It's hard to read this (extraordinary) interview of Clay Shirky and not wish, just a little, that I lived in NYC.
But I live where I live for a lot of good reasons. Because I have family here. Because I have a job that (on most days) I love. Because I grew up in western NY and it feels like home, even when it's at its most gray and cold and depressing. (Oooo, look, I used it's and its properly in the same sentence!) And yes, because our four-bedroom house in a nice suburban neighborhood has lilacs budding and kids laughing in the front yard today, and cost us less than $120K six years ago.
Still, the interview gave me a serious case of city envy.
Me, too. Big time. And no disrespect intended to your hometown, but Buffalo doesn't agree with me. So the only two questions now are SoCal or Brooklyn? And sooner or later?
My hometown (Wappingers Falls, NY - outside of Poughkeepsie) is not much different than here (and contrary to popular belief it is not even CLOSE to upstate NY - look at a map!), although it does seem to stay cold, gray and depressing a lot longer up here. In any case, I'm only about an hour and a half from NYC - it is everything you have read about in a book/magazine, seen in a movie, heard from a friend, etc.; it is all of that and much more.
I don't know if I would live there though, I prefer peace and quiet. And a yard surrounding my house that takes more than 2 steps to cover. :-)