Everyone look,

Even though it might say liberty city on the boat at the end, this is NYC.  I live in manhattan.  Rockstar has it all in there.  Statue of Liberty, Coney Island roller coaster, Metlife building, Time Square, Manhattan bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, south street seaport.  Its all there.  And to say that NYC would be too small of a place to model, i think you are wrong.  If Rockstar actually modeled the entire city (manhattan, queens, brookyn, bronx and staten island), it would be a huge game world to explore. 

 Definetly, not an orginal or new city choice by rockstar, but it should still be a lot of fun.