Why Are People in SoCal So Rude? (Banning: taxi, tax)

[SoCalTwinkie]

Regarding the unending American quest to find the "perfect place," here's a story that I read a few years ago:


A bitter young man named James once wandered through the countryside in search of a place to live. He arrived in a town and asked an elderly gentleman there what the people in the town were like. The older man asked, "What were the people like in the place you used to live?" James said, "They were rude and unfriendly." The older man said, "Well, that's what the people here are like, too." Upon hearing this, James moved on.


A while later, a kind young man named George, also in search of a place to live, arrived in the same town. He asked the same elderly gentleman what the people in that town were like. Once again, the older man asked, "What were the people like in the place you used to live?" George said, "They were polite and warm." The older man said, "Well, that's what the people here are like, too." Upon hearing this, George decided to stay.

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I think those on the east coast from Baltimore on up to Maine have lived a fast life (I don't mean a life of crime) I mean things move fast and they do not realize how they come across. The 7 years we lived in the DC area we noticed the further north you went, the ruder the people got. By the time you got to the Mass area they were not only rude but unfriendly. Actually Baltimore wasn't really bad, but it did seem to start about there. Of coruse we met lots of really nice people as well and worst we met were in NY City but they were the tourists from other countries.

DRshang, I don't know you have been or lived in the south, but I would disagree with your assessment 110%.

Nita

From D.C. to Boston ... (and yeah, MA is not a warm and fuzzy place) ... fast and congested but not northern New England ... not at all.
Maine = fast ... that's very funny.
Have you ever been on the road with a Mainer in front of you who's going to take a right turn (for example)? OMG.
I suppose the further north you get (up until MA) you're losing, more and more, that hospitality and warmth of the southern states.
And it has to do with how rural a place is too although rural PA isn't overly friendly.
People in New England are actually quite warm on the inside (speaking very generally of course) whereas on the west coast, speaking generally again, there is a friendliness but it can be somewhat superficial.
I have found that there is a depth to New Englanders that is often missing out here on the west coast.
But also there is a neurotic edge and something of a collective depression in the northeast.
Weather truly does effect people.
Also, the northeast is old, established and very fixed.
I think that is often why people want to come out to California ... to get away from that conventional approach to life and try to live in a more flexible and less rigid environment.
But then they come here and bring that uptight attitude with them and can feel a bit lost in a more chaotic environment.
Then too, the live and live attitude ... the more easy going approach that is much more prevalent on CA coast ... can be a result of being kind of surfacy.
The trick is to have the depth and be able to go with the flow as well.
All that being said, i'll take the west/best coast any day.

[drshang]

FWIW, I think people in Orange County are way ruder than LA. But most of the "rude" people in OC are not from OC they are from somewhere else.

No, I haven't lived in the south. But I've been pretty much everywhere in the south outside of Miss and Alabama. I think people in the south are generally super friendly outside of Dallas and Atlanta. For instance I find most people in the Carolinas (the southerners, not the northerners) to be really friendly. Same with Texas. I am not saying LA is friendlier than the south, I am saying LA is friendlier than Dallas and Atlanta. My post is simply comparing similar urban centers and their amount of friendliness. It's not as friendly in a "hi how are you" kind of way. But it's friendlier in a "I'm inspecting you to figure out your worthiness as a human being" kind of way. I just find Dallas and Atlanta fairly nauseating in terms of the amount of judgment that people put on one another.

It's not fair to compare urban areas to rural areas as, a large majority of the time, rural areas are going to be more friendly than urban ones.

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by coyoteskye

I think that is often why people want to come out to California ... to get away from that conventional approach to life and try to live in a more flexible and less rigid environment.

Never forget that the west coast was, and is, a barrier. It stopped the western migration of our history cold, dead in its tracks.

Those who perpetually moved west were the disaffected, the non-conformists, the recalcitrant, those seeking relief from responsibilities and expectations or running from the law. Those moving west were after a new life, a new beginning, a fresh start separated by a continent from the old life, from the old parameters and restraining conformity.

It still is. New generations head west for the same reasons their forefathers headed west, and they join the progeny of those previous immigrants. All of them have washed up against the Pacific Ocean and stopped. There's no place else to go.

That's why the west coast is different from the rest of America, and California in particular. The opportunities in Washington and Oregon are pretty much limited to those areas west of the Cascades, but California was, and still is, wide open, from the high deserts to the inland valleys to the coast; California is the Mecca, the Promised Land, the place where a person can begin again.

