The thing about threads like this, (and there have been about 485 of them since I joined Pelican), is that there is no real right or wrong. It's just a bunch of people with vastly different life experiences and preferences giving opinions about various places. Some of the opinions at least have the legitimacy of being from people who have actually been to the places for more than 5 minutes or even lived in them.
Some are from people who just hate cities in general and base their opinion on some POS city in the midwest that no one on earth would find appealing. Most American cities have exactly nothing in common with NYC other than the fact that they are both cities in the USA. NYC is widely considered the greatest city in the world and Cleveland would not even be in the top 200. NYC is Disneyland for adults.
That said, people are entitled to their opinions. I'm a city guy and I get bored quickly in even second-tier cities. I would hang myself if I was forced to be on a farm in the heartland for 2 weeks. I like being out in nature but it's always available close to big cities. The areas around NYC going north are amazing and beautiful. People who live in NY and are successful travel extensively and get to experience other places on a regular basis, including nature. You cannot live in NYC and wrestle with the rusty lug nuts on your PU truck all day like people do in the heartland, it's a different vibe and time is valuable. Not saying that's all people do out there but I watch YT videos of people and their car stuff a lot.
