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I've lived in Longview from childhood to adulthood and I've never heard any sentiments like that. Maybe that's a generational thing but as a millennial and having grown up closely with Generation X we generally never viewed Tyler in any negative light.
If anything at times when Tyler people would visit Longview rather for a football game or transferring to a school you would get condescending attitudes from Tyler natives. Like if you come to Longview we don't need to hear how Tyler mall or schools are so much better than Longview. I've encountered these attitudes from Tyler people every now and then while growing up. That included Adults as well. Somewhat of a snobbish attitude. Or I would hear a few negative generalizations about Longview people when crime in Longview is mentioned. But most Tyler people seem to be respectful when it comes to Longview.
But for the most part it's generally respect and compliments about Tyler from Longview people. At least my generation. We generally praise Tyler on having certain amenities that Longview doesn't have or being pretty. Hell, Longview people who decide not to move out of East Texas but want something a little bigger usually always end up moving to Tyler so generally there's no negativity or rivalry from most people I grew up with.
So generally there's no rivalry with Longview and Tyler. Longview only has one true rivalry and that is with Marshall. That's a for real rivalry that span over a 100 years. Beyond high school football btw.
Well, all I can tell you is that everything I relayed really happened, and not that long ago.
But you did go on and give actual real life examples of exactly what I was talking about - except in reverse - so apparently there IS some "city rivalry" between the two cities.
But it was like these business leaders EXPECTED me to be "snobbish" "because I was from Tyler." (And I'm not even FROM Tyler, but I digress.) They seemed defensive - and I wasn't even feeling negative about moving to Longview. After a few years in Longview though, I began to really, really miss Tyler, so I'm glad to be back.
Interesting little fact - when my husband moved to Tyler (and I moved back) - he's from the Longview area - he told me "All my life I wanted to move to Tyler." That was sort of surprising to me. I mean, I LIKE Tyler but it's not like it's some utopia. And being a former military brat and wife, I sort of have this attitude - "If you want to live somewhere, move there."
And by the way, I was caught completely off guard by the vibe in Longview about Tyler. I thought Longview was a pretty town with a MUCH better traffic flow than Tyler. I felt positive about moving there, and just didn't expect any issues. I've moved all over the country - really the world - and never had any sort of issue "fitting in," or whatever. I was never criticized or judged by where I had "come from." But then, I'm a former military brat and spouse, so maybe I had been lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to expectations from communities, and diverse backgrounds, etc. Like I said, I am not even FROM Tyler. When I moved to Longview, I had only been living in Tyler for about 10 years - of my 40 something years on this planet. And yet - I was "from Tyler" and the animosity was pretty clear to me. And surprising.
The thing is, I was very active in the business world in Tyler - and lots of companies in East Texas have locations in both Longview and Tyler. So many, many business people spend time in both markets even though they may live in one or the other. I literally never heard negativity from business people about "going to Longview" or "spending the day in Longview," or "going to chamber stuff in Longview." It was simply a non issue. But when I moved into that market, and started doing business in that market, and got involved with chamber of commerce stuff in that market, I can't tell you how many times someone said to me, "Oh, you're from TYLER." Or worse, "We don't do things around here like they do in TYLER." OK. I wasn't expecting that but whatever floats your boat.
I am assuming that some people who were involved in the Tyler area chamber of commerce and other business groups lived in the Longview area - but no one ever pointed that out to me, so how would I know? But it was pointed out repeatedly when I lived in Longview.
And by the way, I was caught completely off guard by the vibe in Longview about Tyler. I thought Longview was a pretty town with a MUCH better traffic flow than Tyler. I felt positive about moving there, and just didn't expect any issues. I've moved all over the country - really the world - and never had any sort of issue "fitting in," or whatever. I was never criticized or judged by where I had "come from." But then, I'm a former military brat and spouse, so maybe I had been lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to expectations from communities, and diverse backgrounds, etc. Like I said, I am not even FROM Tyler. When I moved to Longview, I had only been living in Tyler for about 10 years - of my 40 something years on this planet. And yet - I was "from Tyler" and the animosity was pretty clear to me. And surprising.
The thing is, I was very active in the business world in Tyler - and lots of companies in East Texas have locations in both Longview and Tyler. So many, many business people spend time in both markets even though they may live in one or the other. I literally never heard negativity from business people about "going to Longview" or "spending the day in Longview," or "going to chamber stuff in Longview." It was simply a non issue. But when I moved into that market, and started doing business in that market, and got involved with chamber of commerce stuff in that market, I can't tell you how many times someone said to me, "Oh, you're from TYLER." Or worse, "We don't do things around here like they do in TYLER." OK. I wasn't expecting that but whatever floats your boat.
