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-Region dependent, countless permutations of this kind of stuff with varying degrees of sensitivity/people even caring.
-We don't know what the person from Patterson Park was thinking to her/himself on the drive home after this hypothetical conversation.
Probably thinking "Small world, isn't it? Here I am, a long way from home on vacation, yet I ran into someone who lives just a few miles from me." Probably NOT thinking "That guy tried to trick me, saying he was from Baltimore, when really he doesn't live within the city limits."
I think in Boston we’re conditioned to be more sensitive to this subject because of how certain “suburbs” would be a part of the main city in any other major metropolis.
If someone from Brookline says they’re from Boston, my gut reaction is “No. Your town very aggressively chose to not be Boston”. And that resentment translates perhaps unfairly to the suburbs even farther from the city which might claim it like Millis or Boxborough, towns that would still be suburbs in a normal city.
The thing about Boston is though that it feels like most of the people publicly famous for being "Bostonians" are actually from the suburbs. More so than with cities like Chicago or New York. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Bill Burr, Joe Rogan, John Krasinski, the list could go on. It certainly doesn't seem like there's people en masse calling them out as suburbanites who shouldn't claim Boston.
The thing about Boston is though that it feels like most of the people publicly famous for being "Bostonians" are actually from the suburbs. More so than with cities like Chicago or New York. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Bill Burr, Joe Rogan, John Krasinski, the list could go on. It certainly doesn't seem like there's people en masse calling them out as suburbanites who shouldn't claim Boston.
That actually makes perfect sense considering that more of the metro area (land area and population) are “suburbs” than in other cities like Chicago or New York, which was my point in the post you quoted.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Conan O’Brien, John Krasinski, and Joe Rogan alongside Mindy Kaling, Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, BIA, etc. would all be from Boston proper if the city had municipal boundaries similar to any other city on Earth.
Jay Leno and Bill Burr as well as Amy Phoeler, Chris Evans, Uzo Aduba, Steve Carell, etc. would all still be from the suburbs. But regardless you have a large contingent of famous people from eastern MA who are technically from “suburbs” of Boston, which are functionally neighborhoods.
I think in Boston we’re conditioned to be more sensitive to this subject because of how certain “suburbs” would be a part of the main city in any other major metropolis.
If someone from Brookline says they’re from Boston, my gut reaction is “No. Your town very aggressively chose to not be Boston”. And that resentment translates perhaps unfairly to the suburbs even farther from the city which might claim it like Millis or Boxborough, towns that would still be suburbs in a normal city.
And perhaps you have a point if two people are having a conversation, and both know that the other person is from the Boston metropolitan area. But while Brookline is fairly prominent as far as suburbs go, most people from outside the area don’t know Brookline from Beacon Hill. Are you still offended if the Brookliner says to random person XYZ that they’re from “Boston” as a matter of convenience? I guess they could say they’re from “just outside Boston,” which only takes a tiny bit more effort. I tell people I’m from “just outside Philadelphia.” But I think the number of suburbanites who are trying to pull a fast one by claiming the core city in a metropolitan area as their own is very few.
And perhaps you have a point if two people are having a conversation, and both know that the other person is from the Boston metropolitan area. But while Brookline is fairly prominent as far as suburbs go, most people from outside the area don’t know Brookline from Beacon Hill. Are you still offended if the Brookliner says to random person XYZ that they’re from “Boston” as a matter of convenience? I guess they could say they’re from “just outside Boston,” which only takes a tiny bit more effort. I tell people I’m from “just outside Philadelphia.” But I think the number of suburbanites who are trying to pull a fast one by claiming the core city in a metropolitan area as their own is very few.
You're right that it's less bad if the person from Brookline is talking to someone from Vancouver who knows nothing about Eastern MA except Boston. I get it, though "just outside of Boston" would be preferable.
But to your first point, it actually happens often that people who know that the other is from the metropolitan area will still say that they're from Boston. It's almost like a dog whistle, a wink, or a secret handshake. Like "yes we both know that we're not from actual Boston, but we're still going to define ourselves as Bostonians in any social interaction and will support each other in doing so". In their defense, it's probably not malicious or "pulling a fast one". It's more that their own town is boring and they know that they'll never be called out for it by other people from the suburbs.
The deal with Boston is two-sided, and I don't think it's unique to Boston per se.
(1) "Extramurally": When talking to people who are NOT resident near Boston, the tendency will be to say one is from Boston as a general region ID. ("Greater Boston" or "the Boston metro" just are not used instead; they are treated as commercial/demographic signifiers but not used in conversational speech about "where I am from".)
(2) "Intramurally": when locals talk amongst ourselves, particularly with people who've lived more than just several years hereabouts, the designations often get hyper-localized at least to specific neighborhoods but often more specific than that. I've noted before that the Boston metro is a metropolis with the soul of a pre-Industrial Age British town, and very Hobbit-like in its fine gradations of placement. I just had new neighbors move in next door; they are Chinese-Americans who've lived in Malden for several years, and the wife asked me what neighborhood our block was considered part of, and I told her. I also told her the house across the street from her new home was the oldest house on the street (1885) but that the block was originally part of the property of the house at the far corner of our block that was built circa 1700 and descended through the family until it was sold out of the family in 2000 - she was pleased to have that sense of the block.
I answer the question where ar you from based on what I know about the one asking to calibrate my answer to my best gues of his reason for asking and how much he might know about the area. Example if a local asks I will say Plano. If a person offshore asked Id answer Texas, near Dallas.
Its not about my agenda its about the person asking's agenda and what thy might know
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