Ha ha. I said I was going to look it up, and U did. So now I know about the avenues. I wandered around The Village a bit, and I think I might have been there. Alphabet City, indeed. 
In spite of a wrong-headed reputation, New Yorkers tend to be quite quaint. Stroll a while in Central Park and you’ll see. Just stay away from the bushes.
Correction: U=I (did).
Crap.
I don’t know. The Village (Greenwich Village, or the West Village) and Alphabet City (or the East Village) aren’t that close. Alphabet City refers to that part of Manhattan between 14th Street and Houston Street (north to south) and Avenue A to Avenue D (west to east). Greenwich Village is circumscribed by West Street (or the Hudson River) to the west, and maybe Fifth Avenue to the east, and 14th Street to the north and Houston Street (or maybe a bit south of there) to the south, depending on who you ask.
They’re not that close together, really, and they’re very different neighborhoods. Or they were different, once. Now they’re just both really expensive and fashionable. I mean, there’s a Whole Foods on Houston and the Bowery. The Bowery, for God’s sake, once the street of a couple of dozen flophouses and a few thousand winos. Avenue B is lined with expensive restaurants instead of the open-air heroin markets that used to be the most successful retails businesses there.
And Greenwich Village is no longer home to counter-cultural radicals and gay men looking for a welcoming neighborhood where they could live freely. Now it’s populated by hedge-fund managers and fashion business executives. The meat-packing district hasn’t seen a side of beef in years, and the former meat-packing plants have been taken over by really expensive restaurants. The back-room bars and clubs have been gone for twenty years. The Mineshaft, the Anvil, the Spike, they’re all gone.
No, Alphabet City and the West Village aren’t places where you’ll find affordable rents anymore, and haven’t been for years.
Ditto for Astoria and Long Island City, Queens. I lived in LIC, worked in midtown Manhattan, my commute was shorter (time-wise) than people who lived in the upper east and west sides. Rent was 2/3 what it would’ve been in upper east / upper west, and (IMO) even groceries and things like that were a little cheaper.
I suspect the “entertainment” costs will pile up quicker than you think. You’re not going to want to spend much time in your little studio - especially since you’re already preparing & eating most of your meals there anyway - so you’ll be gallavanting around somewhere every day. Sure, there are a lot of free art openings, parties, etc. but sooner or later you’ll confront people who want money in the form of entrance fees, cover charges, “suggested” donations etc. After all, most of the people producing art & entertainment in Manhattan want to see some money for their trouble (that’s probably a big reason they’re there). Also, when you’re criss-crossing the city on a daily basis, you will need to sit down sometimes & relax. The most convenient way to do this will be to duck into a bar for a drink or a coffee shop for coffee & a bagel - or whatever your pleasure. Those little expenses will add up. Finally, it’s great to say you’ll only be taking buses & the subway, but you will occasionally need to take a taxi to get somewhere on time. Or to get home if you’re not near public transportation. Just think about how, when you’re on vacation, money just seems to vanish in large quantities every day. This is the phenomenon you will have to deal with in your scenario.
$35,000 sounds just fine for a studio in a crappy neighborhood, staying home all day, eating chinese food, going out a few times a week, and buying a nice share of elecronics. Really have no idea where people pulled “$100k” out of. Of course, I suspect you could live quite nicely on $35k in other parts of the country, no?
Of course, that’s the obvious suggestion. (And hoboken is quite nice.) Or just not move here at all. Don’t see the point. Especially for “culture.” There’s some really good benefits to living in the city. Schools, business opportunities, etc. But culture? Psht, all that’s a tourist trap.
Well about $19,000 goes to federal income tax. $7,500 goes to social security. About $6,000 goes to New York State income tax. About $3,000 goes to New York city income tax. That still leaves around $47,000. You really should be putting away about $10,000 or more a year for your personal retirement fund. The expenses pile up.
No culture? That surprises me. When I visited NYC (many times) more than 40 years ago, I experienced plenty of culture. No shit, Times Square is one of the most cultural places I’ve ever been. And The Village. Central Park. Little Italy. Off Braodway. Christmas!
Pay no attention to this grump, drachillix, move there and form your own opinion.
Hoboken may well be nice, but it ain’t no Manhattan. And it doesn’t fit into this “Thought experiment”.
I dunno, maybe I’m not aware enough of the monotonous dump that subsumes the rest of America. If you’re trying to escape some endless wasteland of one-story Wallmarts, then I could see what you’re after. But you’ll find that in Brooklyn or any other sufficient urban area just fine (of which, admittedly, there are few in America). I’d disagree with any greater romanticization of Manhattan, however. The village is a good place to buy bongs. Central park is a good place to use them. Christmas is a shitty time when it’s cold but there’s no snow. Do you have sushi restaurants where you live? Yes? Good, then you’re not missing anything.
Sunny
When you get there, look up my brother, Charlie. He loves the place. I think you would too. 
I think a lot of the difference is the cultural diversity of Manhattan in particular. You walk down the street and you’ll hear 4 different languages. That adds a lot to the hard-to-define feeling that makes New York so great.
I suspect Alex_Dubinsky just doesn’t want to share.