I love reading this thread because most of these places are nothing like where I live. On a typical day, I can hear English, Creole, Russian, Chinese, Tagalog (sp? what they speak in the Philipines), and may be a little Spanish. And that's a typical day. Brooklyn alone has a population of over 2.5 million. If I had to list every store, post office and restaurant here, I think it might crash the QB server. I recently heard that in all of New York City, there's 24,000 restaurants.
There's negatives to living here such as congestion, some really bad drivers, and some very rude, opportunistic people. But there's also lots of positives as well. I've met some absolutely wonderful people since I've lived here, had experiences and talked to people I never would have in other places. It's a very accepting place to all kinds of people. You can find any kind of food you can imagine, and even some food you can't imagine. In addition to the famous skyline, there's also lots of beaches with amazing sunsets, so it is possible to get close to nature even here.