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This is interesting. I have a lot of family in central and northern Connecticut and they don't consider people who live in Farifield county real Nutmeggers. The refer to them as NYers.
I refer to them as Nutmeggers.
For those confused by my post,
Nut·meg·ger
/ˈnʌtmɛgər/ a native or inhabitant of Connecticut.
I lived on the Waterfront in Jersey City and I could SWIM to Greenwich Village a mile away and get to the Financial District or anywhere on the lower West side FAR faster than I can now living on the UES.
So I considered myself very much a New Yorker. I had no car so the only travel I ever did was the PATH train into town...all restaurants, all bars, and most friends were in NYC and I did theater twice a week in NYC. Income was from NY job.
I was 2 miles from Times Square...how many New Yorkers can say that?
But if I lived in Mahwah, Somerville, Long Island or Darian, I'd say NO.
Downtown Jersey City is very much a "borough" of NYC.
I'm from Bergen County, North Jersey. I live 8 minutes from NYC - just off the Palisades Parkway by Englewood Cliffs, but I am not a New Yorker- I am a Bergen County girl and proud !!
I wonder how people in other regions of NYS would react if told that they weren't NYers, because, outside of NYC, there's nothing in the state?
Basically, we're used to it.
I was born and raised and have lived most of my adult life in NY State....in Rochester. I've only been downstate/NYC twice (unless you count layovers at JFK airport, then it goes up considerably). We don't really call ourselves "new yorkers", unless it's "We new yorkers get screwed over by the state's government".
When visiting other areas of the country and asked where we are from, we say "Rochester" or "Upstate, NY"...not just "New York". (I have said "new york" before and the comment I most often get is , "what really? You don't have that noo yoawk accent!")
Legally and politically being a "New Yorker" means something considerably different than it does to be a "New Yorker" culturally.
I think the best answer is that anyone from those areas can truthfully say "I'm from the suburbs of New York City." That covers LI, Jersey, and Connecticut (plus Westchester, Rockland, etc.) and catches the fact that as suburbs of the city, towns in the tri-state area have more in common with each other than they do with the more distant or rural parts of their own states.
Obviously it depends on context, too. If someone asks me "are you a New Yorker" when they really mean "did you grow up in the five boroughs," it'd be dishonest not to say that I'm actually from Westchester.
Anyone who was born in NYC and was raised in NYC is considered a NYer, even if you came at a very young age (youth) and went to elementary, junior high or high school here.
I'm originally from Jersey, Elizabeth. When I lived down south people would refer to me as a New Yorker because of the whole regional thing. I used to have to explain to them that no, I'm from Jersey...to people not from the tri-state, or the Northeast in general, they don't know the difference. Yes we relate in many ways and know things only people in the region would understand. But no, those of us from North Jersey, even though I live in Brooklyn and defend the city, are not New Yorkers.
I used to have to explain to them that no, I'm from Jersey...to people not from the tri-state, or the Northeast in general, they don't know the difference.
I don't understand how it could be such a hard concept to understand: Jersey City is in NJ. Did these same people understand that New Orleans is in Louisiana and not Mississippi?
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