From what I've seen, it seems as though manhattan is an extremely transient city, people come for a few years to get the "i lived in new york in my crazy twenties" experience, and then leave, back to their hometowns or home-countries.

Second, around the age of 30, there is a huge migration towards the suburbs for those people who can't afford larger apartments or private school. Or simply want raise their children in the suburbs

Thus my question is, do people who stay in manhattan just develop a whole new group of "wealthy" friends who can also afford to spend the second half of their lives in the city...(Even many of my wealthy friends are moving to greenwich, and other nice suburbs in nj/ct.) And visiting friends in the suburbs doesn't realistically happen that often, especially since people in the suburbs start hanging out with other people in the suburbs.(not to mention i don't want to spend my weekends in the suburbs, when it is the only time of the week I'm not working, and can enjoy the city.)

Who stays in the city after marriage/kids, haha...do people go through the whole process of developing a whole new network of new yorkers who are here for the long run?? Oddly, i'm starting to feel "left out" as all my friends are now transitioning to the suburbs, back to their "normal" pre-nyc upbringings, manhattan has suddenly become a very lonely place.