Please let me preface the following with the idea that I love New York City to the marrow of my bones. However, as someone who has chosen to move, I disagree with the notion that moving out of New York means failure, leaving with your tail between your legs, or that people who leave are somehow weak or can't handle the hardship. Unless you are rich, New York is a damn hard place to live. Every dollar you make goes to rent unless you are lucky enough to have a reasonably priced apartment, and daily amenities are always lacking. If you are not someone who wants to suck corporate ass, you are always hustling, which is exhausting and leaves only those with the most iron of constitutions actual time and energy to create.
Also, I personally cannot create without being relaxed. Some people create amazing things in harsh circumstances, goddess bless them. I think however that I am not unusual and I have no doubt that the stress of rising rents,vicious slum lords who harass their tenants to get them out of decently priced apartments, and a culture which is increasingly shallow and negative is part of the reason that many artists are leaving the city. And how can you create if you can't experiment, and how can you experiment if you have to choose between food or the materials of your medium? Nothing is more artistically constipating than thinking that everything you make needs to be profitable. And as far as the cliche of the suffering artist, I think it is only reasonable to expect a certain quality of life in a country where basic comfort is taken for granted.
The ray of hope is that New York has always had her cycles, and I have no doubt that this is only another one. And since the mundane, mainstream somnambulists who now populate much of Manhattan seem to follow the artists, be grateful for your pied pipers who are taking momentary respites from the city.