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Hello all,
I have noticed from living all over the US that there are certain cities that if you voice your dislike of it the majority of people who live there will get overly offended and get very defensive. I know there are people like this in every city and town but it seems that in some cities there is a lot of overkill on the residents getting very defensive about their city/town. When I lived in Portland, Oregon it was like this. It was as if I had pissed on someone's mothers grave if I ever said anything bad about Portland. A lot of the people I worked with in general would seem totally alarmed that I didn't think Portland was the greatest city on earth. I also noticed this about Fairbanks, Alaska and Lexington, Kentucky when I was living in both of them. When I lived in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Tampa, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Miami it seemed like it was ok to either love the city or hate it. People in Austin, Tx seemed to get really defensive as well as Columbia, Missouri. So what towns have you all lived in that people seemed to get overly defensive about if you offered any criticisms?
Hello all,
I have noticed from living all over the US that there are certain cities that if you voice your dislike of it the majority of people who live there will get overly offended and get very defensive. I know there are people like this in every city and town but it seems that in some cities there is a lot of overkill on the residents getting very defensive about their city/town. When I lived in Portland, Oregon it was like this. It was as if I had pissed on someone's mothers grave if I ever said anything bad about Portland. A lot of the people I worked with in general would seem totally alarmed that I didn't think Portland was the greatest city on earth. I also noticed this about Fairbanks, Alaska and Lexington, Kentucky when I was living in both of them. When I lived in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Tampa, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Miami it seemed like it was ok to either love the city or hate it. People in Austin, Tx seemed to get really defensive as well as Columbia, Missouri. So what towns have you all lived in that people seemed to get overly defensive about if you offered any criticisms?
Boy, you have lived in a lot of different cities all over the nation. Were you in the military? Anyway I have only lived in metro Los Angeles and so I have nothing to compare it to. People here seem unaffected by criticism or emotional boosterism. Kind of a blase attitude.
On CD people seem to be more offense than defense. You say anything that could be taken as positive about a city in Florida, or a city with low population density, people will often get at you. I've never even been to Florida, or even have much interest in going, but whenever I've said anything like "there's that town in Florida that sounds like it has what you want" it usually gets some hostility.
Still I'd say NYC has a reputation, somewhat earned I think, of being real boosters about their town when they're in a mixed group and defensive too. Although I've heard that within NYC, when they're not dealing with people from elsewhere, they're much more critical of their own city. Knoxville, Tennessee seems to be pretty proud of their city, but I'm not sure if they're that defensive.
If being non-transient is a factor maybe Scranton would be defensive as they look to mostly have an in-state population. I know Scranton's traditionally been the butt of jokes, although "The Office" seems to have improved its image in an odd way, and some of their people here seem to defend it a fair amount. I don't know if they're defensive in the "criticize it and I will become indignant" kind of way though. Of larger cities Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; New Orleans, Louisiana; Toledo, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania look to be mostly in-state populations. Not sure if any of those have a rep of defensiveness, but I do seem to recall Corpus Christi people often are annoyed it's not a better known city and New Orleanians seem to have a good deal of pride considering it's like a corrupt murder capital.
ATL, NJ, TX, CA, and PHX (in that order)
Florida gets a lot of offense (It's either there's not enough people, or that there's not enough "natives" to defend it)- I have no problem giving it credit.
The biggest offenders come from the biggest places. (on this site)... speaking of big places , NYC should be the last place one should actually have to "boost"- But they seem to have the biggest boosters on here.
ATL, NJ, TX, CA, and PHX (in that order)
Florida gets a lot of offense (It's either there's not enough people, or that there's not enough "natives" to defend it)- I have no problem giving it credit.
The biggest offenders come from the biggest places. (on this site)... speaking of big places , NYC should be the last place one should actually have to "boost"- But they seem to have the biggest boosters on here.
