Funny thing for me is I love to visit the city, one of my favorites, but I just hate working there one of my least favorite cities to work in, so the conclusion for me is if I was independently wealthy I could enjoy living there a lot but if I still had too work I would hate every minute.
Your images are a joy to view, I admire your taking a month to shoot the city, very cool
Funny, when I was younger, even 15 years ago, I couldn't stand the place. Within a few hours, it would stress me out something fierce. Just couldn't cope. Now, as long as I have a place to escape the insanity, I love it. I can still do with VERY small doses of the whole Times Square / Theater District area, which is crazy far more often than not. But just about anywhere else in the city I love.
In terms of independant wealth, I don't think you need to spend a lot to live here IF (and this is a HUGE if) you can afford a place to live. What I'm paying for a month is a lot for rent, but is dirt cheap if I look at it as a vacation rental. We'd usually go to Mexico or something over my wife's Spring Break and spend about 2-3 times what this place is costing. Its a cheap little studio, but I'm fine with it - I've never had expensive tastes (although my somewhat impulsive purchase of the X-Pro may suggest otherwise!). But to live here, I think you'd have to spend at least a half million and probably a good deal more for even a decent one bedroom in Manhatten. And that's just beyond our means (and equity). So I don't see it happening.
But, once here, there are plenty of really good cheap restaurants (and expensive ones, but I prefer cheap ethnic about 90% of the time) and plenty to do without spending a lot. Theater tickets are insane, but I'm not a big fan anyway. Museums and galleries are everywhere. The parks and public amenities are incredible. A subway pass is pretty cheap and you wouldn't want a car here anyway. If you had a lot of equity in a home somewhere else that you could sell and plunk down on a place here, I don't think it would be that expensive a place to retire otherwise. But barring a pretty good bit of real estate wealth going in, it would be a WICKED expensive place to try to buy or rent a decent place long term.
But, we own our current place outright and can probably afford a month here and a few weeks to a month at the beach each summer. And I love where we live enough that a couple of months like that to look forward to each year sounds like a pretty workable plan... This month has been an absolute blast so far. Photography is just sort of something to focus the mind and activities as I basically just explore and hang out.
-Ray