The term is actually “Bridge & Tunnel” or “B&T” for short. Some people use it to mean anyone not from Manhattan, but it generally refers to low class jerkoffs who come to Manhattan to party from the outer boroughs (ie every borough that isn’t Manhattan) and New Jersey (via one of the bridges or tunnels, obviously). Note that people who live in Westchester or Connecticut aren’t B&T because they generally come in on Metro North.
As the cost of living in Manhattan has increased, driving the young, affluent, cool and hip out to places like Hoboken, NJ or Williamsburg in Brooklyn, the term isn’t used so much any more. But I still know some NYers who don’t like going out between 7pm on Friday and 7am on Monday because of all the people who come into the city.
No you don’t. You live in a real combined administrative district consisting of 23 special wards (each with a level of autonomy similar to that of independent cities) and several smaller towns and cities. The “City” of Tokyo was abolished in 1943 when the prefectural and city governments were merged. There is no city called Tokyo and there hasn’t been for over 60 years.
I think things have changed quite a bit; NYC isn’t as rude as it used to be. Those who experienced NYC pre-Times Square banalification might agree. And honestly, I think that 9/11 had a fairly large impact on people; though I lived in the midwest at the time, it seemed to me during my visits after that time that there really was a noticable change in attitude.
At any rate, two amusing anecdotes from the early '90s:
(1) I worked in an office near the Chrysler building. It was a good day when we didn’t have to grab a crappy sandwich from the cart that came around daily (it was almost a given that we’d eat at our desks). On one such day, we scurried across 42nd street to Hop-Won for take-out. They were always as busy as we were – when you got to the head of the line, you barked out the plate number over the surrounding din and then stepped aside, paying as soon as your order was ready. A visiting colleague (from the midwest) wasn’t familiar with the routine, nor was he prepared; it went like this:
Cashier: “Next!”
Colleague: “How’s the beef&broccoli?”
Cashier: “Beef and broccoli? Number 7?”
Colleague: “Yeah…is it good?”
Cashier: (getting flustered) “You want Number 7?”
Colleague: “Maybe…is it good?”
Cashier: (now red-faced) “NEXT!”
Two people were served before my colleague figured out that he should just step up when he heard “Next!”.
(2) Again, a visiting friend, this time out for drinks on Friday night at McSorley’s. Now, McSorley’s – oldest bar in NYC, IIRC; I’ve only been there twice – serves two types of beer, mugs of light and dark, that you order in even numbered increments, often 1/2 dozen or more at a time. The waitresses can carry an amazing number of mugs at once, grasping the handles so that the mugs are like petals on a beery flower but with a fist at its center. My friend doesn’t really get this and expects a choice of name beers:
Friend: So what kind of beer do you serve?
Bartender: Light and dark.
Friend: Really? OK…I’ll have 7 light and 1 dark.
Bartender: Fuuuck you. You’ll have 8 light.
Now those aren’t terribly rude, and they’re kinda funny. It’s the not-so-amusing things (like the dead guy I saw on the Public Library steps that everyone was simply stepping over) that earned NYC its rather callous reputation.
Hell, this isn’t even specific to NYC. One of my favorite burger joints (in Ohio, no less!) runs the same way. You either want the special or the hamburger. You either want pie or you don’t. No questions. No waffling. When the big surly lady with the hairnet slams her fist on the counter and barks “Whadda ya want?” You answer.
I am actually quite amazed to hear you say this. But I have to bow to your knowledge on this, as you actually live there.
As a mere ancedote, though, I gotta say, I have seen this happen. More so in Manhattan than anywhere else though. As a matter of fact, blowing the horn was so common, that my husband had to explain to me that it wasn’t meant to indicate that anyone else had did anything wrong, it was simply how they were communicating.
Drivers literally showing me their hands out the window as if to say, “I’m coming over, wait, I need to go first”, or whatever was also common.
But again, I take your word that my experience is not typical for NY, as you live there, and I only love to visit the place.
Oh, there’s plenty of horn blowing. And finger giving. And baseball bat weilding lesbians bashing the hell out of a yellow taxi that cut them off. And cutting across 3 lanes of traffic on 3rd to make the turn you know you needed to make 10 blocks back. . . I don’t know how, much less why, anyone would try to drive in Manhattan during rush hour.
I’m talking about honking the second the light turns green. Probably because when the light turns green, cars move. A lot of times the car moves the second the opposite light turns red-- before you light turns green.
However, if you’re sitting at the light texting on your phone and don’t notice the light has changed even though the cars next to you have long gone-- then yeah, you’ll get honked.
*All situations above have been experienced by me-- a real New Yorker and non-driver.
I think that’s a McSorley’s thing. IIRC, it’s also the place where they have a free drink special until someone goes to the bathroom.
One thing I like about NYC is they do have some really cool bars and clubs. Places that are a little different from your generic ubiquitous Irish pub found in most places.
It is the home of the Soup Nazi.
Also driving in Boston is the absolute worst.
You are aware that this is the literal definition of the phrase “New York minute,” right?
Like Biggirl, I’d say that you don’t actually see this very often, but mostly because virtually everyone has already gotten with the program. If you’re sitting at a fresh green in average Manhattan traffic with no detectable forward momentum, I would put the over/under at 3 seconds until you get honked. An eternity, really – I mean, that’s about 5% of the green light right there, and often more.
