People in LA are pretty nice for it being the 2nd biggest city

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

In my experience people native to New York City are rather calm and comfortable in their own skin. . . it seems like those transplanted to New York are the ones with the chip on their shoulders. . .

. . . also many of the people I've meet in Los Angeles are surprisingly high strung for living in a paradise. . .

. . .

Perhaps it’s the transplant in LA that you meet and not the natives such as in New York. I’m a native Angeleno and from my experience it’s seems to be the non-natives that are high strung. Yes we are aware that the weather is good but it’s not something that we go around bragging about all the time. It’s usually the outsiders that tell us how great our weather is and I’m like I uhm okay.

The typical native Angeleno don’t buy into all the hype and Hollywood glamor. It’s usually the transplants that are into that, in fact the other day at the park I just overheard two adults with their children bragging about how they are in the industry and both of them were from New York. Actually I found both to be rude, I greeted both of them and neither one even acknowledged me and my son. Yet both also complained about not having many here that are friendly and they mainly socialize with people at the gym. I can’t recall many who are born and raised here that talk like that.

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by 10023

People are friendlier when the weather is nice.

except Miami

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

In my experience people native to New York City are rather calm and comfortable in their own skin. . . it seems like those transplanted to New York are the ones with the chip on their shoulders.

Transplants are often the most obnoxious people you can find in any city. I don't mean to broad brush all transplants (most are fine people), but there is a specific subset of transplants who seem compelled to trash their former homes and take an obnoxiously haughty attitude toward their adopted hometown as some sort of coping mechanism to reassure themselves that they made the right move by leaving. These types of people are fairly unpleasant regardless of which city you encounter them in.

By far, the most obnoxious "Rah! Rah! Rah! NYC is #1!" person I've ever met in NYC was a colleague of one of my friends, and it turned out that she was actually a transplant originally from Kokomo, Indiana. By comparison, I had 3 good friends in college who were all born and raised manhattanites and they were some of the nicest people I've ever known.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

On the flipside, I'm sure many of you locals have encountered the rude tourist.

Especially this time of year, for me anyway, living in the immediate Pasadena area, right around New Year's/Rose Parade/Rose Bowl time... lots of college-age kids and their parents/families come over from fill-in-the-blank city/state/college depending on who's playing in the Rose Bowl. Last year because of the COVID cancellation of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, I didn't have to worry about it, but pending any last minute cancellations, Rose Parade/Rose Bowl Game is on for 1-1-22, so, there'll be Utah and Ohio tourists coming to town... probably not as much as in previous years because I'm sure there are some of them who won't wanna travel because of COVID, but anyway, sometimes they can be clueless.

I've been asked questions like "Where's a good Mexican restaurant?" For me, that's a loaded question. I'll ask "What kind of Mexican food do you like?" And then they'll give me that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. They'll say "Well, just Mexican food." And then I'll suggest a place, but they'll say it's too far to walk, and then they'll say that they've heard of such-and-such place, and then I'll say "well, that's just a run-of-the-mill place..."

Some years ago there was one really rude guy who, when I went inside a gas station to buy a Lotto ticket, looked like he was arguing with the cashier. Then the guy looks at me, asks me "Do you speak English??" And I was all "Uh, YEAH?" (the cashier was a Vietnamese guy with an accent, but spoke English just fine, and I'm Filipino-American BTW), and he said "Do you know how to get to the beach??" And I said with a smile, "Oh, which beach?" And then he rolls his eyes and says "Goddamnit why can't anyone just tell me how to get to the fucking beach??!??" And then he stormed off and got into a motorhome that I saw had Wisconsin plates, and he drove off. I looked at the cashier and said "What an asshole." And that was that.

I had nearly this exact experience. It was a day or two before the Rose Bowl at it was Wisconsin vs someone. Lots of tourists in downtown during that time. I was at LA Live (this was when LA Live had that cool robo Christmas tree) and a couple of Wisconsin Badgers walked up to me and Papa Badger asked me 'the quickest way to get to the beach.' I said 'which beach?' He looked almost dumbfounded. 'I THOUGHT DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WAS NEAR THE OCEAN!! ' I said that Santa Monica is about 20-30 minutes away depending on traffic. Just take the 10 until you see it (this was before the Expo Line phase 2 opened). He got red in the face and him and Mama Badger stormed off.

