I've watched the fireworks from a boat on the East River just north of the Brooklyn Bridge and also just off Liberty Island. Nothing like watching MASSIVE fireworks with The Statue of Liberty behind you.
We LOVE the subway system. Easy to use and fairly cheap.
It's far from a ****hole. My wife is from Jersey City, her father was from Hell's Kitchen, her mom from Bay Ridge Brooklyn. Lots of family in NJ/NYC. We've been visiting every few years since 1993. It's actually quite safe there. In all the 5 boroughs in 2017 they only recorded 300 or so homicides (pop 8+ million), Indy recorded 150+ (pop 800k). To each their own I suppose. People's dislike for big cities is understandable I suppose. Much like my dislike for small towns and rural areas. Not sure how people like that...
And the people there think they're better than everyone else because they live there.
I feel differently.