I'll preface this with the fact that I love Berlin. I'm a US citizen that has German permanent residence and has been in Germany for 10 years and Berlin for 5.

I'll preface this with the fact that I love Berlin. I'm a US citizen that has German permanent residence and has been in Germany for 10 years and Berlin for 5. But this post is full of fawning: 1) Incredibly cheap cost of living for a European capital This is true. Berlin is freakishly cheap. 2) Berlin has an amazing startup culture No, it doesn't. It's trending positive, but at present Berlin has a mediocre startup culture. It's not even in the same league as the valley and also behind NYC, Boston, London and Tel Aviv (and possibly a few more). Pop quiz: Can you name 5 large Berlin exits? 5 Berlin angel investors that do more than a couple deals a year? 5 VC firms with offices in Berlin? I can't do any of those off the top of my head. I can actually answer those for several of the mentioned cities that I don't even live in. (Note: I'm not saying that there aren't answers for those that I could find with research, but it should give some sense for the relative magnitudes.) 3) Incredible music scene and nightlife Also true. Though the clubs listed there are kind of the touriste deluxe. What makes Berlin is the grimy underground places. Also, it's great for some genres, terrible for some (i.e. jazz in Berlin is pretty lame). What's more important and not mentioned is that Berlin is probably the best city to be in for the arts in general right now in the West. The nightlife is just one outgrowth of that. 4) Beautiful nature, lakes, canals, and parks Sorry, but Berlin is a pretty ugly city. If you want pretty, go to Prague. London and Paris are also a lot prettier than Berlin. In fact, I could list another dozen cities that are. Also, I know of several cities that claim the "most canals" thing (Hamburg among them). At any rate, does anyone really care how many canals there are? While you can find some pretty spots in Berlin, if this is high on your list of reasons to move to a city, Berlin doesn't score well. 5) The awesome history, abandoned buildings, and street art (and relaxed police) The anecdote about the police there is ... well, I can say that the author hasn't been at many parties shut down by the police. The usual modus operandi is 2-3 police tell the organizers that they've got half an hour to shut things down or else they're coming back with a bunch of police. They're generally pretty chilled out, except when they're not. In rare cases, usually inexplicably, the riot police get called in and let's just say they're not known for their friendliness. The abandoned buildings are in large part due to the fact that both people and industry left the city when it was divided. Berlin's peak population was about half a million more than it has now. 6) Berlin’s central location makes it easy to travel around Europe No, it doesn't. Prague or Warsaw, maybe. But it's quite a ways from the usual tourist fare in western Europe. 7) The amazing, delicious döner kebabs Bleh. They seem neat because they're new. Let's talk again when you've downed your first 100 of them. They're just junky fast-food. I usually can't finish one anymore without getting nauseous. Other misnomers from comments: • Everyone speaks English in Berlin No, they don't. In fact, I'd be surprised if half do. People over 35 from the east, people without a college education, blue collar workers, etc. usually don't. And quite a few educated folks don't either. • The cheap parts of Berlin are the old communist parts Also false. Neukölln is the currently trendy spot, and Kreuzberg was before it. Both are in the former west Berlin. Before that Friedrichshain and Prenzlauerberg were the in spots and they were both in the east.