than 20 million residents.New York City has an extraordinarily diverse population. Half of the residents are immigrants. It is one of the few cities in the country in which four different racial/ethnic groups each make up at least 10 percent of the population. Put it in perspective, and you end up with the conclusion that New York City is by far the most ethnically and racially diverse city in the world. It has the largest number of blacks, close to 3.5 million in the USA . (Atlanta is second.) This is almost 9% of the entire Black population of the United States.New York City proper has more than 2.4 million African Americans. According to the 2010 decennial census, 33 percent of New York City residents are white, 26 percent are Hispanic, 26 percent are black, and 13 percent are Asian. Altogether, 47 percent are immigrants. Some neighborhoods are mixed, but most are of the same ethic/racial groups. Expensive neighborhoods like most of Manhattan and lots of Brooklyn and Queens are white. Immigration from the Caribbean and Central America are diminishing the dominance of Puerto Ricans, and among Asians, where new arrivals now are more likely to be from rural China or Southeast Asia rather than Taiwan or Hong Kong. In joining the ranks of American cities where whites are a minority,New York, in its diversity, is more like Los Angeles and San Francisco than cities like Detroit and Newark, where black majorities replaced white ones. New immigrants do not simply replace old residents in the same jobs. They alter the economic mix. Look at the way Italians shaped the construction industry or, more recently, how Koreans have changed green groceries. The succession of wealthy and skilled Blue Collar European groups who founded New York and dominated it for centuries have now become a racial minority. Whites are the racial minority residents in NYC itself. And they tend to be wealthy too to afford the expensive skyscraper multi million dollar condos and $3000/month apartments being built by the hundreds to accommodate the huge world migration to NYC. People have their priorities and if one of the top ones is living in Manhattan then they make it happen. Lots of people live in 2 bedroom apartments with 2 or 3 other people they don't know so they only pay $1,000 month each. I don't know how people move to NYC from anywhere else because the amount of living space you'll end up having is just a fraction of what you're probably used to . . . but for us NYers it's just what we are used to. It's also a very different lifestyle. There are a lot of singles and couples, it's exciting, active, socially diverse, people get along, tons of things to do any day with lots of entertainment choices, Very few families live here (in Manhattan).Lots of the people renting are struggling actors or such and they sacrifice space for location. I have friends who live in only a small room and share bathroom and kitchen. I know people who commute 2 or 3 hours to work . . . I am one of them, which is ridiculous but I have six kids and wife Upstate in the Catskill’s mountains, so its worth it. If you know the right spots to look and the right people you can get something affordable in this town . . . but for most people you're better off moving somewhere else. It sounds crazy but it's just life here.Most New Yorker's don't own, they either rent and/or live in the burbs & commute. When I first moved here, I lived in Hell's Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan and then moved to Jamaica, Queens. I worked in the Village and spent one hour on the F Train each way to and from work. The average rent for a Manhattan apartment was more than $2500 in 2005 and it's only gone up since. It would be more realistic for you to look for a studio, deep in another borough and even then you will have a hard time finding something acceptable that is that cheap. There is an affordable housing crisis in NYC and things are bad for everyone. Luxury skyscraper condos are sprouting up for sale everywhere but nothing affordable to rent. You could always try renting a bedroom in a share situation. It's possible that you won't find much less than $700/800 since you don't want to get shot or have an hour commute.NYC is a commuting culture. Millions of people commute to Manhattan every day, they ride trains, take ferries, subways or buses to Manhattan and there are tens of thousands of amenities to accommodate them. They come from Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut, Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Upstate. This Metro area is more than 30 million people. Consequently, transportation is everything in NYC. But if you live in Manhattan, don't even consider a car unless you're wealthy, because you'll have to pay big time to keep it in a parking garage which cost around $800/month. You can get around by train, subway, taxi and bus. Subways go everywhere but are full of smelly homeless, hot, dirty, loud with rude people, constant beggars and candy sellers etc. But the entertainers at the stops are great. The A Train travels the entire length of the city, from the Bronx all the way through Brooklyn. It is quite the ride . . . a bucket list thing. Busses aren't bad but it tends to be slow. Living in Manhattan or Brooklyn and having a car is suicidal. A car is needed if you live on