I went back to staring at the robo tree.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Segun

Maybe, but they don't insult them because in Chicago you'd get your ass kicked. These fools straight up called him out his name like they were invincible. Had me doing a double take like Wee-Bay from the Wire.

https://c.tenor.com/Ar6jTcp9SUAAAAAd/wow-omg.gif

What exactly did they say? I've never really seen someone get "called out their name" here without an escalation... At least not by a sane person. But plenty of "move the fuck out the way"s or "watch where the fuck you're going"s...

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

In my experience people native to New York City are rather calm and comfortable in their own skin. . . it seems like those transplanted to New York are the ones with the chip on their shoulders. . .

. . . also many of the people I've meet in Los Angeles are surprisingly high strung for living in a paradise. . .

. . .

I can vouch for this, although I'm a native New Yorker so my stance is biased.

I think it also depends on the borough. Manhattan probably has the most people with a boot up their ass due to the fast paced environment in the two CBDs. When I lived in Brooklyn and Queens, I encountered less assholes and more chill people.

But as people mentioned, it's really the transplants that have the worst attitudes, regardless of the city.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

Perhaps it’s the transplant in LA that you meet and not the natives such as in New York. I’m a native Angeleno and from my experience it’s seems to be the non-natives that are high strung.

I agree. . . the native Southern California relatives I have on my fiancé's side are pretty laid back. . . I was kind of half joking, but I did see a guy stab another guy on the bus in downtown LA and I literally said out loud, "Geez people here in LA are pretty high strung for the climate. . . " as I was expediently disembarking the bus. . .

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

By far, the most obnoxious "Rah! Rah! Rah! NYC is #1!" person I've ever met in NYC was a colleague of one of my friends, and it turned out that she was actually a transplant originally from Kokomo, Indiana.

I knew a gal in college that visited Chicago from New York and she was shitting all over this city. . . she was from rural Wisconsin. . . so I reminded her of that fact every time she opened her mouth. . .

. . .

[Segun]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

What exactly did they say? I've never really seen someone get "called out their name" here without an escalation... At least not by a sane person. But plenty of "move the fuck out the way"s or "watch where the fuck you're going"s...

"Move out the way you fucking fat fuck" followed by "Look out tubby" like 3 seconds later, like rapid fire.

The thing was, the first dude was pretty portly his damn self. My friend is a hothead, but I was ready to throw down too.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Crawford

This is all silly stereotyping, of course, but is there something about Anglo Canadian women that makes them less approachable than American women? Just because Anglo Canadians are generally more reserved?

I've noticed, and colleagues have noticed, that we usually had zero game in Toronto, but generally no similar issues in the States or Europe. It wasn't even because we were Americans, because my colleagues were from France, Brazil and a few other non-Anglo places. It was an effort to even have a simple conversation.

You're not the only one who has noticed.

Toronto is generally a place where you at least need an "in" to break the ice socially (ie your gang from school, your co-workers), as opposed to strangers striking up a conversation with you - or being to having one with you if you try.

On the upside even if not warm, friendly and outgoing, it's one of the most civil and polite places I've been, relative to its size.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Segun

"Move out the way you fucking fat fuck" followed by "Look out tubby" like 3 seconds later, like rapid fire.

The thing was, the first dude was pretty portly his damn self. My friend is a hothead, but I was ready to throw down too.

Yeah the name calling is definitely uncalled for. Probably emboldened by the fact he was on a bike so he could make a quick getaway. If he were on foot, I bet he wouldn't have said that. That's some fake tough guy bidness.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Transplants are often the most obnoxious people you can find in any city. I don't mean to broad brush all transplants (most are fine people), but there is a specific subset of transplants who seem compelled to trash their former homes and take an obnoxiously haughty attitude toward their adopted hometown as some sort of coping mechanism to reassure themselves that they made the right move by leaving. These types of people are fairly unpleasant regardless of which city you encounter them in.

