NYC has it's good points, but for me they are all ones I can enjoy more as a tourist.

It was the commute that ground me down. Walking through Midtown at rush hour--at every corner a phalanx of people steps off the curb and marches toward each other, and there is nothing to do but turn your shoulders and plow through. That's where the over-the-shoulder stare comes in, because if you meet someone's eye you have to acknowledge them as a person and try to get out of the way, but there was no where to go. Every step was in the way. That, combined with the fact that the only people who talk to you are scammers (in Midtown and touristy areas, not so much in the neighborhoods) drove me crazy. I hated the fact that you couldn't afford to be decent and polite.

By the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was go out, so I only visited those great museums, shows, etc. when friends came into town. The rest of the time I may as well have been in Ohio (except for the great Cuban food and the sirens).

The crazies got to me, too. A young lady was shoved in front of an approaching train by a loony at my usual subway station, which was bad enough, but even worse was that there were two more murders during the next week, copycat crimes in the same station! Not one, but two people heard about it and thought it would be a good idea.

The open-minded attitudes were nice, but there is still a tendency of New Yorkers to dismiss the rest of the country as unworthy because it's not NYC (i.e. "fly-over country"). The solution I've found is living in a college town in the mountains. You get smart, open-minded people from all over the world, but still live in a town with a 15-minute "rush hour" where strangers hold doors, wave back using the whole hand, and start real conversations at the drop of a hat.

To each their own, of course.