It has attracted, does attract, and WILL attract the detrious of the continent; the good alongside the bad, the decent people and the criminals, the lazy and the industrious. Anyone wanting to start over has come to California and they'll continue to come because they have no other place to go.

That's what makes California so unique!

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by stillkit

Never forget that the west coast was, and is, a barrier. It stopped the western migration of our history cold, dead in its tracks.

Those who perpetually moved west were the disaffected, the non-conformists, the recalcitrant, those seeking relief from responsibilities and expectations or running from the law. Those moving west were after a new life, a new beginning, a fresh start separated by a continent from the old life, from the old parameters and restraining conformity.

It still is. New generations head west for the same reasons their forefathers headed west, and they join the progeny of those previous immigrants. All of them have washed up against the Pacific Ocean and stopped. There's no place else to go.

That's why the west coast is different from the rest of America, and California in particular. The opportunities in Washington and Oregon are pretty much limited to those areas west of the Cascades, but California was, and still is, wide open, from the high deserts to the inland valleys to the coast; California is the Mecca, the Promised Land, the place where a person can begin again.

It has attracted, does attract, and WILL attract the detrious of the continent; the good alongside the bad, the decent people and the criminals, the lazy and the industrious. Anyone wanting to start over has come to California and they'll continue to come because they have no other place to go.

That's what makes California so unique!

Yes, yes, well said.
I think that is, in part, why people who come to the California that the media presents to them, ie; Hollywood, they are not in tune with what you have expressed so well, but rather are drawn by and to a glossy and imaginary place that ultimately disappoints (often).
It's the wildness of California that i love.
And the counter culture of the 50's and 60's was here in such a powerful way because of this essential California.
Viva la that!
I understand the economic hardships and i know that it has been difficult for people here but the focus on it and on the insane government is, to me, not where it's at .... it's not what California is and the spirit of the place will not be done in by the ineptitude of the "powers that be".
So when people say, "California is done for" .... no, no, it's not.
The social systems and structures might be done for, but not the place.
And then also, when you get to the edge of the continent there is the big and powerful and wild Pacific.
Is there any other state or place in this country that is so revitalizing?
I don't think so and i think it has to do, in large part, with this amazing ocean.

[Movr09]

Originally Posted by LeavingLA2010

i have lived here my whole life, but i wouldnt say rude is the right word. i just find people here arent friendly and really dont expect to give anyone hospitality.

Yes, that's more articulate.

It's tough because you don't know where you stand. Take a New Yorker or a Texan and sure he may be a son-of-a-you know what, but you'll know this.

Here, I feel it's tough to read. Combine that with lack of hospitality and its a put off. However it's expected to have an adjustment over time.

[Movr09]

Originally Posted by drshang

My post is simply comparing similar urban centers and their amount of friendliness. It's not as friendly in a "hi how are you" kind of way. But it's friendlier in a "I'm inspecting you to figure out your worthiness as a human being" kind of way.

And there is a long body of research on why that happens.

Interesting thing is, LA and Atlanta and Dallas are not like the cities of NY, Chicago or SF. They are not exactly urban, but then they aren't exactly sub-urban either.

It's a new class of city built with a core that is really name only.

[Naomi Manischewitz]

Originally Posted by Movr09

Yes, that's more articulate.

It's tough because you don't know where you stand. Take a New Yorker or a Texan and sure he may be a son-of-a-you know what, but you'll know this.

Here, I feel it's tough to read. Combine that with lack of hospitality and its a put off. However it's expected to have an adjustment over time.

i compare living here to some places i have traveled to in and outside the us. take this example: i sat on a bench on an empty beach outside the us. there were a ton of empty benches. a woman went to my bench and sat right next to me. no one would do that here because that is seen as invading someone's personal space and/or being creepy. she ended up talking to me for half an hour, walked with me to show me where she lived, gave me her phone number, and said if i would like to come for dinner she would love to have me.

that would NEVER happen here. if a woman was walking along the beach and saw me on one bench, they would find an empty bench and keep to themselves.

its sad to know its like this here, but there are people that prefer it.

[Americanboy]

Because we are busy and have things to do. This isn't Alabama.

[SoCalTwinkie]

Originally Posted by CA310

Because we are busy and have things to do. This isn't Alabama.

Thats the problem, we are TOO busy to interract with people.

Lets try to change that!