For the Americans, a question

[JayKeeley]

How refined are the people in your neck of the woods?

I have to say, after a while, living in NY/NJ gets a bit tiring with having to constantly deal with people who are...let's say...."rough around the edges". It's not down to any group -- this could be Italian or Irish etc -- but for the last 18 months, I've been working in the city, and it really gets tiresome. Not sure if I could live in the city tbh.

Even in the 'burbs, you get an assortment of folks who are pretty confrontational, loud, and just generally lacking any polish. [cue obvious jokes about this describing all Americans ] Many of these folks might have grown up in one of the boroughs and then moved to the 'burbs, but they've remained bully'ish.

How about you? Do you come from a neighborhood filled with people who are reasonably middle-class, well-read, well-traveled, articulate, etc? Or do you also have to deal with the unrefined element?!!

 

[Climb Thar Hill]

I'm trying my hardest not to go into an angry rant

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

I'd say the majority of the people on the east side of Provi are more or less "refined". Though they have their own subtle snobbiness. Southside is pretty much what you described above.

 

[JayKeeley]

Yeah, to be fair, I would say 75% of the time, everything is ok....it's just that 25% element which drags it all down, both in the city and suburbs.

 

[lurch70]

uno

 

[lurch70]

and how is this not different than ANYWHERE in the world?

 

[lurch70]

and how is this not different than ANYWHERE else in the world?

 

[JayKeeley]

It's the same everywhere, but the ratio differs between "well mannered" and "uncouth" inhabitants.

Imagine living in Camden, NJ where the % of well educated, refined folks is near 0%.

I would say my current location is about 75-80% clean - middle class.

When I lived in Backbay/Southend, Boston, that number was probably around 90%. Same with Wimbledon, London actually.

Fucking NYC though....holy crap, you just can't even rank it....it's either glorious or complete cesspit.

 

[skeptik]

Perth Amboy, NJ = 90% (at least) Hispanic, and a lot of them act like animals. They feed off of each other's behavior it seems, so it's a perpetual tend. They're all street dwellers who take pride in nothing but the most basic things. So yeah, I would say "generally unrefined," being generous.

 

[EricT]

Tooele, Utah. Religious nuts. 90% Mormon, 9.9% Catholic, 0.1% Me.

Religious nut hicks, to be exact. Idea of a good night to them is beating the wife, fucking the cow, and eating a squirrel they hit with their 1959 ford truck a few weeks ago.

 

[lurch70]

It's the same everywhere, but the ratio differs between "well mannered" and "uncouth" inhabitants.

Imagine living in Camden, NJ where the % of well educated, refined folks is near 0%.

I would say my current location is about 75-80% clean - middle class.

When I lived in Backbay/Southend, Boston, that number was probably around 90%. Same with Wimbledon, London actually.

Fucking NYC though....holy crap, you just can't even rank it....it's either glorious or complete cesspit.

i think taking public transportation increases your frustration with the cesspool part

 

[cthulufhtagn]

portland is a pretty refined place i guess, as far as that goes

i'm sure i'm a lot more generous than some of you with my classification though

 

[Ars Magna]

Columbus, Ohio sucks. My particular neighborhood is ok (quiet, suburban) but the majority seem to be fairly ignorant. I was shocked when I moved here from Minneapolis. People leave 'to be' completely out of their vocabulary. Instead of saying "the car needs to be washed" they say "the car needs washed". It still drives me fucking insane...nearly 10 years after the move.

 

[Ars Magna]

Columbus, Ohio sucks. My particular neighborhood is ok (quiet, suburban) but the majority seem to be fairly ignorant. I was shocked when I moved here from Minneapolis. People leave 'to be' completely out of their vocabulary. Instead of saying "the car needs to be washed" they say "the car needs washed". It still drives me fucking insane...nearly 10 years after the move.

 

[JayKeeley]

Perth Amboy, NJ = 90% (at least) Hispanic, and a lot of them act like animals. They feed off of each other's behavior it seems, so it's a perpetual tend. They're all street dwellers who take pride in nothing but the most basic things. So yeah, I would say "generally unrefined," being generous.

