What does it take to "become a local" in your city? (transplants, buy)
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A few different questions: How long does someone have to live in your city to be considered a local by natives? How long does it take to feel like a local yourself? What does someone have to know or do?
Jacksonville is a fairly transient small city so I think it's easy to be accepted quickly. You can probably feel like and be accepted as a local (assuming you want to be) by the end of your first year here. Because of the sheer size, it would take longer to be really familiar with all the very disparate parts of town, but to have a working knowledge of the area and be comfortable getting around town it wouldn't take very long. As for the ease of making friends, it's pretty average. Easy for some, harder for others. The general population can be quite friendly, but the social circles are a little more closed off.
as a New Yorker moving to Huntington Beach 20+ years ago, I quickly made friends with a group of local surfers (I don't surf). I was accepted as a local (in what is known as a very territorial surf city) very quickly.
I've been in Charlotte for three years....Feels like I'm more of a local when I start running into people where ever I go. Mall, gym, restaurants versus when I first came here.
Being born here. Even my kids who were born here are only 2 and 4 and I wonder if some people still view them as outsiders because my husband and I are transplants.
I think that goes for almost every city in Montana except maybe Missoula.
Kalispell is a weird one. It seems you're more "local" or at least more common to be from California in Kalispell than to actually be a native. Oh, and Big Sky. No Montanan is actually from Big Sky, MT.
If that is so important to you, you could always lie about where you were from.
Getting accepted and included really has nothing to do with being considered a local.
Around here, you are a local if you were born here. If you were born elsewhere, you will always be an incomer. That doesn't mean you can't have friends and be included in group activities or be invited for coffee at the neighbor's
DC natives will probably disagree with this, but for your typical transient DCer, to be a local you need to (1) buy a SmarTrip card, (2) not block the escalators, and (3) Complain about WMATA. Maybe that's an oversimplification.
Been here 12 years, but all I get is "where are you from? Oh, Iowa". Apparently you need Chicago to run through your blood and family lines before you're a true local, although the funny thing is I seem to know more about the city/history/directions/politics than many of my "local" friends who's parents all ran from the city in the 60's and 70's and they spent the next few decades ignoring it until it suddenly became hot again during the late 90's.
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