From the perspective of being out of town, we see being from the New York area includes having many Jewish amenities, like chessed organizations, Yeshivot, kosher restaurants and food Stores, sefarim stores, and Jewish clothing stores.
on the other hand we see living in the New York metropolitan area as being intense: lots of traffic, lots of rude people. We often see the people, while being outwardly religious, also appear to be materialistic. Furthermore there seems to be an attitude of showing off religiosity. In smaller communities every child is welcomed to the school(s). We often read about how kids are left out in larger Jewish communities because they are good kids but not great kids. And the school wants the reputation of being great.
speaking of schools, I was the treasurer of my kids Day School. When people apply for scholarships, they were generally pretty accurate with their financial situation. No one claims poverty while driving a brand new luxury car. I heard of the New York area it’s not that way. And the schools are much more invasive and what they ask when it comes to a family’s financial situation. To put it simply, it seems like there’s more straightforwardness (yashrut) out of town.