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My answer is Seattle - distinct and idiosyncratic local culture and history and proud heritage combined with a ton of transplants. Transplants are integrated but you will never be considered a true Seattlite if you didn't grow up in the area.
Counter example is Phoenix - transplants are immediately welcomed as locals. An example of a city that doesn't fit is Minneapolis. Proud local culture and heritage and you will never be considered a local unless you've lived there your whole life. But not many transplants.
What are other cities like Seattle that combine both?
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I've lived so many places throughout my life - moved around a lot as a kid and quite a bit as an adult too. As such Ive always felt like a transplant. New England is probably closest to "home" because I lived there from 8th to 12th grade (which were super formative years), but I'm definitely viewed as a transplant in any place that has a strong attachment to its roots and heritage.
I lived in Arizona for 5 years and being a transplant meant nothing. Literally almost everyone was a first or maybe second generation transplant. New Mexico had a little more of a multi-generational feel but still a lot of transplants.
I lived in Pennsylvania for a while and I was one of the few transplants. And I got the sense that unless you've lived their your whole life you're viewed as a transplant.
Those are the two ends of the spectrum but what I found interesting is places that are somehow super proud of their local lineage and heritage, yet also have a lot of transplants. And that's where this thread comes in.
Seattle is best example I can think of of a place that has both. As Dave Grohl said when he moved to Seattle to join Nirvana:
Grohl writes that he “always felt like a visitor, just another transplant in a city fiercely protective of its precious roots.” Virginia, he writes, is “my forever home.”
I lived in Seattle for several years and was one of many transplants, but found that you wouldn't be viewed as a Seattlite if you hadn't lived in Western Washington all of your life. If you didn't grow up with the local skit show "Almost Live" or know the clown JP Patches or remember the Dog House Diner or watch the hydroplane races at Seafair as a kid, acknowledge the 1991 Huskies as the best college football team of all time, or grow up eating Dicks Burgers and Ivar' Fish and Chips, you would never be accepted as a true Seattleite.
Yet at the same time the city is absolutely mobbed with transplants including many people from other countries and other states. And they are welcomed and integrated, but the region holds firm and as Grohl said is fiercely protective of its roots and its heritage and the people from families that have been there for many generations will view you differently. If you grew up in Western Washington, you are still considered "one of us", other parts of Washington State a little less so, and if you're from anywhere in the PNW you at least get some bonus points. But if you're from California or anywhere else, you will never be a true Seattleite. [And to clarify when I say Seattle I'm talking about the whole region, not just the city proper].
Again, places like Minnesota and Pennsylvania are more extreme, but they didn't have that many transplants. Can you think of other places like Seattle to are both transplant-heavy but also with a strong, proud local heritage?
Austin and Portland? They sure want to stay weird. Nashville fits as well.
I'm wondering about the possible existence of a fourth category in your division: places that don't have a large transplant population, but the transplants there are able to largely blend in. I'm thinking that medium and larger cities in the Great Plains like Omaha, Cheyenne, Billings, and Fargo may fit the bill.
Last edited by TheTimidBlueBars; 02-07-2023 at 03:43 AM..
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Originally Posted by btownboss4
Miami. Nobody is from there but it has a very intense proud local culture. And I don’t think it’s particularly close
Agreed, Miami goes next level beyond domestic transplants with a resident population from all corners of Latin America and a big host to international tourism which are strong elements that make Miami, Miami. Little Havana/Calle Ocho is a palpable and sensory neighborhood that is made from the city's proud local culture. Can't think of any part of Seattle that compares. The International District/Chinatown is pretty watered down.
But similar to the OP I spent my formative years in New England and then a five year chapter in Seattle back in the 2000's, and I agree with where the OP is coming from. Seattle's short history has a lot of boom and bust cycles rolling and growing through economic transitions, but also fairly isolated from most of the country. With its roots as a nautical port city, it has developed a proud local culture and they have a very different and provincial POV from the rest of the country. I connected with mostly transplants when I lived there and that is natural occurrence, but there is a big click among Western Washington natives. New England has an element of salty sarcasm and many natives convey it with self depricating humor just for humor's sake and it's accepted. I found the locals, natives, and many transplants alike in Seattle have more thin skin when saying anything bad about Seattle.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 02-07-2023 at 07:32 AM..
