uptowngirl
uptowngirl

Who is a true New Yorker?

Recently I was accused by someone on this forum of not being a true New Yorker as I was not born or brought up in this city. True I wasn't born in New York city or even in the US for that matter but me and my family live and work in NYC and we have laid down roots in the city as we have bought and established our home in the city. I am sure there are millions of people in New York City like us who have come here from different cities and countries who have worked hard to make New York City their home. I am sure they would be as offended as I am if they were accused of not being true New Yorkers. That got me thinking who in your opinion is a true New Yorker? a Google search threw up a whole lot of surveys and blog posts some of them quite amusing as well..do have a look and post your comments.

http://newyork.timeout.com/quiz/secrets/631-true-new-yorker- I took the quiz and my score was 167- seems like I qualify fora grizzled New Yorker post :)
http://www.ehow.com/how_5532045_tell-true-new-yorker.html
You're not a true New Yorker until you have been mugged-http://www.philipbrocoum.com/?p=1161
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
36% of all New York city residents were born out of the country but they still consider themselves 'New Yorkers'.
If you have the patience and interest in the topic, the following article definitely throw light on the unique demographics of New York City.

http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=440
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
New York is a melting pot! I'm the opposite of you in many ways, @uptowngirl - born and spent much of my childhood in NYC, but primarily live abroad now. Yet I still consider myself a true blue New Yorker (and spend loads of my free time posting in this forum - because I love NYC, darn it!) But I'm no more or less a NYer than you are, @uptowngirl - NYC's diversity is what makes it great!

What's the test for being a NYer, I wonder? "Anyone who can navigate from Brooklyn Heights to Sugar Hill at rush hour in under 60 minutes without a smartphone?
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
Ha! I guess I'm not a New Yorker, then - having never actually been to Sugar Hill. I do hear they have a lot of awesome apartments on the market in that Harlem neighborhood, however.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Hah! I considered myself a true New Yorker within six months of moving here for college!
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist That's quite easy isn't it? I mean the A train will take you straight from Borough Hall (the station for Brrooklyn Heights) will take you straight to 145 street (the station for Sugar Hill). I wandered around the city quite a lot to do research for one of my very first clients who was building a website about real estate in the city and that assignment helped me learn a lot about the various NYC neighborhoods.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish how can one not help but fall in love with NYC sure its fast paced, dirty and expensive but it has a vibrancy that is unmatched and as the article that I posted states most of the immigrants who come to NYC considered themselves 'New Yorkers' rather than Americans.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
When in Europe I used to step off the curb at a red light and walk out into traffic brazenly--for years! That's a habit I acquired in NYC! I've had European Opas shouting at me from the curb and waving their umbrellas at me to get back to the sidewalk young lady, the light is still red!

Yeah, I'm a New Yorker by attitude.
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freyja44
freyja44 2yrs+
Hey guys it's Freyja4. I am having trouble logging into my account. It wouldn't let me and so i tried asking to reset my password and it didn't even do that. I had a reply for the pet peeves thing. Hoping to fix this matter.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
I was told that a true New Yorker is one who has been born and raised in the city. If you moved here, you are not considered a true New Yorker. And this came from a guy down the block from me who was born and raised here. He does make sense. I was born and raised in the south. So that makes me a true Southerner.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: By your standards, since I grew up in New Jersey, that means I am a true New Jersey boy, right. Yes, I was born in the South and lived there for a few years, but then I relocated to New Jersey before I was 5. Then I grew up there until 2004 when I moved to NYC. So would you consider me a true New Yorker. To your way of looking at it I am. But that would be the wrong assumption. I am really a split. I am a true southerner as I was born there and spent a few early years there. Then I went to NJ and lived there for 40 years.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted most people think the way I do and moreover I have backed up my premise with an article from the Migration Policy Institute whose comment on New York City demographics has been posted above.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish aha jaywalking like a New Yorker its hard to get rid of that habit we have carried it on here in Hong Kong as well.. In fact just yesterday I scolded my husband for walking like a New Yorker on the crowded sidewalks of Hong Kong as I am always playing catch up and dodging the numerous Hongkongees who seem to dawdle rather than stride purposefully as people in NYC seem to do.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
@uptowngirl - I think I fail my own NYer test. (Born and bred, but a devotee of the 4-5-6 train plus crosstown buses...I so rarely take any other lines!) How embarassing! Clearly this is a sign that I need to come home to NYC soon. I miss it so much! Just writing about the buses makes me nostalgic.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist aha it's ok.. you are a true blue New Yorker and nobody can question that.. whenever I miss NYC I play Alicia Key's Empire State of Mind on full volume and am immediately transported to NYC.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl During a stint in Los Angeles, I used to play Rosemary Clooney's "Do You Miss New York?" It was such an appropriate song.

