# Pple from Albany nicer than NYC... HA!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 8, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220 "2004-06-08T02:37:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Llama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Llama)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/1 "2004-06-08T02:37:16Z")
From [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4941468#post4941468) thread
> [@bouv](#):
>
> I just graduated from college in Troy, NY (just north of Albany.) So
> I WAS in upstate NY for four years straight (minus the first summer that I went home.) It’s a nice place, and the people in the Capitol District at least are very friendly, almost to contrast the suppossed “jerk” sterotype from NYC.
Gonna have to give a hearty big DISAGREE to this one. The people in Albany are among the most repugnant I have come across. As an example, I have done my time driving in Manhattan. It’s an art, but not too terrible. I also did my time commuting 5 miles to work every day from Schenectady to Colonie (which took _at least_ 20 minutes. I’d take Manhattan any day of the week, and twice at rush hour. That area is the only place in the whole freaken world where I’ve been cut off, and then the people who cut me off gave ME the finger. This happened on more than one occasion. The first time you think, I must have done something to piss him off, and he cut me off to retaliate, but times 2 and 3, I know I did nothing.
Hold a door open for people, and they look at you like you must be a priest or something. Hell, I’ve had homeless guys hold a door open for me at grand central, and when I went to go to another door because I was broke, they told me “It’s ok, it’s my pleasure to open it for you anyway.” If you notice, most of the people in this thread talk about how they moved _away_ from the Albany area.
Now, I know you said “supposed” stereotype. I’m sure you don’t think NYC people are all dicks. But if you think that Capitol Area People are super nice, or even civil, you must be from the bad sections of war torn Bosnia.\*
Now, obviously, I did find some cool people up there, but man, overall, it was the least mannered, least considerate place I’ve been to.
\*I’ve never been to Bosnia, not even the good sections, and I’m sure the people there are super cool.
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/2 "2004-06-08T04:48:25Z")
I lived for an approximately equal amount of time in NYC and Albany. No, I don’t think Albany people are particularly nicer. If anything I think the niceness of New Yorkers is sorely underrated.
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### Author:  [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/3 "2004-06-08T12:52:50Z")
Excuse me for living.
I’ve lived here my entire life, and I have absolutely no idea what you people are talking about.
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### Author:  [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/4 "2004-06-08T14:16:00Z")
Well, as I mentioned in the above-referenced thread, I’m from a _really_ small town in Northern New York (yes, it’s capitalized–we’re a region, dammit!). I now live in the Capital District. The drivers here are ruder and I’ve had the same thing happen with people cutting me off and then flipping _me_ off. Now, when I visit my parents up there and I drive through the area, I’m incredibly impatient with the drivers in their beat-up pickups going about 45 in a 55 MPH zone when I’m trying to get to the next town (which is the only place that has a Walmart or any restaurants, etc.). Grrrrr.
But, I think it’s a lifestyle difference. Everyone here (Cap. Dist.) is always on the go, whereas NNY is much more laid-back and, yes, friendlier. There may be MORE rude people in Albany because there are more people in the area.
I can’t really compare it to NYC, however, since I’ve never lived there.
I don’t know if I’ve made one bit of sense, I’m trying to get work done and post, simultaneously. :smack:
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/5 "2004-06-08T15:36:29Z")
Well, I’m originall from possibly the nicest place on earth (vermont,) and when I was heading off to college I had in my head the idea that people in New York were jerks. Of course, that mainly applies to people in the city, and even then it is exageratted. But while I was there, I noticed that people on the street would say hello as you passed them, a guy on the bus might strike up a conversation about the weather, that sort of thing. I’m not saying they’re going to take a bullet for you, but all in all it was, in my opinion, a nice place.
I will agree with you about the driving, though. But that seems to hold true for anyplace that has a population larger than a few thousand. Even in Burlington, (largest city in VT, but still not too large at ~60,000) people drive like jerks.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/6 "2004-06-08T15:51:28Z")
Living in or around Albany must be a very breakneck, frazzling experience - at least it appears so, if the OP felt it necessary to save the odd millisecond by spelling “People” as “Pple”.
Sorry, but it impacted me. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/7 "2004-06-09T02:05:23Z")
I havent spent too much time in either the Albany region or, lately, the NYC region. However, from my limited time in them, they are both friendly, in a northern way. No, they both don’t seem to have very polite drivers, but the people on the street and in shops are, if not some of the friendliest people I have ever met, at least not different enough from each other to warrant a contrast.
Compare to Ithaca, NY! That has to be the _least_ friendly place I have ever been to! Normally you might chalk it up to town/gown tensions, but everyone there is unfriendly: store clerks, Cornell faculty, students, professors, etc.!
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/8 "2004-06-09T04:41:38Z")
Never been to Albany, but i have been to NYC, and i firmly believe the “rude New Yorker” stereotype to be completely off the mark. Sure, sheer population suggests that New York City has a rather large number of assholes, but in my experience there are no more per head of population than anywhere else. And on the few occasions i’ve asked a stranger a question in NYC–whether for the time, or for directions, or whatever–the responses have been unuiformly friendly and helpful.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/9 "2004-06-09T13:52:09Z")
I was raised in Oklahoma and moved to NYC.
The NYC=Rude reputation is really undeserved.
I’ve been to Paris twice and didn’t find rude people there either.
Maybe it’s me?
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### Author:  [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pple-from-albany-nicer-than-nyc-ha/249220/10 "2004-06-09T14:38:51Z")
My brother has been in Chicago for about 3 years (DJ at KISS 103.5 :: puke smilie:: ) and visited me here in Albany/Troy recently. He couldn’t believe how rude people are here. He said people in Chi-town are even nicer than the folks in our small, laid-back hometown. He loves it there.
When he was riding with me here in Albany on Central Ave. and someone cut me off and then flipped me off, he was absolutely appalled. I guess I’m just used to it because it really didn’t phase me much. I said it happens a lot. ::shrug::