Eh, I'm a UWS person, I feel a larger sense of community up there, plus killer bodegas.

Soho just felt like try hards (no offense to you if that's where you were, just anecdotal from my personal experiences), I just didn't have fun going out / spending time at all in lower Manhattan. Once you get close enough to NYU it becomes an even larger shit show.

Also one of the biggest things for me was noise level, UWS is surprisingly quiet at night (away from avenues). Even during peak corona, noise from emergency services etc. were at a minimum.

But that's just my personal opinion.

If I'm able to get a 5+ story (ideally 10+ stories), convert the upper 2-3 floors into a penthouse and rent out the rest whenever shit ends up clearing up. But these are all grand day dream plans lol