Definitely…

dMw

That being said, I’ll issue the following warnings:
The job market for mid- and senior-level design folk is a bit rough here right now. Many corporations have hiring freezes in effect (my employer included) and there’s not a whole lot available right now unless you’re willing to take some production jobs at advertising chop-shops until you find something better.

Affordable housing here is practically non-existant. The rents in the city are horrendous and are a bad value if you’re looking to live cheap on your own. They’ve been consistantly on the rise since ’96 and show little sign of improving. At least the recession has slowed the increases down some, but they’re still plenty expensive.

Good luck on whatever you decide. :)

of course the answer to that last question is yes — do you even need to ask?

you know a little bit about this area already anyway, and I have a feeling that you’d be on the scent of decent eateries and video rental with bollywood selection no matter WHERE you end up. so if you do land around here, i’ll probably be following you to a restaurant instead of the other way around before too long.

job situation here is sucky, of course. still the 2nd highest unemployment. there is still a lot of advertising work, but there are also a lot of graphic designers around. people are getting jobs, work is coming into agencies and so forth… but as far as how tight it’s locked up, how fluid the turnover is, hard to say. still, new york is great for networking. too bad you’re not here right now, i got offered tickets to the cooper-hewitt design triennial conference tomorrow all day, and i can’t go.

i know much about this city, and if you were to get a job here, i’d totally help you out in finding whatever you needed…

but it’s hard to find a job here as well, so you’re on a good plan to move where someone’s offered you a job… it’s tight all over…