1 mo. ago • 51%

New York City is the only city in America (or maybe the world) where people are expected to have a general understanding of the geography in casual conversation.

Like why do I feel like I’m supposed to be able to name the seven boroughs? I can’t tell you anything about L.A., Chicago, Boston, etc.

Edit: to clarify: I mean that everyone in America are expected to know NYC. Not just New Yorkers. Obviously everyone should know the layout of where they live.

35 comments

Wait a minute, what?

I've been to a few cities all over Europe, lived in a couple of them for years, and I feel like having a general knowledge of the geography of where you live is a basic requirement of life.

Didn't you play the "capital city game" with friends as a kid?

I mean, it's cool with me if you or anyone has no idea of the layout of your local map, but that's a surprise for sure.

38
- My point is that people in the US are kind of expected to understand the layout of a city that they may never have been to or maybe only visited as a tourist.
  
  It’s only the “local map” for like 8 million of us.
  
  -10
  
  Where are you getting this impression? I've never gotten any sense that anyone outside the city is "expected" to know its geography. "Expected" how?
  
  Also there are only 5 boroughs
  
  19
  
  The way the title is worded ("a city where people are expected..") implies this is referring to people that live in NY. I'd clarify it by saying something like "the only city of which people from the rest of the country are expected to know..."
  
  10
  
  Only New Yorkers think this way.
  
  How do you know someone's from New York?
  
  Don't worry, they'll tell you.
  
  3
The seven burros – happy, sleepy, grumpy, sneezy, doc. I’m missing a few.

27
- Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, New Jersey, ACAB Island, and Westchester
  
  11
  
  i'd hate to see what's "snow white" in this version.
  
  3
Definitely not in the world lol, I don't think most Europeans care for or have any idea of the geography of New York

18
- We did listen to Beastie Boys over here too you know.
  
  (So there are only five boroughs)
  
  7
- I don't know, I think maybe it depends on age? Most people exposed to US media will recognize at least the landmarks, but that's probably true of other cities as well.
  
  But NYC has been in so many videogames I feel younger people with a passing interest in gaming will at least have a weird set of expectations. Of Manhattan, if nothing else. The twenty years of open world Spider-Man games alone are more exposure to an overhead map of a city than most people get of the place where they live in that amount of time.
  
  3
Like gamla stan in Stockholm, les Champs-Elysées Elysées in Paris or like the Colosseum in Rome?

I mean if it's known its known, but "people from the capital" sometimes (or to be cocky) thinks everything revolves around those places I guess.

12
Lol wut. Literally anywhere you live in the world if you have a casual conversation with someone they generally expect you to have some knowledge of the local geography.

11
- I mean every American is expected to know the layout of a specific city.
  
  2
In Eastern Europe even the most illiterate citizen of a town/city knows the neighborhoods and where they are in relation to one another, if that's what you're asking.

11
5 boroughs

7
To be fair, four of the five boroughs have greater populations than multiple states (Staten Island being the exception). I don't think any other city in the US has comparable subdivisions.

It's also hard to overstate the historical and cultural significance of NYC in the US. And this is coming from a New Englander who is obliged to say, "New York sucks."

6
For many, maybe even most Americans, NYC might as well be a fictional place. It's featured heavily in countless movies, TV shows, books, etc. It's more common than Westeros, Middle Earth, or Hogwarts. And people are expected to understand these settings, at least as much as NYC.

And that's all before you consider places like Batman's Gotham that is very clearly NYC.

5
- your crazy. gotham is chicago on a good day and detroit on a bad day. metropolis is new york
  
  5
  
  My crazy? https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway
  
  1
I'm from long island and i wouldn't expect that, I don't even know that I'd expect people outside of the city to know about boroughs. New York state is basically just 3 areas you should know of, "the city", "long island", and "upstate"

3
Wait, we are? TIL.

1
Yeah, IDK about that. Nobody in Ohio cares about NYC's layout anyways.

1
- There is a reason zoomers use "Ohio" as an adjective.
  
  2
  
  🙄
  
  0
I don't feel like im supposed to be able to name the seven boroughs and did not know there were seven. whos pressuring you???

1
You should see an optometrist for your myopia.

-2
And that for Americans, who have a hard time to locate even their own home town on a map.

-5
- Forget for a second that your original premise is basically completely wrong... You realize how fucking massive the USA is right? Based on the smugness I have to assume you're European. The USA is effectively the same size as your whole continent. The country is the size of your continent. Let that sink in. And unlike the Continent of Europe... Much of the middle of the continent has no notable landmarks on many maps.
  
  Most people can absolutely give you the general area they live if you put a map of the USA in front of them. They may be off by a bit, but that's simply a function of how massive the scale of the map is you put in front of them.
  
  3
- Hurr durr, 'Muricans Stoopid
  
  People like you crack me up, all butthurt cause Americans don't give a fuck about where you're from.
  
  Just shows you want attention from Americans, like you're mad your crush doesn't know you exist.
  
  1

You've viewed 35 comments.