Pros: Mostly quiet, good food, cheap, I have a backyard, I know my neighbors. Manhattan is ~25-30 minutes by subway, my friends are ~10 minutes by bike, the good bar/nightclub area is ~15-25 minutes by foot.
Cons: I'm dependent on one okay subway line and one pretty bad one, and I'm a 10-12 minute walk from either in opposite directions. My landlord doesn't like to fix things. People like to ignore driving laws in my neighborhood and paper plates are common (by far the most common crimes, by several orders of magnitude).
I've lived in NYC my whole life, and I'm happy to share any experiences you might find helpful. My email's in my profile!
Edit: My subway lines are okay/bad in terms of reliability, not crime or cleanliness. They're average on the latter.