I agree with alot of this. People I knew and still know, loved to be in your business. 90% of them were and are satisfied with their current life and are not looking for ways to improve their life. Now everytime I think of Houston, Im reminded of Seattle. Dont ask. I dont know, maybe Im just a pretentious a-hole. But I really like my latte's and my banana republic. I love the diversity, liberalism, the oppurtunities in visual arts. I love Texas. I love UT, I love San Antonio, I LOVE how women actually HAVE curves in Houston. But it's just not the place I would like to grow and raise a family. Too much of the things I dont care for. Mostly religion and religious aspects and the lack of anything entertaining to do. Another thing I happen to like about California. Is when I visited Houston back in December, I couldnt buy alcohol after a certain time of the day. The same with hookah tobacco(Hell I couldnt even find a place that sells it intil I search it on my navi). Where as I could find these items every corner or so on a Californian block, 24/7 no matter the time.
You know, I've found that there are essentially two types of people. 1. People who grow up in an area and feel connected to it enough to stay or want to go back if they leave, and 2. people who grow up in a place but either want to leave or leave and don't really have the desire to come back. As a person who has no desire to move back to where I grew up (I grew up in Amarillo), I'm always amazed at how many people, in this day and age, end up not moving away from the town where they grew up. But, obviously, a lot of them like where they grew up. And, you know, there are always different reasons as to why someone will fall in love with a particular place. I sure love visiting New York City, but I could never live there. It just isn't conducive to the lifestyle I enjoy. I have a close cousin who moved up there several years ago for work, and he absolutely loves it (though, technically, he does live in New Jersey and works in Manhattan). Personally, I have this intense desire to move to Los Angeles, but I think it's largely just because I could see myself standing in the parking lot at Fox Plaza and yelling "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfxxker."
I agree with a lot on this. Anyways, you don't even have to necessarily compare $1000 in Houston to Manhattan. You can easily get a 11br in nice places in Brooklyn for $1500 or so. In NYC you don't have to have a car so are saving like $300 a month for insurance and the lease. Plus salaries seem to be significantly higher in NYC.
Everything you said is a matter of preferences. As for the life style or experiences NY can offer, you can only have them if you can afford them. I can live in Houston, save my money and go visit NY and experience a few things when I want or I can live in a slump in NY and never get to go out and enjoy.
