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As someone who grew up in Metro Boston and now works in Manhattan, the rivalry is 100% related to sports. Started w/ Sox-Yanks, which up until the past decade was mostly one-sided but is pretty even in recent history (sidenote: sadly, baseball feels "less important" than it did 10-15 years ago, so even though rivalry is now more even, it feels smaller). Then it spread, comically, to football with Patriots-Jets (which is in fact even more one-sided than Sox-Yanks).
All that said, growing up I didn't know anyone who would consider NYC a real city rival of Boston, which is as preposterous as it sounds. In fact, most people liked NYC - I took several weekend trips down there, and once I was college age my friends and I would go down frequently - baseball, bachelor parties, etc. Someone way upthread mentioned that most Bostonians didn't go down there often, if ever. Certainly not my experience in the western burbs, but maybe depends what specific area you're talking about.
My experience in NYC toward Boston is similar. If and when I travel back home, the most common thing that I hear from coworkers is "oh, I love Boston" or "I went to school there and miss it." I think the animosity back and forth is mostly an internet thing, not a real life thing. Or maybe I'm being punked, ha. But then again I work in an industry that is light on sports diehards (although I am one), so maybe that's the reason.
With regards to Philly, it is indeed closer. Neither Boston nor Philly are anything remotely comparable as a city "rival", so the answer to the question goes back to 100% sports.
I’m wondering if my comment got misconstrued as saying Bostonians don’t go to NYC..if it is my comment that wasn’t my meaning. My meaning was Boston is a big fish in a small pond it’s far from NYC. Bostonians kind of can’t feel the weight of the NYC metro infringing in them like Philly area folks can. Even if they do go there sometimes.-It’s not that constant reminder..Boston gets to feel like the big dawg a lot more often than Philly does .
I’m wondering if my comment got misconstrued as saying Bostonians don’t go to NYC..if it is my comment that wasn’t my meaning. My meaning was Boston is a big fish in a small pond it’s far from NYC. Bostonians kind of can’t feel the weight of the NYC metro infringing in them like Philly area folks can. Even if they do go there sometimes.-It’s not that constant reminder..Boston gets to feel like the big dawg a lot more often than Philly does .
People don’t seem to understand the Northeast Corridor has NYC in the Geographic center.
Started w/ Sox-Yanks, which up until the past decade was mostly one-sided but is pretty even in recent history
It’s been pretty one-sided for the last two decades too, hun.
Quote:
Neither Boston nor Philly are anything remotely comparable as a city "rival", so the answer to the question goes back to 100% sports.
To put it crudely, I’ve always figured the “rivalry” generally boils down to Boston not licking New York’s boots as much as the latter expects it to. Whenever I talk to friends who live in NYC, they’ll start on about “that thing De Blasio did” or “some new regulation that’s in place” and expect me to just know what they’re talking about. Like, I love NYC. I go down often to see musicals, go to art museums, and eat at trendy restaurants. Beyond that, I pay it as little mind as I do any other city that I don’t live in. A lot of NY people seem to find that unacceptable.
It’s been pretty one-sided for the last two decades too, hun.
To put it crudely, I’ve always figured the “rivalry” generally boils down to Boston not licking New York’s boots as much as the latter expects it to. Whenever I talk to friends who live in NYC, they’ll start on about “that thing De Blasio did” or “some new regulation that’s in place” and expect me to just know what they’re talking about. Like, I love NYC. I go down often to see musicals, go to art museums, and eat at trendy restaurants. Beyond that, I pay it as little mind as I do any other city that I don’t live in. A lot of NY people seem to find that unacceptable.
100% Facts. Everything you said I agree. That is exactly how my NYC friends are.
I gotcha. I know that Philly is closer to the Bos-Wash cities and Pittsburgh is closer to Midwestern cities and that they aren't particularly close to each other, but I figured that being the only two major cities in the same state would've lent itself to a rivalry on some level.
I moved to Philly from Houston in early 2011. Houston has a spirited rivalry with Dallas, and early in my move, I opened an OP asking locals to fill me in on any similar rivalry with Pittsburgh. Well, aside from crickets, the only response I recall getting that suggested a rivalry was when the Flyers and the Penguins play one another. In truth, I haven't picked up on that in my years here.
Having lived here for some time now, I can affirm that Pittsburgh is not on the radar of most Philadelphians and I would suspect vice versa. PA is a large state. Pittsburgh is about as close to Philly as Boston is, but separated by a big mountain range. Don't know whether it is I95, Acela, colonial history or some other factor, I think there is a connection between the BosWash cities that doesn't extend from Philly to Pittsburgh. It surprised me to learn that Pittsburgh is closer to Detroit than it is to Philadelphia.
I went to Pittsburgh about 2 years ago for a long weekend. It's a nice city, though not as bustling or as densely urban as the BosWash cities. I find a similar urban fabric in the BosWash cities which I didn't find in Pittsburgh.
I moved to Philly from Houston in early 2011. Houston has a spirited rivalry with Dallas, and early in my move, I opened an OP asking locals to fill me in on any similar rivalry with Pittsburgh. Well, aside from crickets, the only response I recall getting that suggested a rivalry was when the Flyers and the Penguins play one another. In truth, I haven't picked up on that in my years here.
Having lived here for some time now, I can affirm that Pittsburgh is not on the radar of most Philadelphians and I would suspect vice versa. PA is a large state. Pittsburgh is about as close to Philly as Boston is, but separated by a big mountain range. Don't know whether it is I95, Acela, colonial history or some other factor, I think there is a connection between the BosWash cities that doesn't extend from Philly to Pittsburgh. It surprised me to learn that Pittsburgh is closer to Detroit than it is to Philadelphia.
I went to Pittsburgh about 2 years ago for a long weekend. It's a nice city, though not as bustling or as densely urban as the BosWash cities. I find a similar urban fabric in the BosWash cities which I didn't find in Pittsburgh.
From Boston spend tons of time in Philly. Visited PITT right recently. Philly is way more like Boston and connected to Boston than it is to Pittsburgh from what I can tell. Pittsburgh felt like another (cool) planet
Pittsburgh is widely regarded as a rust-belt city whereas Philadelphia is more of a colonial city. Pittsburgh didn't really develop until the 1800s once Americans really started settling west of the colonial cites after the Revolutionary War. Pittsburgh is to Philadelphia as Bufflo is to NYC.
I absolutely think 17% versus 14% is a large difference- it’s a 21% difference-especially when you’re talking about a state and all of he rural hinterlands and homogeneous areas that come with that. And the margin of error for a state estimate is probably not that great.
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In many ways I have viewed Pennsylvania as a whiter, larger, more Americanized Massachusetts for the past decade or so.
Large city that houses 10% of the state wayy to the East. With scattered post industrial cities all over the state and an anchor city out west like Pittsburgh/Springfield and to some degree in the shadow of NYS/NYC.
That's an interesting way to look at Pennsylvania, and honestly pretty fair and accurate. If we're talking "Americanized" in terms of less modern-day immigrant influence compared to Massachusetts, then that would be true.
And it's true that Massachusetts also has a fairly diverse white population in terms of various ethnicities being represented, but Pennsylvania is a bit more balanced between historically Irish, Italian, German, Scots-Irish and Eastern European blood. Interesting fact that few outsiders know is that Pennsylvania was first settled by Swedes in Philly area in the 1630s.
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