^I agree with a lot of what you say, Otto. Some other things I observed about New York:
1. New York is basically shangri-la for straight single guys. There is a surplus of attractive, approachable single girls and you don't have to make any moves - they will come up to you to talk. I think there is actually some statistical evidence somewhere that points out the imbalance of females to males. Of course, while you're living it up most single girls in New York have it the other way around: they have to compete with other, better-dressed women for men, many of who let their position in the gender imbalance go to their head and act like real D-bags. Funny enough, Sex and the City was a real hit with single girls in NY and something they all chatted about (back then, at least). The irony is that a story of 4 middle aged NY women living a life of material comfort and getting any guy they wanted was about as improbable as the plot of Slumdog Millionnaire.
2. Things that would seemingly count in the city's favour, like beautiful turn-of-the-century architecture and an extensive subway system, seem so much more inadequate when you're actually there: the old apartment houses that look so grand from the outside have shoddy heating (often from a heating pipe, rather than a radiator), lousy water pressure and a poor layout where you can't seem to fit a bed in the smallest room no matter how hard you try. At the same time, the plethora of subway lines sometimes seem barely faster than walking and they are almost as bad as the TTC's streetcar dispatchers when it comes to meeting schedules (F train to Park Slope, anyone?). In Toronto, we sometimes forget how fast our subway really is. The same way that I generally take the BD subway and walk south to wherever I need to go instead of waiting an eternity for streetcars, I generally took IRT subways (the numbered ones) and then walked from there, rather than transfering onto less reliable BMT and IND (lettered) lines.
3. The expense of living in NY is a great equalizing effect, bringing relatively diverse people together to share experiences in social settings. Invariably conversations at parties seemed to drift toward apartment or landlord horror stories or fantasizing about which neighbourhood you'd want to live in if money were no object. From my experience, New Yorkers were more attuned to their city; what was going on, where things are, exploring other parts of the city than Torontonians. Since that's my kind of thing, I found it very easy to make conversation, rather than trying to talk about old TV shows or movies, or whatever I settle for when I'm in a party trying to strike up convo with strangers in TO.
4. re: NY service attitude. It's a mixed bag: sometimes service can be surly, and sometimes it can be extremely friendly. In all cases, though, they're fast. I think you can go through a checkout line in half the time that it takes here in Toronto. People at the cash register also know how to multi-task, helping you with a transaction while speaking to another customer on the phone. This has informed a lot of my own belief in customer service, where I prefer speed and efficiency over friendly incompetence in most situations. Toronto's better than average in this regard, but certainly has a lot to learn from New York.