Someone explain NYC life to me!! I'm confused...?

The upper east side is the best area to live in Manhattan. Unless you make a lot of money, be prepared to live in a small one bedroom apartment in that area. If you are just starting your career I would recommend living in New Jersey and taking the subway over. If you do make a lot then consider Connecticut or Westchester.

If you live in Manhattan, you're address is New York, NY. If you live in Brooklyn, the Bronx, or Staten Island, it's the name of your borough, NY. If you live in Queens, it's the name of your neighborhood, NY. New York City as we know it now didn't exist until 1898. New York was Manhattan. Brooklyn was a city that covered less area than the borough of Brooklyn does now. Actually almost 100 cities, towns, and villages in 5 different counties merged to form the modern City of New York. The boroughs come from the counties formed the City. Most of the neighborhoods in the outer boroughs retain the names of the towns they were before the City became the City. And some neighborhoods have changed names because they don't want to be associated with the stigma of the prior name. Go to a bookstore and and see if they can order the Hagstrom's map of the 5 boroughs of New York. It will have the names of the neighborhoods where they are (and the sides you refer to are just neighborhoods that didn't get a cooler name). So just consider the neighborhoods as you consider the areas where you live now. The ferry from Staten Island to The Battery in Lower Manhattan is about 30 minutes. You can easily take the subway from midtown to Brooklyn or Queens in 30 minutes as well. The Bronx might take 40 minutes. But some neighborhoods way out in Queens are a 2 hour subway ride from midtown.

Postal address: Only in Manhattan would your postal address by New York, NY. For the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island it would be the name of those boroughs plus NY. For Queens, the post office has divided it up into some of the towns and cities it had before NYC was unified in 1898, so postal addresses include Long Island City, Flushing, Jamaica, etc. plus NY. Only Manhattan has "sides:, this being due to its long skinny shape with a major part in the middle (Central Park). Fifth Avenue is the dividing line between east and west sides, this being effective from Fourth Street to Harlem. Below Fourth Street Broadway is the divider. Several subways go crosstown, or as you put it, between the sides (#7, L, Shuttle). There are hundreds of neighborhoods (Staten Island, the smallest borough, has 62). Most have their good parts and their bad parts, although most are predominantly one or the other. Without some idea of what you find affordable, I can;t go much beyond that. The least expensive parts of Manhattan that are good places to live are Inwood, Washington Heights west of Broadway, and Morningside Heights. In the Bronx Parkchester and Kingsbridge. Many parts of Staten Island. Travel between all the boroughs but SI is easily done by both subway and bus. SI has the ferry (25 minutes one way) and a couple bus lines over the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn.

hi! well I go to the city a lot cause i live right near it! Manhattan is nice. upper, is the expensive spots, east,and midtown are kinda the same. Harlem, Queens you will see many apartment buildings. as you already know 42nd street is all broadway, and cool museums (wax). the homes are very close together also. personally, i would love to live in manhattan, but in the city everything is beautiful!

If you live in Queens your address would be: 123 Queens Boulevard Flushing, New York, zip code

like a couple of people already said, if you live in: Manhattan, your address is New York, NY Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, your address is (insert borough here), NY Queens, your addres is the NEIGHBORHOOD you live in. For example I live in Astoria, Queens, so my address is Astoria, NY, not Queens, NY. Honestly, we can only tell you so much, the rest you are going to have to figure out yourself. There are nice neighboorhoods in every borough and there crappy neighborhoods in every borough. you have to come and check it all out yourself.