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I’ve caught more than a few New Yorkers deliberately say they are from “New York” when they are from Binghamton or Buffalo or something. They know it’s misleading. Sometimes they add the correction if the conversation heads down that path, sometimes they just go along. It seems to be more recent or younger transplants though. Older ones seem to go out of their way to say the “upstate” qualifier.
I've witnessed this exact thing.
They use the state "New York" in an obvious attempt at misdirection to invoke NYC.
The elephant in the room is race and white flight especially in the Eastern half of the U.S.. White flight suburbanites disliked what their cities turned into but also maintain an emotional link to the city's past, so they may claim the city in many ways except they will also talk smack about the city proper and how trashy it is etc. Many locals in the city - especially blacks - resent the fact that those folks left and try their utmost to live in a separate jurisdiction while still claiming the city as their own when it suits them. So there's almost a "it's our city now, suckers' element.
I mean if you look at a Red Sox game or any sports team really in Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, St.Louis, Baltimore etc. - what do the demographics in the crowd represent? That of the middle and upper classes in the wider metro area thanks to the ticket prices, which usually happens to be completely unrepresentative of the city itself of course. Some of the biggest Boston super fans are now likely people who were born, raised and live outside the city of Boston. The same likely applies to the other cities mentioned, too.
It's an issue that cuts both ways though because the history and legacy of the city does in many ways continue on in those suburban folks. It's just that the issues between that legacy and the other legacy have never been resolved.
White people in suburban areas feel cultural ownership over the city because for the majority of the time those cities were majority white. They just haven't been recently. They dont really know or valuesome of the minority cultures in the (majority-minority) cities. So its minimized and older and now suburban traditions are big upped.
Is especially acute in Boston because 1) there's a massive leap in white population in the 19-19 demographic compared dot the U18 demographic because of all the college students. Much mor pronounced than other cities (id have to link to a competitor site CD wouldn't allow but could provide numbers to prove that point. Boston one of the only cities where the 55-60 year old demographic is more diverse than the 20-25 demographics and 2) the blacks and latinos in Bostonare largely not the older established mega groups- Black Americans and Mexican Americans. THeyre a wide smattering of more recently arrived groups that don't have the same cultural connections and visibility as Black Americans and Mexican Americans do. So what comes to fill that figurative "void" is just more white culture. It's all about civic competition/cultural ownership.
Now while a lot of this is about race, a lot of this ISNT. It's really about culture and class. Many white people from these cities feel they grew up differently than their suburban counterparts because they did. Little neighborhood rivalries/idiosyncracies, places to hang out, rumors, attitudes, and stuff you're really not exposed to when you've never lived there, especially if you didn't grow up there.
In my opinion White people raised in cities tend to be more comfortable with diversity (even if their social circle is predominately white), more humble, and tend to have more middle and working-class backgrounds. Lastly, they are typically pretty sensitive of this themselves unless they're fully outside the city and in suburbanite social circle for an extended period of their life.
I don't know how any of this applies to the sunbelt where city development is pretty evenly suburban and diverse throughout the metro area. Or at least a lot more so than in the MidWest and Northeast...esepecially if we went back 20+ years..
If someone for example was to say I live in Frankfort, IL to someone that is not familiar with the Chicagoland area nobody would know where it is. So people conveniently say Chicago and if asked again they will say Chicago area or south suburbs. Anybody from a large metro area with way too many suburbs like Chicago is bound to say that.
I was once made sure not to identify with Chicago in a rude way from a resident of the city of Chicago. She asked me where I was from and I said Chicago. Then she said where then I told her NW Indiana suburbs and she went off when she heard Indiana. Never mind that the city of Chicago itself borders Indiana and I lived only 30 miles from the center of Chicago and even less from its southern city limits which is still less than many IL suburbs!
She made sure she had every claim of Chicago! Needless to say I can't politely say what I thought of her.
Last edited by WildWestDude; 08-29-2022 at 11:22 AM..
I’ve caught more than a few New Yorkers deliberately say they are from “New York” when they are from Binghamton or Buffalo or something. They know it’s misleading. Sometimes they add the correction if the conversation heads down that path, sometimes they just go along. It seems to be more recent or younger transplants though. Older ones seem to go out of their way to say the “upstate” qualifier.
To be honest, most people simply give the state they are from if from out of state. Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, California, etc. Boston and Pittsburgh are the big exceptions I can think of.
Another variation of this I've seen out here is-person lives 30 miles east and says "San Diego." If the conversation continues they have "Yeah, I was talking about the county" to fall back on.
Do people in far flung Houston suburbs say "Harris" or "Cook" outside of Chicago to describe where they live?