I think in my own experience, New Yorkers seem the most defensive which is strange and so unnecessary. When I made comments about the devastation of parts of the Bronx & Brooklyn some NY posters went absolutely berserk and did everything to discredit me including my tastes in music and women I never expected that and it has made me wonder why New Yorkers have such thin skins when they in-fact should be very proud and self-confident of their city
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Portland and Seattle people get very defensive. Here in Boston I feel we are able to make fun of our selves, as much as we love it here, we are open to point out it's faults and shortcomings, natives and transplants alike. Of course there are exceptions (especially when it comes to sports), but as a rule we can openly complain about the weather or how bad the roads are here and you'll find many nods of agreement and many will simply laugh about a lot of our shortcomings.
However in Portland and Seattle, if you openly express that you haven't seen the sun in weeks and you are tired of the gloomy skies they will praciticly give you a formal invitation to relocate to California. I must agree with a previous poster that people in the Pacific NW get bent out of shape if one states anything is less than perfect there.
Then of course there is that "Don't mess with Texas" mantra. I'm not even gonna go there but needless to say it's not a good idea to point out anything less than perfect about Texas. Funny thing is though people in Austin love to smack talk Dallas or Houston and the feeling seems mutual in return. They are like a big nutty family... we will say what we want about our siblings, but say something bad about our family and heads are gonna roll!
1. New York City
2. New York City
3. New York City
4. New York City
5. New York City
You can post something as straight-foward and obvious as "Arizona has great desert scenery which you can't find in New York" and all of a sudden, a NYer will chime in and try to make it seem like a sandbox in Central Park compares to the deserts of the Southwest, or a local hill in Staten Island has the Rockies beat.
I think in my own experience, New Yorkers seem the most defensive which is strange and so unnecessary. When I made comments about the devastation of parts of the Bronx & Brooklyn some NY posters went absolutely berserk and did everything to discredit me including my tastes in music and women I never expected that and it has made me wonder why New Yorkers have such thin skins when they in-fact should be very proud and self-confident of their city
I think the main thread that made me think of NYC is the following.
Most attempts to answer the question caused some New Yorkers to get irritated. In fairness part of that is because many of the attempted answers were insulting or wrong, but others seemed sensible or understandable yet still got some annoyance. (There looks to have been a debate about a Waffle House, that NYC doesn't need one so it was wrong to list it or something, and some correcting of the mistaken impression NYC has no Palm Trees) My answers I don't think annoyed New Yorkers, or I'm finding little annoyance about them, because they were sourced or neutral. A few even received compliments as interesting. (Non-judgmentally telling people their city lacks a church that does liturgy in Norwegian is so "random" it's not usually deemed an insult. Maybe not even if a Norwegian Lutheran had said it.) There was defense against my idea that NYC had no church built before the Protestant Reformation and that it lacked a fjord. (I did not think any city in North America had both things, well maybe something in Quebec or Greenland) In that case though I was mostly impressed by the evidence that NYC does have a fjord and a church built before the Protestant Reformation. (Although both cases were stretching it a little) Considering the Reformation happened in the early sixteenth century I didn't think that one would even be possible and I had it with a list that included
Ancient Roman ruins - I'm not sure any US city has that, but maybe someone disassembled and reassembled such a thing somewhere.
T'ang Dynasty pagodas - I'm pretty confident no US city has this or at least if I was thinking of one that did have it I've forgotten it already.
A Zoroastrian fire temple - This depends on definitions, but mostly they're rare outside of India, Iran, and Zanzibar.
Icelandic food - I have found a restaurant in NYC named "Iceland" but it looks to be a generalized Scandinavian place. Interestingly I don't think any New Yorker mentioned it.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 12-11-2010 at 04:46 AM..
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, NYC should be the last place one should actually have to "boost"- But they seem to have the biggest boosters on here.
I never expected that and it has made me wonder why New Yorkers have such thin skins when they in-fact should be very proud and self-confident of their city 
