East Coast vs. West Coast, Part One: The Stereotype of Rude New Yorkers

I’ve split my time primarily between New York and California for the better part of 50 years. I can speak on this.

Hold a second.

Is the concept of the rude New Yorker a myth, or a stereotype?

I prefer the former, though I know if I went there I’d be deluged with example after example of readers saying they’ve had horrific experiences with my east coast brethren.

So “stereotype” it is.

For the moment.

I was born and raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on January 14,1964. All told, I’ve lived 23 years in New York — between Brooklyn, Queens and Middletown, counting some moves — and 29 years in Southern California.

For the record, nearly four years were spent in Aurora, Colorado … which has nothing to do with this article.

I love New York. I graduated from Brooklyn College with a B.A. degree in Special Education, and spent one day nearly every weekend in Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park, leaning against trees working on my writing craft.

I spent an inordinate amount of time writing some truly bad poetry … but thankfully that aspect of my writing career-in-progress I gave up on early.