Traveling around the Country in a Light Airplane- Are New York based pilots any ruder than people from other areas?

Does being from the New York City area make you rude? I don’t think so, but whenever I am travelling I tell people that I’m from Southwestern Connecticut. Most folks only have a local understanding of their own geography so when we’re invariably asked about where in the world that is I’ll say we’re 64 miles by car or 39 miles by air from New York City. 

This past trip Judy asked me why people always tell us about rude people from New York when we tell them where we’re from. She was wondering if the people were telling us that we’re rude, or were shocked that we weren’t as rude as the stereotypical New Yorker. I said that I didn’t know which it was but it got me thinking about the thirteen years that I worked in Manhattan and the relative rudeness of people I encountered during that time.

I wouldn’t say that people from New York are any ruder than people from any other major metropolitan area. I’ve worked in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Los Angeles and Portland Oregon and I’ve found that whenever there are a lot of people concentrated in one area they become intolerant of people who are not familiar with the way things work there.

Of all the places that I have worked I would say Boston and Philly were the rudest, but maybe that was my impression from not knowing the ropes of the community I found myself in.