The misconceptions about NYC abound. If you ever find yourself in a conversation with someone who’s not from around here, the person will probably think these things about New York:
1. New Yorkers never sleep
As we wrote last week, “The city that never sleeps” is a gross exaggeration. New Yorkers do stay up later, but we get about the same amount of sleep as people in other cities, and Las Vegas actually gets the fewest hours of sleep in the country.
2. New Yorkers are rude
Rudeness is not a lifestyle; it’s a product of circumstance. If a New Yorker is rude to you, it’s because they have a reason to be. Maybe you did something to piss them off. Or maybe they just haven’t had their coffee yet.
3. New Yorkers are bad drivers
“Bad” and “aggressive” are not the same thing. If you had to deal with the traffic in this city every day, you’d cut people off too.
4. New Yorkers don’t have their shit together
We can see how Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Broad City, and all those other TV shows and movies might make you think this way. But this city is full of people at a range of life stages. Well-adjusted New Yorkers who have their shit together do exist.
5. New Yorkers think they’re better than everyone else
When you really think about it, 4 and 5 can’t be true at the same time, unless you’re talking about people who pride themselves on being a complete mess, but that gets old after a while.
Cover photo credit: Maciek Lulko/Flickr