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No one knows where Victorville is haha. Unless you always drive between SoCal and vegas.
I also just fill them in like a TV infomercial.
They'll either stay and listen, or tell me to "shut-up already, prof!!"
However, we still have plenty of people moving up here thinking it's small, small compared to whichever part of "down-the-hill" they came up from.
On another note, I have heard kids from OC and other "clean" areas try to claim LA-proper for added street-cred.
But, with the large concentration of hipsterdom and "urban-chic" becoming prevalent in that area and surrounding ones, tis a wasted effort.
honestly I think it's weird when people say they're from a city that they're not from. Yea sure alot of people may not know where your hometown is if you're not in the region but how hard is to say "just outside chicago" or simply "illinois". If you're not from chicago then why would you say you are? There are so many ways to easily and succintcly tell someone where you're from without being misleading. That being said it doesn't bother me if people from the philly suburbs go places and say they're from philly. I don't understand it and I think it's weird but it's a pretty dumb thing to be offended about. If you're out of town and that's how you want to present yourself than fine.
totally diff story tho if you're in your home region. I once had a friend who claimed to be from philly A couple of yrs later I find out he's from havertown. I asked why he said he was from philly and he tells me no one knows where havertown is. Maybe not in california but I grew up ten min away in west philly. How could he think I didn't know where havortown is. At very least he could of said delco. As far as i'm concerned that's just lying.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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I met a chic in Vegas, from Illinois, and she told me "I'm from Chicago" so I told her where i was from Maryland (not claiming DC) she looked at me funny like Maryland? I said yes Maryland with a straight face...Come to find out later she's from some Chicago suburb 30 mins north of the city but claiming the Chi, I lost all respect at that point. Maybe next time i'll just say im from the DMV area, then i'll get even funnier looks, but i dont have to claim DC since i dont live in the city limits.
It depends. I'm from North Jersey, and I know a good amount of Jersey City and Newark people that just say "I'm from Jersey City." "I'm from Newark." But I know a lot of small towns west of Jersey City and Newark etc. are all classified as New York City suburbs.
I am not sure why this is such a big deal to some people. Suburbs usually exist because of the central city around which they are built. Cities in the Northeast Corridor are an exception to this rule, but suburbs of other cites generally are there because of the central city. Someone who grows up in a suburb of Chicago, even if their daily lives do not take them into the heart of the city, is likely a fan of the Chicago area teams, follows the city politics, benefits from the city's features, and generally views the area as a whole as home.
I would say that people who live in the city proper of any area and get offended when suburbanites claim to be from that city need to get a life. There are more important things in life.
Yeah I didn't realize this bothered people until this thread and to that I say 'deal with it'. It's context-sensitive. I live far from a significant metro area so when I was in Europe I just told people I lived 'closer to Chicago' even though I am about 3 hours away, its not like they would know (and I don't expect them to) so I just make it simpler for everyone involved.
What is sad is that I still have to do that in the US National boundaries because people know fk-all about geography and cities in their own country (let alone others) so I often have to say that same phrase. When it is regional (which I define as the entire midwest) I usually just say Peoria, IL.
There's nothing wrong with this per se. I'm just curious about the areas whose suburban residents claim the city proper rather than the specific suburb they actually live in.
Could someone from Renton, Washington claim Seattle? Or would Seattle residents take umbrage with that?
Could someone from Jersey City claim the Big Apple? It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area and it's closer to Manhattan than Staten Island.
How about someone from Silver Spring, Maryland? Or Aurora, IL? Can they claim DC and Chicago, respectively?
I personally would just say, "I live in the Austin area." Problem solved.
honestly I think it's weird when people say they're from a city that they're not from. Yea sure alot of people may not know where your hometown is if you're not in the region but how hard is to say "just outside chicago" or simply "illinois". If you're not from chicago then why would you say you are? There are so many ways to easily and succintcly tell someone where you're from without being misleading. That being said it doesn't bother me if people from the philly suburbs go places and say they're from philly. I don't understand it and I think it's weird but it's a pretty dumb thing to be offended about. If you're out of town and that's how you want to present yourself than fine.
totally diff story tho if you're in your home region. I once had a friend who claimed to be from philly A couple of yrs later I find out he's from havertown. I asked why he said he was from philly and he tells me no one knows where havertown is. Maybe not in california but I grew up ten min away in west philly. How could he think I didn't know where havortown is. At very least he could of said delco. As far as i'm concerned that's just lying.
True. In SEPA, I would never claim to be from Philly(although i'm originally from west Philly). I spent most of my formative years in the burbs. If I'm in MontCo or uptown Philly, I say the specific burb since they probably know of it. If I'm in a different county or the otherside of Philly I just say I'm from MontCo. If I'm out of state I say I'm from PA. If they want me to get more specific I say I'm from outside of Philly, or suburban Philly.
It rarely ever comes up though, since I only deal with people who are from where I'm from.
Yeah I didn't realize this bothered people until this thread and to that I say 'deal with it'. It's context-sensitive. I live far from a significant metro area so when I was in Europe I just told people I lived 'closer to Chicago' even though I am about 3 hours away, its not like they would know (and I don't expect them to) so I just make it simpler for everyone involved.
What is sad is that I still have to do that in the US National boundaries because people know fk-all about geography and cities in their own country (let alone others) so I often have to say that same phrase. When it is regional (which I define as the entire midwest) I usually just say Peoria, IL.
You seem to argue that it's okay to say you're from the closest city to where you live but when you give an example of what you do when people ask you where you're from, you said that you tell them "closer to chicago". sure you may not really be that "close" to chicago, but no one would accuse of lying and it lets people know basically where you're from.
On the other hand you could just flat out say "i'm from chicago" it would also let people generally understand where you're from but it would also technically be a lie. and i think that's why you say "closer to chicago" instead of just "chicago" and i think that is what most normal people would do.
me and my gf went abroad to italy this past summer and when people would ask where we're from i'd say philadelphia and she'd say "just outside of philadelphia" because she grew ten minutes away from philly in upper darby. you can't get much closer to philadelphia than upper darby, but she still said "just outside of philadelphia" because it's just as easy to say this as philadelphia and it's actually the truth.
it seems like some people are saying they're against people from the suburbs claiming the closest city because they don't have the right. i'm not like that. it's not like i don't think people from the suburbs don't have "the street cred" to claim they're from the city or anything macho or dumb like that. i just think it's weird.
bottom line it's no harder to say "i'm from outside of philadelphia" than it is to say "philadelphia". 4 short words, that take like 2 seconds to say. unless you're in a foreign country and you don't know how to say those words in their language there's no reason not to add them on to the city you're naming.
if you're from peoria and i meet you and you tell me you're from chicago only for me to later find out you're from peoria, i'm going to feel like you lied to me. i wouldn't care really, but it's weird thing to lie about and it would likely make me think that anyone who would do this is maybe trying to seem more interesting than you really are. i'm not saying people from chicago are more interesting than people from peoria but if you said you were from chicago i'd think that YOU thought that
i think the top two cities that have to deal with this annoyance is- DC with md and va and NYC with jersy and connecticut
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There are more important things in life.