I have hispanic neighbors. I had to call the cops on them once because they felt comfortable enough to throw trash over the fence and into my backyard. And not bags of trash, but stuff like bricks, wood, nails, stuff like that...once I found a pulley wheel in the middle of my lawn. I mean, I've got small kids who play out in the yard.

Fucking cops had them come round to my house and make them personally apologize. Guess what they did? They blamed it on one of the kids friends and made sure to emphasize the part about him being "black".

 

[JayKeeley]

i think taking public transportation increases your frustration with the cesspool part

I think I'd be all "falling down" if I was stuck in NYC traffic all day long. But yeah, the subway is just gross. It's not just the hygene factor but the goddam "NY attitude". Absoluley everyone is pissing and moaning about everyone else. In 18 months, I have seen at least 1 fight per month on a subway train breakout during rush hour.

After a while, it really starts to affect you. Sometimes you see parents taking their little kids to school on the subway, and they have to see all this vile crap.

The funny thing is, they say that after 9/11, all the New Yorkers banded together to help each other out....well, I don't know whether that was a one-off but I would never in a million years label New Yorkers as being caring citizens.

 

[skeptik]

I have hispanic neighbors. I had to call the cops on them once because they felt comfortable enough to throw trash over the fence and into my backyard. And not bags of trash, but stuff like bricks, wood, nails, stuff like that...once I found a pulley wheel in the middle of my lawn. I mean, I've got small kids who play out in the yard.

Fucking cops had them come round to my house and make them personally apologize. Guess what they did? They blamed it on one of the kids friends and made sure to emphasize the part about him being "black".

It's weird, I think a lot of the people here (especially the older ones) are first and second generation Americans, or frequently go back to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic, and they don't seem eager to adapt to a general aesthetic of respectability one would hope to find here. Like they yell across streets a lot and curse, mostly speaking Spanish, playing loud music, loitering, sitting on other people's property, not moving out of the street for cars, generally being disrespectful (especially toward whites), and yes, throwing shit over the fence. Once, the neighbors to my left threw a large branch over the fence and it landed on top of an air conditioner that we had outside for repair. I don't mean to sound racist, and of course I'm probably over exaggerating, especially regarding the frequency of this behavior, but this has largely been my observations, especially in my immediate area. Though the waterfront of my city is rather nice.

 

[Reign in Acai]

I'd say the lowest common denominator inhabits this vile cesspool known as Mexico Norte. And as Lurch pointed out, they tend to flock on public transportation. Hell I got in to a confrontation 3 years ago with 2 potheads in Pasadena, because pothead 1 accused me of eyeballing his friend, when in actuality, all I was doing was minding my own business listening to my discman.

(Boy is eyeballing me for a good 30 secs, to the point in which I feel he has an issue)

Me: Excuse me, may I help you? (How refined can I get?)
Faghat: Ye, why you eyeballing my homey?
Me: Haha nobody is eyeballing his faggot ass.

(At this point I stand up and give him not only point blank stink eye, but a whiff of my halitosis that was a result of the philly cheese steak w/ grilled onions that I had for lunch)

Within moments the Pasadena Police Dept is on the scene pulling the bus to the side of the road. God damn fucking ridiculous, that I can not ride a bus from work to home without some asshole throwing a curveball in to my schedule.

Long story short, he gets a fine for possession of marijuana, bangs his bf up the ass 20 minutes later, and I get a free lift home via the five-0.

This pretty much sums up El Gay. Everyone walks around with a bloody chip on their shoulder in a desperate attempt to feel more mafioso than the next man. Shit hole with a capital corn!

 

[lurch70]

for me its always an issue as I am so tall ... people, usually uneducated stupid ones ... always have some fucking comment about my height (shit at ND, when we went out for pizza with Ali and my friend, some negaro started with it in the shop ... it lead to a tall chick that overheard it, trying to make a move on the lurch, but that is another story)

staying away from public transport if I can, has made my stress level go down so much ...

i'll choose who I have to deal with ...

 

[lurch70]

I think I'd be all "falling down" if I was stuck in NYC traffic all day long.

the funny thing is traffic in NY and surrounding areas is not as bad as you might think ... even in rush hour. oddly its better than pre 9/11 ... and it was in the NYTimes recently that as much as 60% of people workign in the city that come from the boroughs and westchester DRIVE in.

Numerous times I have beaten people into the city driving compared to them taking public transportation