Staten Island. In Queens a car is helpful, and not a pain. For most of the Bronx, forget it, except for Riverdale.Manhattan and parts of other boroughs have alternate side parking, which means you have to move your car every day except Sunday and find a new parking spot. Loads of metered parking also.When I moved to NYC, I kept my car. I love the freedom that driving gives me and I hate having to rely on public transportation. My only issue with cars would be traffic & parking. It's HORRIBLY hard to find parking in Manhattan. And no one drives a nice car in NYC, just whoopdees that suffer lots of dings and dents. Your car is also apt to be hit or sideswiped so if you're very anal about the way your car looks, you'll have to pay extra to fix it . . . And yes, insurance is expensive.As for "deals" on apartments, some neighborhoods are cheaper and some more expensive. Location counts for a lot. I, for one, always was more interested in space than in location. I was always willing to live on off blocks (but never dangerous ones, just skuzzy looking ones) to get a bigger place. Right across the Hudson,Hoboken is a great pace to live. Hoboken is a very up and coming place, lots of young people who commute to Manhattan, lots of bars, restaurants. It's just so clean, quiet and friendly here. There is the PATH Subway and ferries to take you to work in NYC. Speaking of commuting, New York City has one of the most extensive public transit systems in the world. The New York City Subway System is one of the largest subway systems in the world with more than 700 miles of tracks covering the four out of five boroughs of New York City. It is the only subway system in the world that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Penn Station is the busiest railroad station in the world, with more than 800,000 commuters in it every day. In addition it hosts the Long Island Railroad, which bring million of the commuters from the eastern suburbs into the city daily. Grand Central Terminal is the largest railroad station in the world. The GCT is home to Metro-North Railroad, which operates train from this fame rail hub to the Hudson Valley, the northern suburbs and Connecticut. And now also the Long Island Railroad to Manhattan's east side.Other form of transportation operates to and from New York City, they included The PATH, NJ Transit, Amtrak, and both national and regional buses departing from and arriving to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. There also five airports, (Newark, LGA, JFK, Newburgh, and White Plans), as well as an extensive ferry system that include the Staten Island Ferry. So there is definitely no way you'll need a car to get around New York City.Manhattan squeezes people in skyscrapers and more are built every year for business, condos and apartments. Most people who work in those tall Manhattan skyscrapers of Manhattan live in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, or even the NJ cities. Asking whether the City or New Jersey right across the Hudson is better is like asking if surfing is better in the Great Lakes or the Pacific. Stay away from Long Island, New Jersey or Hudson Valley, etc. if you're not looking to start a family, or simply do not prefer some of the most exciting activity in the world.NYC is heavily minority but overall, whites are much better off - they are better educated, have significantly less out of wed lock births, suffer less drugs, idleness and do much less crime than minorities. The evil doer whites steal unethically at the top in Wall Street and the blacks steal violently at the bottom on the street. Social progressives are always trying integrate the neighborhoods and schools, but it is the old story, how do you mix poor minorities with educated affluent whites? So the melting pot image belies the reality that much of the city remains divided along racial or ethnic lines. In dozens of neighborhoods, a single racial or ethnic group predominates, at rates of 70 percent to nearly 90 percent.New York schools are the most segregated in the country according to a new study. More than half of New York City’s public schools are more than 90 percent black and Latino, But these numbers don’t mean very much when placed in the context of the demographics of the school system as a whole - more than 67 percent of all students in the NYC system are black and Latino to begin with and live in their own neighborhoods. There just aren't not enough white kids to go around and integrate. And the white kids come from a different demographic too - more wealth, better educated and less dysfunctional homes. Sounds like Atlanta to me too! This is the worrisome inequities hidden beneath the New York’s glowing facade. There is a “tale of two cities” and the growing gap between the city’s haves and have-nots, which all too often follow racial lines. Indeed, racial segregation in New York is frequently accompanied by socioeconomic segregation. Across the state, the typical African-American student “attends a school where 69% of students are low-income.” For the typical Latino student, that number is 65 percent. For whites, less than 30 percent. Mandatory efforts to force integration - such as busing - are unlikely to gain political traction today. This causes great anger among whites and they move out.New York’s elite