How much time does it take to become a local?

[muppet]

Originally Posted by mr1138

• Video Link

fixed

[PhilliesPhan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Totally true, but this seems to be pretty much par for the course for many older big cities, no?

Yep! My wife is originally from the West Valley suburbs of Phoenix. Whenever I visit, it's tough to tell exactly where Phoenix ends and Glendale begins, and where Glendale ends and Peoria begins, etc. She doesn't even really know where the boundaries for each municipality begin and end. There is no appreciable difference between Phoenix and its suburbs (save for Tempe). Meanwhile in Philly, the boundaries are much better defined (ex. Cobbs Creek and City Line Avenue delineate the city from Delco and Montgomery County). For the most part, the changes between city and suburb are abrupt once you cross a boundary (ex. crossing Cheltenham Avenue into Cheltenham Township from West Oak Lane).

I find that the older cities have a unique culture and identity relative to their suburbs. Philly, NYC, Boston, Baltimore, and DC blossomed into major population centers long before their suburbs*. The housing typography is the most obvious tell. With newer cities like Phoenix and Atlanta, I feel like their suburbs grew in tandem with their cities, leading to a lack of distinction between city and suburb.

*Suburbs in the modern sense. I recognize that many places considered city neighborhoods today would've been considered suburbs in the 18th and 19th centuries (ex. The City of Philadelphia and Northern Liberties Township were separate municipalities within Philadelphia County until the Acts of Consolidation of 1854).

[mhays]

Even when there is a new/old distinction, it generally doesn't match the city boundaries.

[muertecaza]

Phoenix is still in "accumulation" phase - we basically accept you as a local as soon as you move here. But true locals happen with one of the following:


-The first time you shake your head at hearing a tourist died tried to hike Camelback in the middle of summer

-If you can speak from firsthand experience about a Suns finals loss--2021, 1993, or bonus points for 1976

-Similar to others, if you properly pronounce "saguaro," "Prescott," "Casa Grande," "Baseline," and "Germann"

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by muppet

fixed

Thank you - I honestly don't know what I was doing wrong. I copied the URL directly from YouTube and it still didn't work.

So I just edited my post to remove the embedded link.

[PhilliesPhan]

^I'll actually be in Phoenix next week. I've only ever been in the late fall and winter. I get sweaty enough hiking Camelback and North Mountains in the winter, so I couldn't imagine doing it in June! I will try to keep running, but my runs will be early in the morning (shouldn't be too tough since the time difference will have me waking up early) and I'll bring ice water with me. I'll be eating my body weight in Oregano's Pizza, so I need to do some kind of physical activity.

My wife gave me hell about my pronunciation of Prescott when I first visited Phoenix. It reminded me of how New Yorkers will do the same if you pronounce Houston Street like the city in Texas.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Riverranchdrone

In Texas, if you are not born in Texas, then you will never really be a Texan. If you are from outside of the state, people will assume you are from Cali.

Not even remotely accurate.

[niwell]

You can pronounce the following properly:

-Toronto itself (no second 't')
-Yonge
-Etobicoke
-Queen's Quay
-Strachan
-Can't be bothered with Roncesvalles so just say "Roncy"

[mhays]

And Seattle is pronounced "Seaddle."

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Yeah, that's BS.

I think if you grew up within a let's say 30-mile radius of the city, then you can consider yourself a local.

It's obviously an extreme case of hyper-provincial localism, but I shared it to demonstrate how subjective "local" can be.

Whether it's BS or not does not negate the fact that those attitudes exist. And I would agree with others that "city" identity gate-keeping like that seems more pronounced in the bigger, older, more urban cities in the US.

I wonder if there is also an extra generational layer to it. The whole "you're not from the city; you grew up out in the burbs" thing seems especially strong from GenX'ers who grew up in the city during the urban dark ages of the '60s/'70s/'80s when seemingly every midddle class family was trying to get out of dodge (mine did mere months before I was born). Once the tables started turning from the '90s onward, and shitloads of suburban-raised GenX assholes like me started moving into the city because it was "cool" again, the lifers got a little stubborn about it.

"You can't just move in here and claim this hard-fought identity of ours. When the going got tough, where the hell was your family, huh? Oh, that's right."

[dimondpark]

To me it depends on the person, when they feel like this is home, that's it to me.

The far biggest argument among locals is not how long is long enough to be a local but: What local areas qualify as the "Bay Area".

I have heard all of the provincial, gatekeeping bs on this subject from the time I was a kid and it is annoying as all hell, people making up borders based on their own stupid ideas. I remember back in the day, lots of people in the City would say, "Oh if you can't see it from the Transamerica Pyramid which is typical 1980s SF snobbery. Now GenZ are far worse, they cut out Vallejo or Hayward or that San Jose is not in the Bay Area, or whatever, all of which, is nuts.

In actuality, it's very simple: The San Francisco Bay Area is a NINE-COUNTY REGION, so that means that any damn city, town, place, ass-crack, trailer park or podunk that is located in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma or Solano Counties is within the boundaries of the Bay Area.

Some say it's any county that touches the water, but if that's the standard then technically, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties both qualify as well, because they sit right on the border of the bay and delta, but I digress.

[UrbanImpact]

Almost everyone from Florida is not originally from Florida, at least here in South Florida. There is also a large percentage of people who live here partially. I would say the people who live here year round are seen as locals and they become locals pretty much right away once you move in. There really isn't much city boosterism with exception of people from Miami-Dade and Broward not wanting to cross county lines.

[ilcapo]

You mustve spent most of your youth there. Thats my take.

[wwmiv]

For Austin, for any transplant we expect (even if we haven’t done all of these ourselves):

Pronunciations:

• Guadalupe (Gwadaloop)
• Burnet (Burn-It)
• Manchaca (Manshack)
• Elgin (El-gggggin, not El-jin)
• Manor (may-nor)
• Many many others

Location Visits:

• Zilker Park
• Barton Springs
• McKinney Falls
• Mount Bonnell
• Gus Fruh
• Bull Creek
• Lake Travis

Commercial/Bar District Visits (at least once, driven or walked):

• SoCo
• 6th
• Red River
• Guadalupe (“The Drag”)

Event Attendance (long enough to go a couple of times and then stop going and then not care and then care only about the traffic):

• SXSW
• ACL

Food:

• Franklin’s
• Terry Blacks
• The Salt Lick
• Blacks
• Meyer’s

Once you’ve done that list, you’re an Austinite.

And then there are exclusions:

If you’re from California, you will NEVER be an Austinite—you are a permanent visitor.

[Docere]

South Florida and DC probably have the lowest percentage of "natives" anywhere in the US.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Docere

South Florida and DC probably have the lowest percentage of "natives" anywhere in the US.

I would imagine Vegas can hang with those two on that score.

[Tom In Chicago]

This is dumb, hyperlocal weirdly tribal behavior that should just be ignored. . .

I'm originally from Wisconsin, root for the Packers, will put whatever the fuck I want on a hot dog and still say I'm from Chicago - end of story. . . everyone from Berwyn to Cicero can go fuck themselves. . .

. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

put whatever the fuck I want on a hot dog

There are gulags Up North where monsters like you belong.

[MolsonExport]

I heard that putting ketchup on a Chicago Hotdog was sacrilegious.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

I heard that putting ketchup on a Chicago Hotdog was sacrilegious.

Now that The Pope is a Chicago boy, you can get your ass excommunicated for that kinda heresy.