If someone for example was to say I live in Frankfort, IL to someone that is not familiar with the Chicagoland area nobody would know where it is. So people conveniently say Chicago and if asked again they will say Chicago area or south suburbs. Anybody from a large metro area with way too many suburbs like Chicago is bound to say that.
This is a lackluster argument. The woman is irritated because its tiresome. You can simply say south of chicago, near chicago, or illinois. I dont understand the "where it is" argument
I heard this a lot from people living in the LA metro area.
They'd live in Anaheim, or in the valley, and folks would ask where they live that didn't know them, and they'd always say "Oh, I live in LA." LOL
All the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DannFrankenstein
See that’s interesting to me as someone who hasn’t explored LA yet. I always got the feeling that LA residents might be more lax about these labels given the shape of LA’s unique city limits. I don’t think that’s gatekeeping, I just sensed that some of those areas might get a sort of casual, unofficial pass for LA
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Easy
I may have missed it being mentioned, but it's significant that Los Angeles is the name of a very large and populous county and not just a city which gives some justification to any of 10 million people claiming LA.
And my experience with OC residents is different than some previous posters. In my experience OC residents go out of their way to avoid claiming LA. I've been with them on the other side of the country when they try to explain where they are from without ever mentioning "LA" even when it's causing confusion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade
yea...
in my experience people from Southern California has always told me or other EXACTLY where they're from or at least the county "Tarzana" "Gardena" "Artesia" "Palmdale" "Ventura" "San Fernando Valley" "Echo Park" "East LA" "Watts" "Pasadena" "Anaheim" "Ladera Heights" "Pomona" "Reseda" "Riverside" "San Bernadino"
Dare I say it's RARE for me to hear someone just say LA?...
All of these are interesting to me as a lifelong (50+ year) resident of Orange County.
What most resonates with me is "going out of one's way to avoid claiming LA." I definitely do this. I never say I'm from Los Angeles. I don't feel personally connected to Los Angeles. If people haven't heard of my city, which happens often, I tell them I'm from south Orange County. If I'm in a situation where people are not familiar with that (rarely happens), I'll explain that I live between Los Angeles and San Diego. Even though technically I'm in the LA metro area and closer in terms of miles to the City of Los Angeles than the City of San Diego, it takes less time for me to get to the San Diego county line than the LA county line, so this is a pretty good geographic approximation.
I would personally be surprised to hear someone from Anaheim (or Huntington Beach, or Pasadena, etc.) saying that they live in LA. That would be a sign to me that they expected their listener was totally unfamiliar with Southern California, and they're being polite by not expecting any prior knowledge whatsoever.
Houston has been a big one for me. Meet a lot of people that lived in "Houston" just to find out that they lived in Spring, Katy, The woodlands, Pearland or closer to Galveston then Houston. For a spread out as Houston is I rarely meet anyone that actually lived/lives within the city boundary.
This is a lackluster argument. The woman is irritated because its tiresome. You can simply say south of chicago, near chicago, or illinois. I dont understand the "where it is" argument
Again, I disagree. The argument is as valid as it gets. People keep saying the same thing as I because it is on spot no matter what the author/OP or others might think or not. So, a repeated point only reinforces how many people agree with it. In an open forum you are bound to get that . If I or others chose to say Chicago alone, it is their right if they chose not to go into detail. Not being too specific does not nullify what you are saying. Some out of privacy alone might not want to say specifically where they live or a given vague answer might mean "why do you give a you know what where I live?"!
Last edited by WildWestDude; 08-29-2022 at 01:10 PM..
The elephant in the room is race and white flight especially in the Eastern half of the U.S.. White flight suburbanites disliked what their cities turned into but also maintain an emotional link to the city's past, so they may claim the city in many ways except they will also talk smack about the city proper and how trashy it is etc. Many locals in the city - especially blacks - resent the fact that those folks left and try their utmost to live in a separate jurisdiction while still claiming the city as their own when it suits them. So there's almost a "it's our city now, suckers' element.
I mean if you look at a Red Sox game or any sports team really in Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, St.Louis, Baltimore etc. - what do the demographics in the crowd represent? That of the middle and upper classes in the wider metro area thanks to the ticket prices, which usually happens to be completely unrepresentative of the city itself of course. Some of the biggest Boston super fans are now likely people who were born, raised and live outside the city of Boston. The same likely applies to the other cities mentioned, too.
It's an issue that cuts both ways though because the history and legacy of the city does in many ways continue on in those suburban folks. It's just that the issues between that legacy and the other legacy have never been resolved.
I just say Boston. I used to say Orlando when I lived there.
Nothing will change about that either. 99.99% get the drift and do the same. There are good cases on both sides of the argument.
Unfortunately, I do not give enough crap about this stupid debate lol
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