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E.B. White wrote well about this in his essay "Here Is New York" in 1949:
There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.
Of these three trembling cities, the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.
Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.
And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.
Of course, things are very different now than in 1949. I suppose the question is: to what extent do today's transplants fit White's description?
Thank You for posting this. I will be reading some E.B White soon.
My parents moved from upstate NY to live in Queens when I was 12. I then moved to Manhattan when I was 20 and have never lived anywhere else since (I'm now in my 30's). I always considered myself a New Yorker. Although maybe not a native.
My parents moved from upstate NY to live in Queens when I was 12. I then moved to Manhattan when I was 20 and have never lived anywhere else since (I'm now in my 30's). I always considered myself a New Yorker. Although maybe not a native.
I don't know about anybody else, but if you were BORN AND RAISED in NY, then you're a NATIVE New Yorker.
If you were RAISED here from a child on up, then you're a NATIVE New Yorker.
People are under the impression that upstate NY is not as streetwise as the 5 boroughs (well, take Manhattan off that list now that it's been infiltrated with transplants), but cities like Buffalo, Rome, Peekskill and several others will tell you differently.
New Yorkers are people who live and work in the 5 boroughs of NYC.
Native New Yorkers are people who are born and bred in NYC
Seems to me that you can be a New Yorker and be a Native New Yorker ...but being a Native New Yorker doesn't always make you a New Yorker.
well i'm just a native, because new york is not all i know.
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