Natives that don't really know their city or metro well (real estate, crime)

[Chava61]

Non-natives and transplants as well as tourists want/need to learn about the new place that they have arrived at. On the other hand, natives normally just go about their daily business on their normal routes and don't usually explore their own cities.

[couldntthinkofaclevername]

Originally Posted by Chava61

Non-natives and transplants as well as tourists want/need to learn about the new place that they have arrived at. On the other hand, natives normally just go about their daily business on their normal routes and don't usually explore their own cities.

Or they explored it as kids.

[PhenomenalAJ]

Originally Posted by slowlane3

I worked for my whole career in a Federal agency in downtown Washington DC. Many of my co-workers who had worked in the same building for 20 or 30 years (especially women), still did not know the NAMES of the 2 or 3 city parks/squares (actually very famous) immediately on both sides the building. (I learned the parks' names my first WEEK on the job, by studing a map). Very few had any idea of the local Bus routes which passed constantly every few minutes, right by the building all day long. In an emergency if their car-pool driver was incapacitated (or in a snowstorm), they would have no idea of any alternative way to get home by public transit. They ate lunch every day of the year, at their desks or inside our building, and never took walks up the street, or knew what fascinating (sometimes free) cultural sights lay more than say, 2 blocks away. They may as well have lived in Dubuque.

And many families in our suburban community had no more curiosity than to just take their children to the swimming pool every summer day, for years on end. They had never visited any of the Smithsonian Institution buildings, 15 minutes away (which are all free of charge) nor been to colonial Alexandria VA (only 10 minutes away) which is also a major tourist mecca, but somehow was not even on their "radar screen" -- and yet they would think nothing of riding tour busses, three hours away to waste time playing "Slot Machines".

That's DC for you, but most of those people moved there as adults and stayed in their cozy little suburb and have no idea of anything outside it or the places they visit in DC. My old boss was a man in his 60s who had worked his way up over 20 years and I told him I was from Wheaton and he had no idea where that was! He lived in Arlington as long as he's been in this area and he didn't know a town with 60,000 people only 15 miles away. I think young natives of the DC area mostly only know places on the Metro or directly around them. DC is just a bizarre place outside reality.

[DC2PG]

i know DC very well, lived in the area all my life but i've never visited the monuments/memorials/museums as an adult (went on a field trip in elementary but barely remember). And i work very close to most of them, drive past them all the time. Its just never been something that interest me honestly. I know there is alot of people like me on my side of town that has never visited these places too.

[debzkidz]

When I move somewhere I make it my mission to discover the city and all that it has to offer. I will just get in my car and drive.

I have a relative that lives in Houston. She's lived there for 35 years. She knows her little area where she lives and the area where she works and beyond that she doesn't venture out. When I moved to Houston several years ago I did my usual exploring and learned as much as I could about the city. Before I knew it, she was calling me, asking where to find certain thing, etc.

Same thing here. I live in a suburb of OKC. We have a local mall which is pretty crappy, but a much nicer one, just a few miles further into the city. I had lived here about a year and had again done all my exploring of the city. I was visiting with a lady who lives a few miles from me, and has for many years. I said something about going into OKC to the nicer mall. She told me she'd never been there because there was a mall in our little suburb.(and this lady is big time shopper) I was shocked that she had never even ventured in to the city to check it out. I mean it's only a few miles further than the crappy mall. Same for restaurants. She had never gone to any of the great, and popular places in the city. She just stayed in her little area of the suburbs. And it's not like it's a long way or traffic is horrible or anything. We can be from our little burb to any of these places in the city in 20 minutes. It takes longer than that to drive across our suburb.

[txstate]

Very true I know a lot of people in Houston who cant tell you how to get another side of town or give directions, I've never understood that.

[CArizona]

Who am I? Where do I "start?" Where do I "end?" What "belongs" to me?...When I lived in So CA I felt that the beaches and mountains and desert and stores and malls and restaurants (etc.) in neighboring towns and suburbs were all part of my "world." Everything was "open" to me in other words...I live in AZ now in an area where towns are spread-out (with open desert in-between.) But I still feel a "kinship" with all the towns around me. I don't feel obligated to "stay home" all the time and stick to a "beaten track." (And I'd be "bored to death" if I had to settle for "same old, same old" day after day!)...I live in a tri-state area and feel a part of all 3 states. Anyway I enjoy expanding my horizons. I have an "inquiring mind!" But I know that this is not the case for everyone. Obviously some people want to "play it safe." And this is why they don't venture outside their "comfort zone" very often.

[GraniteStater]

Kansas City obviously

[rranger]

Originally Posted by HenryAlan

Entirely reasonable. I don't like to dross the river to the PRC, and don't want them crossing over to Boston.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

LOL! When I have to go to Cantabridge (usually to Microcenter or some event at the Charles Hotel), I make sure to get back as quickly as possible! So, I fully understand you. There's just something antiseptic about Cambridge ...

[BMORE]

Im not sure if it's the majority of the DC metro that's this way but a lot of people that I know in Montgomery County don't know their metro that well. I'm fact they barley ever go to VA, but they know DC itself pretty ok.