Like why do I feel like I’m supposed to be able to name the seven boroughs? I can’t tell you anything about L.A., Chicago, Boston, etc.

Edit: to clarify: I mean that everyone in America are expected to know NYC. Not just New Yorkers. Obviously everyone should know the layout of where they live.

  • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 hours ago

    To be fair, four of the five boroughs have greater populations than multiple states (Staten Island being the exception). I don’t think any other city in the US has comparable subdivisions.

    It’s also hard to overstate the historical and cultural significance of NYC in the US. And this is coming from a New Englander who is obliged to say, “New York sucks.”

  • diegantobass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Wait a minute, what?

    I’ve been to a few cities all over Europe, lived in a couple of them for years, and I feel like having a general knowledge of the geography of where you live is a basic requirement of life.

    Didn’t you play the “capital city game” with friends as a kid?

    I mean, it’s cool with me if you or anyone has no idea of the layout of your local map, but that’s a surprise for sure.

    • ch00f@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      8 hours ago

      My point is that people in the US are kind of expected to understand the layout of a city that they may never have been to or maybe only visited as a tourist.

      It’s only the “local map” for like 8 million of us.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        32 minutes ago

        Only New Yorkers think this way.

        How do you know someone’s from New York?

        Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.

      • palebluethought@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        7 hours ago

        Where are you getting this impression? I’ve never gotten any sense that anyone outside the city is “expected” to know its geography. “Expected” how?

        Also there are only 5 boroughs

      • FMT99@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        8 hours ago

        The way the title is worded (“a city where people are expected…”) implies this is referring to people that live in NY. I’d clarify it by saying something like “the only city of which people from the rest of the country are expected to know…”

          • diegantobass@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            7 hours ago

            Oooowkay! So sorry for my surprised comment. I totally get, and agree with, what you actually said.

            Being from not-the-capital-city of my country but living there, I struggled with the uttermost self-centeredness of its inhabitants.

            I do think knowing topology and geography of things and places is much more than basic general information. For me it relates to “feeling” a place, and belonging somewhere. But what do I care where the upper east whatever is…

            Also, culture production might have something to do with all of this : An open letter to NYC - The Beastie Boys

  • ricdeh@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Definitely not in the world lol, I don’t think most Europeans care for or have any idea of the geography of New York

    • troed@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      7 hours ago

      We did listen to Beastie Boys over here too you know.

      (So there are only five boroughs)

    • MudMan@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 hours ago

      I don’t know, I think maybe it depends on age? Most people exposed to US media will recognize at least the landmarks, but that’s probably true of other cities as well.

      But NYC has been in so many videogames I feel younger people with a passing interest in gaming will at least have a weird set of expectations. Of Manhattan, if nothing else. The twenty years of open world Spider-Man games alone are more exposure to an overhead map of a city than most people get of the place where they live in that amount of time.

  • Valmond@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Like gamla stan in Stockholm, les Champs-Elysées Elysées in Paris or like the Colosseum in Rome?

    I mean if it’s known its known, but “people from the capital” sometimes (or to be cocky) thinks everything revolves around those places I guess.

  • LoreleiSankTheShip@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    8 hours ago

    In Eastern Europe even the most illiterate citizen of a town/city knows the neighborhoods and where they are in relation to one another, if that’s what you’re asking.

  • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Lol wut. Literally anywhere you live in the world if you have a casual conversation with someone they generally expect you to have some knowledge of the local geography.

    • ch00f@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 hours ago

      I mean every American is expected to know the layout of a specific city.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 hours ago

    And that for Americans, who have a hard time to locate even their own home town on a map.