A real New Yorker is someone who is born in New York...Kind of how a Mongolian is born in Mongolia. Williamsburgh is filled with wannabe New Yorkers...hicks from small towns that want to live in New York but can't afford Manhattan.

Basically, if you didn't take a regent exam growing up, you're not a New Yorker.

I disagree only partially.

My entire family is from NYC. I was born in the Bronx, grew up across the Hudson (yep, NJ) near Fort Lee and have been living in Manhattan since I was 18.

Never took a regents.

I consider myself an NYer with a bit of NJ pride :-)

your accent !

Now THAT is one way to know for sure! :-)stacy wrote:
>
> your accent !

OK...so those unfortunate people who were not smart enough to take regent exams are not NYer's? How about the guy that moves to NYC from the small town in New York State on the Canadian border and does not live in NYC. He took regents, so I guess he is a New Yorker.

Born in NY makes you a New Yorker. And I don't mean New York State. I am talking Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and I guess I have to give Staten Island a nod, but only because I have 2. Regents? My grandfather never took those, and he was about as New Yorker as they got-from the deli counterman thorugh the taxi driving years.

sorry to burst your bubble Lee but anyone from New York State is a New Yorker by definition. There are many different kinds of New Yorkers...Brooklynites, Long Islanders, Western New Yorkers, Staten Islanders, Manhattanites etc. Don't be so provincial in considering a New Yorker as one only from NYC. In order to truly be a New Yorker you have to embrace the beauty of both the city and the country. Obviously your grandfather never took a regents exam because they weren't invented; however, most true New Yorkers, that were in the school system in the past 35 years have...unless you were too stupid or went to a Jesuit high school.

Viva New York

In addition...if you pay taxes in New York and registered to vote in New York you are a New Yorker.

Why is it that immigrants to New York not even 50 years ago seem a lot more loyal to the city, state, and country that immigrants in the last 20 years, many who steal (yeah I said it, STEAL) from the social security system, not contribute a dime for there SSI insurance, buy groceries with food stamps (yet wear fur coats and carry a Fendi bag), deal mainly in cash so as not to create any paper trail and scrub off of hard working real New Yorkers who in many cases pay more in their monthly taxes than their monthly rent....Why!? Why!? Why!?

I love to hear stories from my grandparents when they came to America and worked their asses off to earn $, not cheat the various public assistance programs.

It's sad but I don't really think that today's immigrants to New York care at all about the place they live...just a "get rich quick" place to go and ship $ back to some developing democracy or 3rd world nation.

Wake up New York. Let's take it back.

ive been told that a lot of defenitions about being a new yorker. but i think, if you love the city(even though you complain about it)your a new yorker, if you have that 'new york attitude' or you do things like a new yorker your a new yorker even if you move away like me.

Actually, a new yorker is anybody who has lived in ny for years, has the accent and picked up on a ny state of mind. You don't have to actually be born there to be considered a new yorker. What about people who lived there since they were 2 and they are 50 now? I'm pretty sure you can consider them a new yorker.

How about a New Yorker at heart? My parents met in NYC, honeymooned in Chicago and ::eeeeeks!:: _stayed there_! So it's not *my* fault I was born in the hinterlands ... lemme tell ya, I got out of there and high-tailed it to my *true home* ... New York City!... as soon as I *could* ... been here for 40 years now, wouldn't be anywhere else ... so I'm a New Yorker with a Midwest accent ... except the other day I was talking on the phone with someone in Canada who said 'wow, sure can tell you're from New York.' I didn't correct her ... cuz ... dangit, I *shoulda* been born here!

--R

A real NYer (ie from this city) was BORN, RAISED & EDUCATED HERE. They can tell you what neighborhood they grew up in, where their friends lived, what stores are gone, which are still around.

I grew up in Inwood. There was a movie theater on Dyckman St. before McDonalds. A Fanny Farmer on 207th & Bway. Another movie theater on 207th & Sherman. My T Burger was opposit Fanny Farmer. G's was on 207 & Cooper. I would sleigh ride in Inwood Hill Park. I went to Payson Park Nursery School, then Good Shepherd for 8 years, then St. Catharine's. There was a bar on just about every corner (2 or 3 when my parents were kids).

People who come here but never GREW UP here are NOT NYers...they are wanna be's but they never ever will be. It's just how it is.

A "New Yorker" is a term seldom used by people who are indigenous to any of the five boros. I have always found that people who actually grew up here were more neighborhood-centric. By that I mean you identified with the neighborhood you grew up in.

"New Yorker" was always believed to be something spoken by people who moved here from elsewhere searching for a way to identify with their adopted city. It is also perceived to be an attempt to shed their small-town, suburban upbringing while seeking acceptance. A "New Yorker" tries to display some pseudo-tough, street smart attitude while donning the latest fashions(and the hip new York magazines always dictate that black is the in "New York" color. These fools are usually donned head to toe in black as if they were en route to a wake.) and a virtual slave to the latest trends.

