Everyone agrees that the only reason to live in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx or Eastern New Jersey instead of Manhattan is that you actually have a better view of Manhattan from these places. While inside of Manhattan, you can see Manhattan closer up, but only a very narrow portion of it - the few buildings surrounding you. You get no overall sense of the city as a whole. Even worse, if you are at the edges of Manhattan, you actually have a clearer view of Brooklyn, Queens or New Jersey than you do of Manhattan! How depressing is it to walk up 1st Ave. and have your clearest view be of that lifeless CitiBank tower in Queens? Obviously this reality is what forces Manhattan-lovers outward to the grimy, joyless, impoverished boroughs.
My solution to this flight is a giant mirrored wall, as tall as the Empire State Building, encircling the coasts of Manhattan. This way, no matter where you are in Manhattan, all you'll ever be able to see is Manhattan. This will be especially clear from the top of large Manhattan buildings, which previously offered majestic views of... Brooklyn squalor. Another advantage of this wall is that the mirror will be on both sides, so that if you're not in Manhattan, you'll just see your own sorry Manhattan wannabe borough reflected back at you.
Everyone will come back to Manhattan at once.
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