It seems like if you lived there you would have endless places/things to shoot

It depends on what you are interested in. Rome is much better for my interests in so many ways.

EBH

In the USA it can be argued that NYC is the photography capital. Just about every block you have a ton of people and things to shoot. There are people with cameras everywhere which includes tourist, hobbyist and professionals. Plenty of camera stores, studios and galleries. Great place to live if you are into photography. =)

To say NYC is the best city for photography is like saying the best color is blue.

canonical wrote:
I found the city to be dirty, smelly, dangerous....and a little interesting. Nothing of beauty however. Most man made, man dominated projects aren't.

Wow, that's quite an opinion and we each deserve our own of course. To the "Nothing of beauty however" I would want to question just how much of the city was seen and if any of the parks were included?

But the the same can be said ("endless potential, etc.") for a lot of cities. It's certainly an interesting city but not sure it's necessarily the ultimate. Probably could be in the top 10 or 20 though.

I took a trip with my brother and his wife to NYC last year and while interesting now that I've seen it I have no desire to go back anytime soon. I was in Chinatown and stopped to take a picture and some Asian woman walked into me and told her friend "I wish all these tourist wouldn't come down here to take pictures..." Oh the irony!

Not sure I see the irony. You *were* a tourist & she obviously a local (in fact, she could easily have been born there). I live in NYC & sometimes tourists taking pictures really are a pain. If you are a tourist, places can seem a little like a film set & it's easy to forget that people live & work in them (with fairly prosaic expectations about being able to use their sidewalks unimpeded, for example).

canonical wrote:
That's funny....that's like saying "Did you see the part of the city that is an attempt to escape from the city?".

Actually, there's nothing more urban than a park. Indeed, the concept of a park only makes sense in the context of urbanization. I'm very sorry you had a bad time in NY, but, given your feelings, it does sound like it might be a place you should avoid in future. (I'm not a big fan of West Texas & don't plan to return if I can avoid it; to each his own!)