These poor souls generally lack a social life or close friends. They live for/through their jobs and their dogs( the breed is usually whatever the hip magazines tell them the "New York" breed is.) But hey, It's all worth it when they go home for the holidays and everyone sees what a "New Yorker" they've become...as if those people really care. Or if they have family/friends come in to visit them and they bring them around 'their" city. Being a "New Yorker" is a big responsibility. Trying to impress people is hard work, not mention expensive.

For years this phony individuals were, for the most part, confined to Manhattan. Now they have infected many of the neighborhoods we have all grown up in. Oh yes. The "Brooklyn" sweatshirts, the "Brooklyn Cyclones" shirts, Brooklyn Monopoly boards...hell, there's a store on 7th Ave in Park Slope that sells nothing but items that say "BROOKLYN." Needless to say, the store does very well with sales. All those "Brooklynites" that are up in arms over the building of the Nets arena off Flatbush Ave will be the first ones to go out and buy Nets apparel...so long as it has "Brooklyn" in big fat letters on the front! Honestly, I never felt a need to advertise where I grew-up/live, but I guess if one is indigenous, they don't need to. Hey, maybe I'm just not "Brooklyn" enough.

In essence, a "New Yorker" is a term reserved for phony people with inferiority complexes who have moved here, whether yesterday or twenty years ago, that feel an insatiable need to impress people. The Offspring said it best -" While he may not have a clue and he may not have style, but everything he lacks, he makes up in denial. The world loves wannabes, so do that brand new thing!"

May I add my 2 cents? One of my pet peeves is the misconception that ALLLLLL New Yorkers are from NYC. I have lived all my 55 years in Kodak Country (if you don't know where George hailed from,and a zillion other famous people,too, shame on you... hint, Upstate/Western, 3rd largest city in NY) and am very proud to be from NY, I LOVVVVVEEEE NY, but that's all inclusive... Adirondacks, Finger lakes, Wine Country, Falls, too many wonderful places to mention... but when I'm online in a chat room and someone asks "is there anyone from NY here", I get my hackles up when it's assumed if you say I'm from NY, you mean I'm from NYC. There is so much more to NY, almost like 2 different worlds (definitely 2 different "tudes" lol) comparing NYC to the rest of Glorious NYS!!!

I so agree with Pat. NYC and NYS are like apple and oranges or should I say red apples and green apples since it is the "Big Apple."

I grew up in Inwood and went to Payson Nursery school as well. We probably went the same time...lol

For me, the word "New Yorker" has a connotation that the person being described is from New York City, not just any town anywhere in New York State. While other demonyms such as "Texan" or "Virginian" are quite clear in that no one disputes the fact that they refer to any one from the state, for some reason the term "New Yorker" is often used to refer to people from New York City specifically rather than from the state of New York. This probably has alot to do with the fact that New York City has become so well-known and important, overshadowing the rest of the state. But that's life.

My name is Robert J. Wooten and i was born in New York City in Brooklyn New York I am a New Yorker now living in North Carolina,but I am not North Carolinan I'm still a New Yorker.
I love New York City more because it can take me there and it can take me anywhere.
I take the Subway Trains,Buses,Taxi Cabs to all my boroughs but Brooklyn doesn't have a Taxi Cab so I just walk in Manhattan everyday just like walking in Brooklyn.
Also I take the Air Plane In the Airport too.
I consider being a New Yorker than a North Carolina that's why i love New York and i will continue to be a New Yorker for the rest of my life forever.

I am a new yorker!! i moved to the bronx when i was 5 years old...and went to school in the bronx all the way to college and got my bachelors degree...my whole block knows me...i walk faster and drive faster then your average person...ny is home

That's a very aristocratic statement. Most New Yorkers aren't born in the city (38 percent are foreign-born, at least another 30 percent, if not more, aren't both born AND raised in the city, many are neither), and the term New Yorker refers to a resident or former resident of the city and/or state of New York. Many who were born and raised in the City and never left lead very insular lives, and are a little unappreciative of what they have. Upstate New Yorkers and Long Islanders are just as privy to the title without some snobbish notions of "real" New Yorker versus a "fake" New Yorker. As a matter of fact many put a good deal more pride in their geographic roots than their cousins in the city.

If it weren't for people from everywhere else coming to this city, making it the cosmopolitan and artistic center of commerce and media and the trend-setting capital that it is, it would be as insular as Salt Lake City, as dull as Boise, and nobody would be bragging about how they're a real New Yorker. You come to the city and adopt its notions and attitude, you're a New Yorker. If you live or move to upstate or the Island and do the same, you're a New Yorker. If you brag about how you were born and raised and the rest are all imitation urbanites, you're a New Yorker, but we're more than happy to see you off to Florida when your time comes