> I've lived in San Francisco for about 5 years now
I don't think I would want to equate living in SF or NYC as being what the rest of the United States is like as a whole. It would be like assuming people in France are all like Parisians (which they aren't).
Being a born and raised US Citizen for roughly 30 years, I don't think I would want to live in either city for an extended period of time, but that's just my perspective. Nice places to visit, but not where I'd want to live.
Both San Francisco and New York also have weird dating scenes due to gender imbalance among singles (SF and NY have opposite imbalances). These imbalances tend to cause desperation among the excess supply / low demand gender, and unwillingness to settle in the excess demand / low supply gender.
I don't think I would want to equate living in SF or NYC as being what the rest of the United States is like as a whole. It would be like assuming people in France are all like Parisians (which they aren't).
Being a born and raised US Citizen for roughly 30 years, I don't think I would want to live in either city for an extended period of time, but that's just my perspective. Nice places to visit, but not where I'd want to live.