Austin and Portland? They sure want to stay weird. Nashville fits as well.
I'm wondering about the possible existence of a fourth category in your division: places that don't have a large transplant population, but the transplants there are able to largely blend in. I'm thinking that medium and larger cities in the Great Plains like Omaha, Cheyenne, Billings, and Fargo may fit the bill.
Nashville is far more welcoming than Austin or Portland.
Boston. Extremely strong (Maybe one of the strongest w/ Philadelphia) local pride and heritage, but from what I see... Boston is extremely welcoming to other people/transplants as long as you don't whine/complain or compare it to NYC (Lol).
Examples
1. Friend from Upstate NY moved to Boston and was immediately excepted. Loves it and found a good bunch of friends.
2. Haitian friend from NYC moved to Dorchester and found the Caribbean culture great and has a lot of friends up there.
3. A BUNCH of people I know of from FFC CT or Westchester County NY moved to Boston for work and lifestyle. They are pretty integrated into Boston social scene and consider themselves 'Bostonians'. Jokingly, they said the hardest part of integrating was that about 1/3 of them were Yankees fans and its hard to find a bar to watch it at.
4. One girl from NJ I know went to Quinnipiac and all her friends are from Boston. She said upon her visits and two summer internships there, she felt included as an outsider there even as a Trinidadian/Bahamian in a predominately White friend group. But rent is keeping her from moving there.
Bostonians wont consider these three 'Bostonians', but they are very well integrated into the social scene and have a positive experience there.
Its very funny, I haven't lived in my Boston suburb since 2010 when I was a young teenager, but when I see the kids I went to Elementary/Middle School randomly in Boston (Im not even kidding I ran into them like 9 or 10 times... ), they considered me a towny even though I was living in FL/NJ/NY/CT. Im forever a South Shore Bostonian even though I haven't lived there in a dozen years. But someone who moved there when they were 4 y/o and lived there for 25 years, would have less credibility than me according to the locals.. even though I know probably 1/5 as much. But we are treated equally in friend scene.
Most of the big Northern cities are hubs for transplants and yet also have a strong local identity. New York City is full of people from all over the country/world, yet everyone also has a strong sense of the cultures of 'native' New Yorkers. Same in Chicago. In part because those places have been big cities for well over a 100 years and transplants can't dominate the scene. They need to try to fit in for the most part.
Places that have seen rapid growth in the last 4-5 decades will be in much more flux still. It'd be much more common for 'locals' to be a small minority or even downright invisible in such cities. They'd be invisible because the overall cultural tone is likely much more generic, so they would not make themselves notable in a distinct fashion. In the D.C. area for instance, among white collar workers there's no 'premium' placed on being 'from here'. Even many people who grew up here will simply be children of transplants or will have spent long periods of time living elsewhere, so they do not have a sense of parochialism. Parochialism requires a sense of multi-generational continuity that you just won't find (yet) in the boom cities of the last half century.
IMO, this phenomenon is less about protecting heritage and more about defining group in/out dynamics within a scarcity mindset. I've experienced this mostly in cities that haven't built enough housing, resulting in difficult yet valid questions around who should get to live there. This is especially true (and understandable) among locals that are on the edge of being priced out. How long someone's family has been in the area becomes code for one's right to belong over and above newcomers, which comes out in comments like "I'm a true local, my family's been here for five generations."
San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle... pretty much any place with a housing shortage. Whereas this is less of a thing in places like Phoenix that have built lots of new housing, even though they've had a huge influx of newcomers.
I am a transplant in Minneapolis and never been told I am not a local. A local just means someone that lives in a certain place anyway. People exaggerate how unwelcoming MN is to outsiders. It is a little bit insular and reserved at times but I was never made to feel like I don't belong or fit in. And there's plenty transplants here as well. Most of them from other parts of the Midwest but plenty from other regions.
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