From the few times I have been to New York City and the New Yorkers (upstate and city) I’ve met, they aren’t rude, they’re just brutally honest. If you’re acting like a moron they’ll tell you, and they certainly aren’t going to put up with any crap.
The first time I went to NYC I was amazed by the honking, especially because upon entering the city the first thing I saw was a sign that said “No Honking $400 fine”. They drive the way you should drive in a congested city and aren’t shy about it.
On the other hand, Washington DC is very rude. Impatient, crazy, and definitely not helpful. I feel more comfortable driving in downtown Manhattan than on the beltway of DC in rush hour. Man I’m glad I moved away from that mess!
Digital Stimulus, that reminds me of Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi. (On preview, msmith537, you beat me to it!)
I know, I know. I have fambly scattered all over the south from Georgia through Alabama, Mississippi (I think) and the Florida panhandle. I lived in southwestern Virginia for several years and had friends from exceptionally rural parts of West Virginia. So I know something about the attitudes you reference. And I’m still shocked that someone would ask for you not to come back because your accent made them uncomfortable. You posted an audio file once. It didn’t scare me none.
I don’t know if I have ever been anyplace friendlier than NYC. Chicago and New Orleans are very close.
Not only are there usually 6 natives happy to help you with directions in NYC for every one that just needs to get somewhere but if you are in a bar, at a game, in a park or on the subway, New Yorkers are much more likely to strike up a conversation. I don’t mean polite nothings, I mean a real conversation. The kind you would have with your friends. This sure as hell rarely happened in LA or SD. The South is friendly but people seem to shy away from any conversation that is even the least bit meaty and prefer to stick to the inane with strangers from my experience. That is a different type of polite I realize and I think part of the reason NYC gets a rep. It is a different world in many ways.
I get a similar vive from Chicago and NO. Not as intense but pretty close. San Diego I spend 3 years living in and honestly only the Mexicans where actually outgoing and friendly in general. I would agree with other that put South Cal as the rudest part of the USA. On average people just seemed very much only into their own thing and had neither the opinionated gift for gab friendliness of NYC or the ultra-polite but careful politeness of the south.
Jim (Born in the Bronx but I am a Jersey guy all the way.)
I’m a tourist magnet. I grew up in lower Manhattan, where I work now, and damned if a tourist or three doesn’t sidle up to me every day asking where Broadway might be (“Ye’re in it,” I tell them.) I get them to the subway, to the Seaport, to a nice diner, to the closest shoe repair shop, to Chinatown. I like helping tourists, I do it for fun. I’ll walk up to a befuddled outlander and ask if he or she is looking for something, and then I tell ‘m where it is. I don’t don’'t get how we have this reputation for unfriendliness, but I’m trying hard to counter it.
No, they’re not particularly rude. I’m not even a fan of New York, but I can’t say the people here are particularly “rude.” (Arrogant and provincial, yes – but that’s another story.)
There are some straight-up antisocial people here of course (inevitable in any city). Olivesmarch4th’s experience with the obnoxious kids on the train is something I see pretty regularly here, but done by people who appear to be locals. Also, an elderly colleague of mine had a story recently about how she fell on the stairs getting out of the subway, and could barely move for all the people stepping over and around her body, nobody bothering to help her up. So it does happen.
I don’t much like New York, but I visited there at least once a year until I was in high school and have been back a few times since. I’ve never found New Yorkers to be any ruder than people anyplace else. Most cities worldwide that I’ve visited that even approached the size of New York have been much worse in that regard.
Yeah, I had tinges of feeling that way for a couple years after I moved away from the northeast (I grew up in northern NJ). I got over it, though; IMHO, the no-nonsense, always-in-motion attitude was a minor benefit compared to the general callousness that engendered it.
I suppose I should add a disclaimer that although I worked for a time in Manhattan, I never actually lived in any of the five boroughs; only in Hoboken and the NJ 'burbs. Perhaps – particularly because I was only a young man – I never got a fair nor accurate sense of “New Yorkers” (though I consider northern NJ to essentially be NYC suburbs). And again, this was all pre-1993 (that is, pre-Mayor Giuliani); by my perception, there has been a shift in attitudes since then.
Probably true. Being the oldest bar in NYC does grant some attitudinal leeway, after all. At my one other time at McSorley’s we got into a drinking contest with another group; I can really only (hazily) remember two things: (1) we “won”, and (2) later that evening, some chick from the other group threw up on my Chuck Taylors. After I helped her friend walk/carry her outside, I went back in – AFAICT, there wasn’t any pause in the night’s activities.
I had wondered why they had sawdust spread out on the floor…
I second this - it didn’t matter how much we got out of the way to look at our little map in Central Park or wherever, people would still go out of their way to come over to ask us where we were trying to get to and help us out with directions. New Yorkers are nice!
(And no, we never did that annoying thing of stopping dead to look at maps in the middle of 5th Avenue or whatever - I HATE that ;))
My husband has a laundry list of food allergies. The first time we came to NYC as adults, we had lunch at a diner. My husband proceeded to order a wrap without cheese, sauce, or tomatoes.
The waiter looks at him and says, ‘‘Really?’’ The tone was totally innocent incredulity alongside a hearty dose of ‘‘you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.’’
They drive the way you should drive in a congested city and aren’t shy about it.