I am assuming that some people who were involved in the Tyler area chamber of commerce and other business groups lived in the Longview area - but no one ever pointed that out to me, so how would I know? But it was pointed out repeatedly when I lived in Longview.
I think it's obvious me and you are coming from 2 different "worlds" when it comes to the Longview/Tyler dynamic. I'm assuming since you've brought up the business side of things several times in this thread that you could be speaking more so about the business communities of Tyler and Longview and their relationship to one another more so than the regular citizens.
With that said, if your speaking on a business and even local government level I can see where your coming from. A lot of older Longview residents/natives have a old East Texas mentality that's heavily centered around Conservative Evangelical "VALUES". Those specific people tend to hold on to dear life of those "values" and sometimes can be off setting to transplants or even long time residents with opposite ideas of doing business or governing the city. But that's generally in my experiences the older generation. Trust me it's a rift between my generation and older ones in how to move the city forward.
There are even people around my age in business that look towards Tyler for examples on how to bring amenities and make improvements to the city. Because Tyler is a much more accessible city to draw from than a larger metro like Dallas in many of the younger Longview crowds.
But back to my initial point of the non business people of Longview, there really is no rivalry between Tyler beyond HS football(and that's not even a thing now since Lobos have been pretty dominant for quite some time now). It's general respect. But if Longview people seem defensive when it comes to Tyler or those who favor Tyler it's simply because of the pretentious attitudes we've gotten from a select class of Tyler residents.
I mean I can go on a KETK news page or FB page and see an article about a shooting in Longview and you'll see a couple of comments from Tyler residents just generalizing the entire city of Longview and the people in a negative light.
I think it's obvious me and you are coming from 2 different "worlds" when it comes to the Longview/Tyler dynamic. I'm assuming since you've brought up the business side of things several times in this thread that you could be speaking more so about the business communities of Tyler and Longview and their relationship to one another more so than the regular citizens.
With that said, if your speaking on a business and even local government level I can see where your coming from. A lot of older Longview residents/natives have a old East Texas mentality that's heavily centered around Conservative Evangelical "VALUES". Those specific people tend to hold on to dear life of those "values" and sometimes can be off setting to transplants or even long time residents with opposite ideas of doing business or governing the city. But that's generally in my experiences the older generation. Trust me it's a rift between my generation and older ones in how to move the city forward.
There are even people around my age in business that look towards Tyler for examples on how to bring amenities and make improvements to the city. Because Tyler is a much more accessible city to draw from than a larger metro like Dallas in many of the younger Longview crowds.
But back to my initial point of the non business people of Longview, there really is no rivalry between Tyler beyond HS football(and that's not even a thing now since Lobos have been pretty dominant for quite some time now). It's general respect. But if Longview people seem defensive when it comes to Tyler or those who favor Tyler it's simply because of the pretentious attitudes we've gotten from a select class of Tyler residents.
I mean I can go on a KETK news page or FB page and see an article about a shooting in Longview and you'll see a couple of comments from Tyler residents just generalizing the entire city of Longview and the people in a negative light.
I'll take your word for it when it comes to your personal experiences, but I do think that a rivalry exists.
City rivalries really only exist in the minds of a small portion of the population.
Exactly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92
Most cities in Texas have a one-sided rivalry with Dallas
My favourite is Houston because of all the places to hate on, it seems silly to pick the place that is most like yourself. No two large metros in the US are more similar to each other than Dallas and Houston.
The Dallas and Houston rivalry is like a lot of those university rivalries where two large public schools that are more similar than dissimilar have some rivalry based on something I do not understand. Examples of this would be Florida/Florida State, Arizona/Arizona State, and many others.
Besides the Dallas/Houston rivalry what others in the state are there?
I lived in Houston for 30 years, no one I hung out with or worked or went to church with considered Dallas a rival. We never discussed Dallas, if someone went to Dallas for a trip or something, no one commented on it any different than visiting any city. My experience here was the opposite. Most who knew I moved here from Houston, almost all said I bet you were glad to get out of there. When I said we liked living there but are happy here too, Id hear but the humidity or blue collar etc. In Houston, local weather always showed Dallas temp on the weather map. Here it is more hit and miss to see or hear Houston temp unless they are getting flooded of course lol.
I'll take your word for it when it comes to your personal experiences, but I do think that a rivalry exists.
Like Trainwreck20 said it only exist in the minds of a small portion of the population.
Growing up in Longview, I rarely heard any negative comments about Tyler. More praises than negativity or sneer remarks.
Longview-Marshall is a very different animal. My parents are from Marshall and even though my Mom supported the Lobos because her children were Lobos my Dad never really did. And it goes beyond HS football. But Marshall is Longview's true real rivalry. The little tense moments between Longview and Tyler pale in comparison to that.
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