One City?
I make it my point to subscribe to the feeds of other metblogs. An entry by Gina in Metblog Orange County caught my eye this morning. The entry, entitled “CityFacts” talks about the thing that is different about how Metblog Orange County is that Orange County is comprised of 34 distinct municipalities. But I wondered, is the OC comprised of 34 different mentalities and attitudes? I asked Gina in a comment to her post “Would a man in Anaheim refuse to date a woman in, say, Huntington Beach citing “geographical undesirability”?
Now if our blogging territory covered the same square mile area as the OC, we would also be blogging about parts of Long Island, Westchester, Rockland, and even Northern and/or N. Central New Jersey or Southern Connecticut. Talk about differing mentalities!
Does anyone recall the Seinfeld episode when Elaine changes her phone number and she gets a 646 area code, which is the newer area code for Manhattan? She goes into hysterical begging to the phone man “pleeez let me keep my 212″ . and then laments to Jerry that when she first came to NYC, she had a 718 area code and went into a funk for a year!
How about the episode when Kramer meets a girl from downtown and calls it a “long-distance relationship” and says “it’s a whole different world down there [downtown]“. While he is on the phone with his girlfriend in Jerry’s apartment, he tells Jerry “Do you know it is the same time down there as it is here?” How many of us live, or have lived in the hinterlands of Brooklyn or Queens and have a bunch of Manhattan friends who have never seen our apartments because they won’t leave the “island”.
Years ago, when Williamsburg was just getting hip, I heard comments such as “I would never move there! You have to take that G train!” And while living in Queens, I once asked a Manhattan-resident coworker if she would come to Forest Hills and see MY apartment for once. “What is there to do there? What would we do in Queens?” I tried not to be too sarcastic. I wanted to say “Oh I don’t know, maybe milk the cows and sit on the porch in rocking chairs” But instead I told her “Go get a your passport and a visa and take the R train. Where’s your sense of adventure?” (I know, that remark was sarcastic too). When she arrived at 63rd Drive and saw Marshall’s and Old Navy, she said “Oh you have the same stores” duhhhh!
Okay she was originally from out of town, so I will excuse her. But even I would say “going to the City”
when I commuted from Queens to Manhattan. Meanwhile it takes 20 minutes on the express train to go from Forest Hills to Manhattan, and even less if you live in Jackson Heights or Astoria, From Brooklyn Heights to downtown Manhattan is quick too. But there’s nothing like crossing over water, going over bridges and through tunnels to make one feel as if he has made a long trek into another world!
And the reverse is even worse. I know Long Islanders who live and work and raise kids 15 minutes from the Queens border and go to “the City” once a year or less. My married friend from northern New Jersey doesn’t want to drive her new car and park it here, she says. I told her to pack her pistol. I know — sarcasm again. I am working on that flaw in my communication skills but sometimes I just can’t resist.
Related posts:
most of northern manhattan is further away from midtown/downtown than many parts of brooklyn & queens.
It is amazing how different the areas of the city are. Going from far downtown to midtown may be a longer trip than Queens to midtown, but there is more of a disconnect, so inevitably you feel like it is further. I have a friend from Astoria, and even though her apartment is only a couple of stops from my office, I HATE going there… It just seems like such a schlep!
I live in northern Manhattan and have dated twice in Brooklyn. Having done it twice, I was more the fool the 2nd time. I’d never do it again. It was such a logistical nightmare working things out to see one another and created far more conflict than it perhaps should have…but there ya go.
I think part of the reason for this phenomenon is the actual geographic layout of Manhattan. It is a long, thin island, so even at its points furthest from the subway, it is not THAT far, and it is really simple to figure out where this are in relation to others, subway-wise. Once you get to Brooklyn or Queens, it is much less cut and dry. There are often transfers involved, and it becomes a headache to get where you want to go, or more importantly, get home!
Nice post, Fern!
I sort of answered your question in the comment section of the OC Metblog, but I’ll restate here.
I think there is a definite “attitudinal” difference between parts of Orange County. To hang out in Santa Ana is to be in almost a different world than Laguna Niguel.
That being said, throughout the SoCal region, people definitely consider location as a pro or con in a dating relationship. If a person has to traverse the 101, the 10 and the 5 to see their sweetie on a Friday night, sitting in traffic is gonna get REALLY old, fast. Someone living in the San Fernando Valley would be hard-pressed to date someone living in San Clemente.
Orange County itself is not that large, so you can get mostly anywhere within forty five minutes or so.
Although, I’m not sure that someone who lives in Coto de Caza is going to really dig someone from Stanton, but that is probably more of an income/class bias issue than location. Which there is quite a bit of here.