I love visiting NYC, but you couldn't pay me to live there. I have friends I stay with when I'm there, and they take 45-minute showers because that's the only time they get any real privacy.
My rent was $2,100/month when I lived there a few years ago. Nice place, updated kitchen and bathroom, quiet, close to public transit, multiple grocery stores in walking distance. That's steep for sure but nowhere near as insane as people make it out to be. Also I could've rented a place for like 1,600 but I shelled out for the nicer one. It's really not that bad.
My friends have a big four-bedroom in Brooklyn, but of course, there are four people in it. They love it, but I just couldn't do it. I love having my nice big condo to myself.
Oh for sure it is stupid expensive don't get me wrong. But the way people talk you'd think it is $4k/month for a tiny dump, not 2100 for a pretty nice place that I decided to pay extra for. Also pay tends to be higher which takes the edge off a bit. Just saying it isn't quite as bad as people make it out to be.
These days I'm paying 1200 for a dump in a medium sized city and often think I'd be much happier paying 2100 in NYC. So there's that.
There are one bedrooms and studios for < $2k in brooklyn. They might not be fancy, but they exist.
That might be more than other places, but you have to factor in you don't need a car here. So that's $10k/year saved (though I think it's about $2k/year if you max out your transit rides before they become free every week).
You'd have to pay me a shit load of money for me to consider living somewhere that isn't walkable.
I'm fortunate to live in a part of Kansas City that's eminently walkable, and when the streetcar expansion is finished in a year and a half, I'll be a block away from it, but the regional transit here in this city has always been very good. We've had a high-speed bus line through the main corridor of the city for almost 20 years now.
The bigger plus is that public transit here is fare-free.