high schools are some of the city’s crown jewels, are the best in the USA, renowned for their merit-based exclusivity. Changing admission requirements to the city’s top schools for the sake of feel-good social justice would erode the schools’ tradition of excellence in the service of dubious ends. Absent a massive program of busing, or forced population transfer, there aren’t enough white people to satisfy the social progressives. And many of the best-regarded public elementary schools are getting whiter.More than a third of the 100 most diverse schools are high schools, reflecting the city’s practice of allowing students to apply to any high school. The Mathematics, Science and Engineering High School at City College is the most diverse. Every year about 80,000 students will soon receive high-school acceptance letters, and for many this time marks the culmination of months—sometimes years—spent hitting the books, meeting with tutors, and sprucing up resumes. That’s because admission into one of the city’s 400 or so public high schools is rarely automatic: Each kid ranks and applies to as many as 12 schools, and recent statistics suggest that less than half of a year’s applicants get into their first-choices, while 10 percent of them—nearly 8,000 kids—don’t get a match at all.Then there are the crème de la crème of New York City’s public high schools: the nine prestigious "specialized" institutions that are often seen as informal feeders for the Ivy League. Only 5,000 kids are offered admissions to these college-prep schools, which students can pursue in addition to their 12 choices. You get into them by passing a test - a 150-minute multiple-choice test known as the SHSAT. But critics say the test encourages a culture of exclusivity - one that, matched with the schools’ notorious lack of student diversity, has been subject to intense debate over the years. Social progressives suggest new desegregation efforts that link “choice” with “key civil rights standards, such as strong public information and outreach, free transportation and no admissions screening.” Personally, I think that admission screening is a must unless you want to water down academics.NYC is the epitome of capitalism and socialism - called Plato's Utopia - in the USA . They are conflicting values, but everyone on both sides gets along. In such a highly people packed environment, where ten thousand people work in one skyscraper, getting along is a must. Immigrants, entrepreneurs and business make the world turn, the socialists want undeserved economic equality.I am old school - you work for what you get - and I do not agree with much on the progressive social agenda that I equate with giveaways and guarantees for the free lunch crowd. I don't have a problem with providing a "hand up" but dislike the handouts that never go away and encourage laziness and dependence on the government. Excellence starts in the home and grows stronger in the schools. I do not favor increased social welfare spending - life is sweet but can be hard, getting educated and keeping a job and your nose clean is perquisite for the good life. In another words, "personal responsibility" counts more than welfare spending. Social progressive wanted to eliminate tests and merit-based criteria for schools, busing to mix populations, reserved housing for minorities in wealthy areas, etc. I totally disagree with any of that. I say stimulate the economy, create jobs and that will eventually take care of most of the problems.Life on 34th StreetI am a 35-year New Yorker. I lived in Hells Kitchen, Manhattan and Jamaica, Queens for two years and worked in Greenwich Village, Mid Town, the East side on 42nd Street, and around Manhattan's Penn Plaza (One Penn Plaza @ 57 floors and Two Penn Plaza @ 42 floors). It was a very busy area with major transportation facilities and office buildings where tens of thousands of people walked by every day. New Yorkers tended to be diverse, thick skinned, adventurous, well groomed and mannered, tall, slender and well dressed - and friendly too, always ready for a joke or a prank. There are dozens of Delis, cafeterias, and eateries in each building and one Penn Plaza has a roof top Mexican restaurant which has decent view of the Empire State Building , which is all you need/want when you’re throwing back beergaritas - giant, strong margaritas with a Corona dumped right in.Madison Square Garden (MSG)It was a busy area, across the street from Penn Plaza was MSG and below was Penn Station with all Manhattan's subways connections also serving Amtrak trains to destinations all over the United States and Canada, and Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains to suburbs and the Jersey Shore. Consequentially the people traffic was about a million every day, with about 800,000 using Penn Station alone. MSG is home to concerts, hockey, basket ball, circuses, conventions, and boxing. It is the oldest and most active major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area. I have been there dozens of times, but there's nothing like The Garden on fight night. Some of the greatest heavyweight championships have taken place over the years and more than fifty world title bouts overall have been decided at The World's Most Famous Arena. I went to the "Fight of the Century" in 1971 between Joe Fraiser