Don't know where you live, so not sure how bad your traffic is.
I live in a Minneapolis suburb (midsize metro ~3.5 million) and commute to downtown with a manual and its no big deal. Stop and go and all that, it's no big deal. In fact, I think a manual is better, you can leave it in 1st or 2nd and have almost instant power to get into another lane without having to mess with awkward paddle shifters.
I've driven manuals my whole life and find automatics boring, so traffic would have to be pretty bad, like LA or Manhattan traffic, for me to get an automatic.