@ajadedidealist I think most people stick to one or two subway lines...it's not like us residents are being tourists all over town!
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK LOL
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
UGH UPTOWNGIRL!!! DARN YOU! (I'd *just* gotten that addictive song out of my head, and now it's there again.) My favorite "NYC" song is "NYC" from the musical "Annie." ("N...Y....C - what is it about you? Too hot? Too cold? Too late! I'm sold! Again! In N! Y C!") So true, Daddy Warbucks. So true.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: In that article the keyword "considered" is used. It did not say they were. That is a big difference. Again, saying you are a true New Yorker does not mean you are one. You can say what you will, but to be a true New Yorker, you have to be born and raised here. I have talked to many people, who were born here and they told me the same thing. For example, you can have $1000 in the bank and call yourself rich, especially if you never had that much before. That does not mean you are rich, you just consider yourself that way.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
That definition may well work in other cities of the world, but I do think this place is unique in that you can be a true New Yorker withing months of arriving.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: This place is not unique and I wonder why people believe it is. To me, NYC has its good points, just like any other city does. But it also has its bad points. Don't treat NYC like it is on top of a mountain, because it isn't. There are people who live here. And people are sinful. Therefore, NYC is not a perfect city, and it should not be looked at as one. NYC is just a city like LA or Chicago. Too many people, a lot of people congregated in one place, pollution, and a government about to go bankrupt. Need I say more.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
@hhusted, a city can be unique without being perfect! I would argue that NYC is very much unique - it is unlike any other city out there! That doesn't mean it has to be free of problems. But New York has something ineffable that these other cities don't!
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Somebody's grumpy. I agree with ajadeidealist that in calling it unique you can still admit that it has a ton of problems. In fact, I would say I rank up there among the top complainers of all of NYC's ills, but still feel pretty enthusiastic about living here.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish I totally agree with you, NYC is like any big metropolis in the world with its fair share of ills but it is indeed unique and accepting of all and nobody can deny that fact .
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
I think most of us can agree that the reason we live here is because we love it here. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in a place they can't appreciate.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
Also, as someone who actually grew up in the south - uh, born and raised - I do not agree that if you move from the south when you are five years old and live in New Jersey for 40 years that you are somehow a Southerner. It's not like many of us have clear culturally defining pre-kindergarten memories. If you were born in the south and raised in New Jersey you missed out on the things that make you a Southerner. Maybe, @hhusted, you are a Southerner at heart like many of the people on this forum are New Yorkers at heart.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Well said! couldn't agree with you more.. the husband has just informed me that he is going on a business trip back home to NYC next month.. I am so jealous .. wish I could go too..but I can't so am giving him a long list of 'chores' to do on my behalf which include bringing back a pound of biscotti from Veniero's .. the biscotti here just doesn't cut it..
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
I consider my friend who was born in the Ukraine to be a New Yorker. She's lived here for 13 years. I think that's enough . . . .
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Everybody: You can say whatever you want about NYC. You have a right to your thoughts and feelings. You are not robots to be controlled. I also expressed my feelings and thoughts about it to. I'm just saying I visited a number of cities in the U.S. and found people to be friendlier, more down to earth, the air clearer, and less pollution.

@BroadwayBK: My mother was a true southerner. She raised me on southern food, ways, and manners. This is why I am considered a country boy because I had a lot of exposure to it. But I am also a New Jersey boy. I guess you can say I am half and half. Half country boy, half New Jersey boy. Hey, how about that. Half breed.

Enough of this topic. I believe everyone knows my take on the subject. On to bigger and better topics.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
My background is Irish. If I went to Ireland and informed everyone there that I was Irish, they'd likely inform me that I was a Yank, even though I was raised well below the Mason Dixon line. It's all a matter of perspective.
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DOROTHY B-DORFMAN, SFO
DOROTHY B-DORFMAN, SFO 2yrs+
If person was not born and raised in NYC that person is NOT a New Yorker. What they are is whatever they are referred to being back where they were born and raised at.
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