and Mohamed Ali - It was a great fight - Burt Lancaster did the blow by blow. Fraiser won. I went to Club 21 after the fight and hung around with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack who were at the fight too.8th Avenue & Times SquareWithin two blocks were about 500 restaurants, fast food, places, bars, shops and hotels. Street performers and Flash Mobs were everywhere. You could even get into a great game of Chess on 34th Street. Around the corner on 8th Avenue was the Fashion District, going up several blocks to 42nd where the infamous and world's largest bus station Port Authority sat, across the street was the infamous Terminal Bar with exciting and somewhat perverted 42nd Street right next store. Times Square had thousands of activities, home to hundreds of night clubs, dance clubs, discos, Bars, Porn shops, Massage Parlors, all night Movie theaters (each had three movies plus cartoons), restaurants, hotels, and the Great White Theater District. The 11th Avenue Diner was my favorite all night spot for eggs, bacon with greasy potatoes and onions. Celebrities haunt the place. I met Woody Allen and Telly Savalas there. It was a very exciting area. One of trembling anticipation of what was around the next corner to embellish your life.There are even high quality strip clubs if you like some skin, for Belly Dancing there is Little Egypt; for cabaret there are dozens of clubs around; plus all kinds of fine ethnic restaurants - Chinese - Korean - Japanese - Indian - Egyptian - Portuguese and German food emporiums. The area is filled with food street counters, Orange Julius, Pizza, Shiskabob and Halal street carts for even more tasty ethnic dishes. Lunch out on the tumultuous streets was always an adventure. You had a hundred restaurants to pick from and the girl watching was excellent. Girl watching is an art form in Midtown, so many beautiful women pass by on the street, of every color, racial type, size and ethnic origin, you have your pick of whom to fall in love with for that second. You could say "I am watching for a six-foot Asian girl in a Yellow dress and five minutes late she would walk by. And the girl watching around Penn Plaza was great, not as good as Mid Town or Wall Street, but great.Occasionally you would see one of the painted girls, they are naked but there body is painted so you cannot see their privates. Usually they have something like the American Flag painted on them. There is lots of street entertainment, Flash Mobs put on dance and singing performances from hits in Broadway plays while the underground music scene in New York City is in the subway system, and is characterized by Mariachi bands and musicians playing various instruments. Occasionally you stumble upon a gem, a real professional playing versions of the Grateful Dead’s 'Me and My Uncle.' Yesterday while waiting for the train to Brooklyn , I saw a young girl do a roof-raising Irish jig who inspired a small hootenanny of strangers coming together in unfettered joy.Right up the street on 34th Street's Penn Plaza was a major shopping street connecting the Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel - is Macy's the world's largest department store, Gimbals, the Empire State Building - the second tallest building in the city, and Herald Square, a major subway station where Broadway and 6th Avenue intersect. Slightly north, at 38th Street and 5th Avenue is Lord & Taylor; the oldest department store in the United States. At the west end of the street one finds the Hudson River, the West Midtown Ferry Terminal, the West 30th Street Heliport, the Hudson River Greenway, the West Side Highway, and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center where the Auto and Boats shows are put on. On the West Side 34th Street is in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, at the north end of the West Side Yard. On Tenth Avenue is a McDonald's with a drive-thru and a small parking lot, a rarity in Manhattan . There are more than 180 hotels near Penn Plaza , but right around the Plaza there dozens, each with its own restaurant and Happy Hour and many with entertainment or a DJ. Are you looking for a cheap Motel, an economy Holiday Inn, staid Penn Plaza Pavilion hotel, fancy Staler Hilton? From sleaze to five star, it's all here.New York City is all about meeting people and the street Café serving up espresso or wine is great at that and they are on every street and corner. Meeting New Yorkers is not who you are but what you are . . . diversity personified, no bigotry allowed, mix with the poor and rich, just have fun and appreciate each other. On special occasions we go to the Florida Bar and Grill on 35th off 8th Avenue . It's really a first class strip club, women are curvaceous and beautiful, and their topless dancing is good. Over all a fun experience.Penn PlazaAround the complex of Penn Plaza office building, there is Penn Station, Madison Square Garden (MSG), dozens of hotels, and hundreds of bars / restaurants / dance clubs / strip joints. After a stressful day at work satisfying Manhattan's high expectation customers, if you are interested in some intellectual or casual conversation, maybe unwind with a beer or cocktail, or for sure a tasty snack, there are literally hundreds of places within two blocks to try. Everyone knows that the