Oh yeah definitely, there's some like that on this very site lol. You just have to chuckle it off and pity them because it's obvious that they're miserable people, who knows what they're dealing with.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Segun

"Move out the way you fucking fat fuck" followed by "Look out tubby" like 3 seconds later, like rapid fire.

The thing was, the first dude was pretty portly his damn self. My friend is a hothead, but I was ready to throw down too.

That's definitely not normal. It's pretty taboo to talk about physical appearances in NYC.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by Acajack

You're not the only one who has noticed.

Toronto is generally a place where you at least need an "in" to break the ice socially (ie your gang from school, your co-workers), as opposed to strangers striking up a conversation with you - or being to having one with you if you try.

On the upside even if not warm, friendly and outgoing, it's one of the most civil and polite places I've been, relative to its size.

I guess it’s alright if what you want is a polite lay.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

I knew a gal in college that visited Chicago from New York and she was shitting all over this city. . . she was from rural Wisconsin. . . so I reminded her of that fact every time she opened her mouth. . .

. . .

Oh I have a similar story..This girl I met in college years ago was all uppity because she led everyone to believe that she was coming in from Toronto, when in fact she only spent a year there prior, and was in fact from a small smelly lumber mill town. I quickly reminded her where she was from too everytime she ran down the collage's small city.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Razor

Oh I have a similar story..This girl I met in college years ago was all uppity because she led everyone to believe that she was coming in from Toronto, when in fact she only spent a year there prior, and was in fact from a small smelly lumber mill town. I quickly reminded her where she was from too everytime she ran down the collage's small city.

I know a guy who talks trash on cities and towns in Pennsylvania that are smaller than Pittsburgh... like he's living in the cosmopolitan center of sophistication or something

He was born and raised in fucking Iowa.

[chris08876]

People from California that I've met tend to be super nice. But... I can't help but notice their phosphorescent white teeth. They do seem very open, unlike the species of people we have here. The more cold nature of the people here in the Northeast to not open up as much unless they really know you. Like they have a barrier. But those California folks are very open, which I like. I can't stand that Los Angeles female accent. Just annoying. But... they look damn good!!!

I do like the attitude though. Everything is good! The forests could be burning but those folks are cheery as hell, which I like. Happiness is the key to life.

[Xing]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

But southern Californians seem to have a culture of driving in the left lane, which is fine in the metro areas but is very annoying when you're driving through more rural areas. It was so bad the last time I drove from L.A. to S.F. that I had to Google to see what the law was for that in California. It seemed like they treated the left lane as the driving lane and the right lane as the passing lane.

Omg, this is extremely annoying. You don’t camp out in the left lane. It’s for passing. You pass, and you move on. It’s also called the fast lane for a reason. If the car behind you is going faster you move over. Biggest Southern California pet peeve for me.

[10023]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

except Miami

I don’t think people there are unfriendly. Lots of New Yorkers though.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Xing

Omg, this is extremely annoying. You don’t camp out in the left lane. It’s for passing. You pass, and you move on. It’s also called the fast lane for a reason. If the car behind you is going faster you move over. Biggest Southern California pet peeve for me.

Ontarians do this, too. My rationale for explaining it is that on most GTA highways the inner-most right lane is always being used for merging on or off, and if not that then it's taken up by transports. If you're 'driving through' somewhere you're almost always in the middle or outside lanes and just sitting there because the inside lane is a no-go traffic-wise. Doesn't excuse people doing this on two-lane highways through rural areas, but yeah. Not sure why this would an issue exclusive to SoCal.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Miami has the worst driving culture. South Florida has the crappiest, rudest drivers. Only place I ever had a rental car damaged. And parked in a lot, no less.

Is it all the old fogeys and people who learned to drive in Port au Prince and Havana? Or the New Yawkas who never had a license prior to living in South Florida?

Only place I make sure to buckle up in the backseat of an Uber. And the only time anyone seems to use a turn signal is when they’re going straight on the highway or turning in the opposite direction.

Americans, in general, are pretty shitty drivers though. You’d think a place where people rely so much on driving would have good drivers, but the reality is that this necessitates a very low bar to obtain a drivers license. Most Americans would fail a British or German driving test (just because of how they manoeuvre the vehicle, not even the rules).