Born and raised in the Midwest, migrated to NYC for 17 years, and now back home, I can attest that New Yorkers are kinder and NYC neighborhoods are more neighborly than anything I've ever experienced anywhere else I've lived.
I reckon that depends a lot on WHERE in NYC you are, truth be told.
I love big cities--I'm definitely an urban boy--but I have yet to see any city that doesn't have its fair share of meanness. A lot of it comes down to the monkeysphere; human beings are only able to form real emotional connections with, at most, about 150 or so other human beings. That's your monkeysphere. Everyone outside of it isn't really a person--more a sketch of prejudices and assumptions. When you yell at some #$!& who's cut you off in traffic, you're yelling at a caricature; odds are you wouldn't yell at your nephew or the woman who flirts with you from the apartment down the hall for doing the exact same thing.
And I'm up at this hour procrastinating. Tomorrow, painfully early in the morning, I have to get up to help a lovely young lady who's become a close friend of mine drive from Portland to Boston, which is going to be quite a lengthy excursion. And I haven't even packed yet.
