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I was, born and raised and went to school through 1st grade (my sister through 4th grade)....Minneapolis. Was not rich either, so rich neighborhoods and private schooling weren't involved.
Rofl I lived in the city my whole life. Born in Brooklyn, lived in Philly, back in Brooklyn. The suburban upper middle class kids aren't really "natural" urbanites but if they are in the city a lot and enjoy it, than that can make an argument. Most suburban kids have no street smarts. To tell the truth, if you don't have street smarts and you live in the city than you haven't lived in the city all your life. Having street smarts is like seeing the tip of an iceberg. Yes it can save your life but its so much more than that. Typical urbanites with streets smarts usually know how to present themselves, hustle well in bad situations without mommy and daddy, where to eat, the best way to save money, what places to avoid, who to avoid, how to find there way around, relax in simple situations, have common sense, and much more. If I took one of these 19y/o so called hipster urbanites from CD and dropped them in the middle North Philly, they'd probably couldn't even understand how a bus work, would most likely look at someone wrong, and probably crap themselves. So no, I don't consider them natural urbanites but moreso as transplants just learning urban environments.
Who needs street smarts when you're packing heat? Even urbanites can't survive their own streets. That's why North Philly has the homicide rate that it does. But down here, down here in the South and in the sunbelt, the lines between "urban" and "suburban" are a little more blurred. Someone from up North wouldn't survive in a sunbelt environment. They wouldn't be able to tell the diffirence between the hood, and an inner-ring burb.
Did you ever stop and think of all the suburbs that are actually "harder" than their city counterparts? I think you are seeing things as being way too black and white (a common occurrence on this site).
I'm not sure what you would call the city I am from, it is suburban in design (i.e. 90 percent SFH and strip malls) but fairly large (150k+) and the largest / central city in its metro. While it is looks like a suburb from first glance, it is not what I'd call a typical suburb either. Very high crime rate, terrible school system, high rate of illegal immigration / teen pregnancy, I took the bus a lot as a kid and in high school to get to my fast-food job across town (and tried to walk as much as possible in a totally car-centric city) - honestly taking the bus in a suburban city is 10x more difficult than an urban city with good, frequent bus routes.
Remember, Compton is a suburb. So is Palmdale. Not all suburbs are built the same.
Yeah, in the sunbelt, the burbs and urban areas are blured. What if one grew up in Miami Gardens or Carol City or Opa-Locka? Those towns are more violent than any inner-city up North.
Did you ever stop and think of all the suburbs that are actually "harder" than their city counterparts? I think you are seeing things as being way too black and white (a common occurrence on this site).
I'm not sure what you would call the city I am from, it is suburban in design (i.e. 90 percent SFH and strip malls) but fairly large (150k+) and the largest / central city in its metro. While it is looks like a suburb from first glance, it is not what I'd call a typical suburb either. Very high crime rate, terrible school system, high rate of illegal immigration / teen pregnancy, I took the bus a lot as a kid and in high school to get to my fast-food job across town (and tried to walk as much as possible in a totally car-centric city) - honestly taking the bus in a suburban city is 10x more difficult than an urban city with good, frequent bus routes.
Remember, Compton is a suburb. So is Palmdale. Not all suburbs are built the same.
Maybe in the Northeast but not in California and the rest of the West Coast (and sounds like SoFla).
There are tons of burbs in LA like Downey, Inglewood, Carson, Gardena, Bellflower, Paramount that are much dangerous than the very urban (and moderately high crime) neighborhood I currently live in. Orange County is usually pictured as being a pleasant, quite suburb but quite a few cities within it are not exactly white picket fences and greeting the milkman at the door - Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley. Don't even get me started on the "suburban" Inland Empire. San Bernardino is basically a war-zone at this time, picking up where South Central left off in the 90s.
Then you have suburban appearing cities that are very far from any major cities in which the populace is low income but is at an even greater disadvantage than traditional urban residents because the PT is weak, social services have little to offer or are non-existent, you are nowhere near big-city public institutions, the list goes on. These are cities like Lancaster, Palmdale, Santa Maria, Salinas, Lompoc, Merced, Modesto, Vallejo, Antioch (the last four are basically the IE of the Bay Area) - these are cities of greater than 100k and are basically just isolated working-class cities. You see them on the East Coast too, I am familiar with MA and Lowell, Fall River and New Bedford strike me as the same sort of city.
So yeah, you're not so tough just because you grew up in the city, and not everyone that grew up outside the inner city is "soft".
Born and raised in Chicago. Started out in the inner city and moved slightly to the North Side. Then moved to the city of Portland in my 30's. That's why it amazes me that people are talking about "walk scores" and neighborhood conveniences with the milkman delivering dairy products, the veggie guy selling veggies from his cart sometimes drawn by a horse, and odds and ends guy selling everything.
The junk wagon guy recycled everything from scrap metal to old clothes. We recycled before it became fashonable.
Once upon a time city neigbhorhoods had a little shop on every corner with anything you needed within walking distance because few people had cars and few people had a whole lot of money. It cost little to live in them. That was being born and growing up in the city. At least in the olden days.
I understand street smarts. Its knowing how to take the bus, subway and El when you are 11. Actually I was sneaking onto streetcars when I was 7 with my friends but my mom didn't know that. Or walking the neigbhorhood with your friends looking for empty pop bottles to turn in for pennies. Or knowing how to walk fast through a park or dark street if you find yourself out after dark and you didn't mean to. Or maybe even bargaining a bit with Vera, the lady who owned Vera's Candy Store for maybe one extra little piece for your little sister when you didn't have a little sister (eventually though I did).
I hate to sound snotty, but hey its the internet.
How many of you adults here ,who consider yourselves hip because you live in a city, where actually born and raised in a city? Because in my opinion, any SUV driving suburbanite could move to the city and consider themselves an "urbanite."
Thoughts?
I was born and raised in a big city and I mean one of the biggest in the U.S. but why does your question matter AT ALL? where someone is born doesnt mean they can't grow up and move to NYC, LA or Miami and LOVE it...and become a cosmopolitan type person in fact a lot of hollywood stars come from small towns in the midwest and they all love the city
I was born in Kansas City proper. While not a huge city, it's metro enough. I've basically never lived outside of a city.
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