[joonix]

Nonsense. New York is not nearly as bad as SF for rent. I know someone who just rented a studio in the heart of lower Manhattan for $1500 and that includes heat and water. On top of that you don't need a car or Uber or any of that. Unlimited subway pass and/or a bike or CitiBike membership and you're set. That is absolutely manageable for a tech professional and well worth it for all the benefits of living here and access to opportunities. If you're doing a startup you're probably not that concerned with income taxes in the first few years. The one real downside is that office space is pretty expensive.

And I've lived here almost a year now and have never had a cockroach in my apartment, or even so much as a silverfish in the bath tub.

[gaadd33]

$1500? Sounds like they got lucky. Streeteasy shows only 3 apartments for rent for less than $1500 and one is an SRO. (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/for-rent/downtown/rental_type:frbo...)

I'm sure you can find a really tiny non legal space in Chinatown or similar but I'm not sure I would call that a bargain.

[goldenkey]

And chinatown is chock full of roaches and rats due to the restaurants dumping cooking oil and garbage into the streets. You get what you pay for.

[goldenkey]

$1500, does that include the cockroaches and bed bugs? Because you better believe it.