Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
Yeah I'd say that's probably the biggest difference - whether it's just an administrative boundary or a physical boundary. Manhattan is a land form separated from other land by physical barriers so it makes sense to exclude anything beyond that boundary. But with people living near NYC, I don't see any issue with them saying they're from NYC when speaking to people from far enough away not to know the difference. NJ and LI have their own well established identities, so if they lived near NYC in either place, most people would recognize the terms NJ or LI so there's no need to round them into NYC. But someone from say, Yonkers, it would make the most sense to just say NYC when speaking to anyone outside the US NE.
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A person from Yonkers might say they are from New York, but they likely don't claim to be from NYC. If a person follows up and asks a Yonkersite if they are from NYC, the Yonkersite would probably clarify that Yonkers is just outside of it.
Certain cities have pretty strict definitions of what it means to be
from that place. I don't think it's a Rust Belt thing, though. Rust Belters like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis seem to have relatively flexible rules about when you can describe yourself as being from those cities. On the other hand, places like NYC, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc., have pretty rigid rules. NYC is by far the most rigid about it.
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