area surrounding Penn Plaza and MSG is just an unfortunate, low brow, Irish-themed reality (if you don't, now you do), filled with your favorite gritty places to eat and drink for Happy Hour or before a big game. I like McCann's on 33rd off 7th Avenue , its got multiple huge TV screens, you can watch sports or news, eat all kinds of free food snacks from Sliders, pickled Pig Feet and hard-boiled eggs up to $5.00 three inch thick burgers and $10.00 full course meals if you want it.It's wonderful to have so many interesting spots near my Two Penn Plaza office for lunch or after work drinks, even in a five star restaurant. Other than that, the next best place is the Brother's Bar and Grill across the street from MSG on 33rd by 8th Avenue . It sits right next to One Penn Plaza , my first Plaza office for my 50 person engineering group was 9,000 sq. feet on the Mezzanine right next to the bar. The big circular bar surround by sit down tables hold hundreds, you will meet all kinds of famous people and performers playing MSG who hang out there. It gets super crowded after work hours but there is a lot of outdoor patio seating which is great during the summer.Penn StationUnderneath Madison Square Garden (MSG) is Penn Station where you will step into a homeless shelter enforced by the ACLU, full of sleaze and excitement. It's the busiest passenger transportation facility in North America catering to almost a million people every day, and there are hundreds of 24 X 7 available food choices available. When I used to live on NJ and if there was a delay (let's be honest that happened more often than it should) there was in the station lots pf places for a bite or a drink and 30 or 40 random spots that no sane person ever dared to go into - but commuters are not sane - they are tired, hungry and desperate. Penn Station is basically a subway/train station on a Hollywood playwright’s steroids where writing about Penn Station is like writing a review of herpes. It’s a gritty place, full of characters, Dive Bars, and new big city experiences, all with plenty of COPS around too kept the peace. If you are an ex sailor, it’s a great place making you think you are back in Karachi or Bangkok . If you're unlucky, sloppy, or come from far enough away where all this is strange, you do what you have to do to get out of it as fast as possible . . . but the stink will linger on. It is a whole lot dirtier than Manhattan 's other big public transit center, Grand Central Station on 42nd Street. Penn Station has all the glitz and glamour of your usual subway station, which pretty much says it all. More than 800,000 commuters a day use the place, and it is always crowded. It is home to the LIRR, NJ Transit and Amtrak. Penn Station is the commuter's home away from home, it has everything to keep you comfortable whether you want to eat or drink.Rabbit Dive BarThere were more than 30 bars in the Penn Station complex alone, each with its own theme and ambiance, but the Rabbit was the most fun. I like a Dive Bar, they are comfortable, dirty, sleazy, and usually filled with crazy and interesting characters. It had a great Top 40 Juke Box, greasy hamburgers, with pickles and onions, Hamburgers and chili smothered Hot Dogs. On the 7th Avenue entrance and across the passageway from the Rabbit Bar was a Pizza Place, a Manhattan Deli, newspaper stands, and a convenient store where you could purchase clothes, candies, and personal items if you suddenly found yourself stuck in town overnight. Which did happen often and we would get one of those vacant (where the Manhattan Project people stayed) prepaid DEC rooms at the South Gate Hotel on 31st street. You'd probably miss this place with the hustle and bustle and gazillions of people pushing/shoving their way through the Penn Station underground, but you'd be missing out on this place that's literally right under all these people's noses. Go down the 7th avenue stairs into Penn Station and its on your right. Of course, the crowd is of all types . . . this can be a plus or a minus depending on who YOU are.. We started to go there for Happy Hour and sometimes wind up hanging out there all night and then get rooms at the South Gate hotel down the street where DEC booked rooms at for our guests. Besides New Jersey / New York / Pennsylvania commuters, you would meet people from all over the USA and world. This place is like a hidden diamond. Its got a juke box, pool table and old piano. The bar is long and serves up standard NYC bar food, pickled pigs feet and hard boiled eggs.The Rabbit is the kind of place for meeting interesting people and talking. Most people have to catch a train,. so you keep meeting new people all night. Being such a comfortable and interesting bar, a lot of people practically lived there. George would came over once in a while and play three sets of flawless big band tunes. When the Juke got fired up, the dancers hit the floor and were a treat to watch. All levels of skill and knowledge, and a delightful older black man who was obviously from the old school of Lindy Hop who was very kindly and sweetly teaching some of the younger pups how to do the steps. There was one older guy who looked kind of like an elderly and spindly college professor who could move more in five minutes than I ever could in a lifetime. It was a true total treat.