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OT: Unfriendly?

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tomcat

tomcat

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Couldn't help but notice that MSN.com posted their annual Readers' Choice Survey rankings of the friendliest and unfriendliest cities in the country. Hartford and New Haven made the list of unfriendliest. It notes that Hartford began its decline in the 1980s and has been trying to recover since then, and hints that the attitude of the city reflects that.

I do have to say that I lived in Connecticut for 11 years, commuting into Hartford for each and every one of them, and I never found it to be friendly at all. This was in the 80s and 90s, when it went from a boom town filled with insurance workers hanging out at lunch hour to a ghost town with no retail, no real downtown and no reason to be there unless you had to. We've been back a number of times since and have noted the attempts to bring the place alive. Have not been back in maybe four, five years now, and it doesn't sound like it's worked out. It's just kinda sad, really.

Can't really comment much about New Haven. Went there a few times. Meh, IMHO.
 
Saw the survey. I think Newark did so poorly based on the airport, and well deserved. Hartford lacked friendliness based on our visits, and a restaurant we went to a couple times in New Haven likewise, but . . . more generally, I just don't think the Northeast is a friendly area. Doesn't mean there aren't individuals that are friendly, just the over all impression is not so much.

Early on in my working career, I was on a business trip to Indy with a co-worker and we had our food in a mall food court. As we walked through the mall, merchants came out and said hello, it was such a different vibe that we were shocked.
 
KnightBridgeAZ said:
Saw the survey. I think Newark did so poorly based on the airport, and well deserved. Hartford lacked friendliness based on our visits, and a restaurant we went to a couple times in New Haven likewise, but . . . more generally, I just don't think the Northeast is a friendly area. Doesn't mean there aren't individuals that are friendly, just the over all impression is not so much.

Early on in my working career, I was on a business trip to Indy with a co-worker and we had our food in a mall food court. As we walked through the mall, merchants came out and said hello, it was such a different vibe that we were shocked.
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Exactly, I think it has more to do with the NE. I always have to re-adjust when I head back "home" to IL. I don't have to worry about people cutting me off while driving, in grocery stores, etc. Just a different mindset in other parts of the country. (this of course excludes any big city like Chicago)
 
The ranking is based on the fact that summer mornings are colder than those in Fargo.
 
wire chief said:
The ranking is based on the fact that summer mornings are colder than those in Fargo.
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Summer mornings in Hartford are 3 degrees warmer than those in Fargo. The average summer morning low temperature in Fargo is 57.3, 60.4 in Hartford, and 63.4 in New Haven.
 
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Maybe our climate has something to do with it. Let's face it, it is tough to be friendly when your toes are frozen and you still have three quarters of the driveway left to shovel ;)

On a more serious note- when I visited in my cousin in Tennessee [yes, I ventured into enemy territory lol] I was taken aback by the warmth & friendliness of everyone I met. So different from back home.
 
I remember one time, being at a post office... somewhere in Windham County. And we were waiting for it to open after lunch. There was another guy waiting as well and I started talking to him and he said, "You're not from around here, are you?" I asked how he knew. He said, "People around here don't talk to strangers." ~shrug~ I'm from the Midwest. That's what we do. :)

Oddly enough, while the south (lived there for years and years) is known for being friendly, I think parts of the Midwest just blow it away.
 
~*Jen*~ said:
Oddly enough, while the south (lived there for years and years) is known for being friendly, I think parts of the Midwest just blow it away.
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I've lived in both places and found both very friendly. (at least compared to NE or east) But you can find friendly people, and jerks, everywhere.
 
meyers7 said:
I've lived in both places and found both very friendly. (at least compared to NE or east) But you can find friendly people, and jerks, everywhere.
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True... :)
 
~*Jen*~ said:
I remember one time, being at a post office... somewhere in Windham County. And we were waiting for it to open after lunch. There was another guy waiting as well and I started talking to him and he said, "You're not from around here, are you?" I asked how he knew. He said, "People around here don't talk to strangers." ~shrug~ I'm from the Midwest. That's what we do. :)

Oddly enough, while the south (lived there for years and years) is known for being friendly, I think parts of the Midwest just blow it away.
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Yup us Windham Countiers don't talk at all to strangers. Except on internet message boards ;)
 
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HoopsFan21 said:
Summer mornings in Hartford are 3 degrees warmer than those in Fargo. The average summer morning low temperature in Fargo is 57.3, 60.4 in Hartford, and 63.4 in New Haven.
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Not this week.
 
Friendly? Heck your lucky if you don't get shot at while your in New Haven. That city is becoming an absolute "battle-zone" and you don't want to wander too far out of the Downtown area.
 
tomcat said:
Couldn't help but notice that MSN.com posted their annual Readers' Choice Survey rankings of the friendliest and unfriendliest cities in the country. Hartford and New Haven made the list of unfriendliest. It notes that Hartford began its decline in the 1980s and has been trying to recover since then, and hints that the attitude of the city reflects that.

I do have to say that I lived in Connecticut for 11 years, commuting into Hartford for each and every one of them, and I never found it to be friendly at all. This was in the 80s and 90s, when it went from a boom town filled with insurance workers hanging out at lunch hour to a ghost town with no retail, no real downtown and no reason to be there unless you had to. We've been back a number of times since and have noted the attempts to bring the place alive. Have not been back in maybe four, five years now, and it doesn't sound like it's worked out. It's just kinda sad, really.

Can't really comment much about New Haven. Went there a few times. Meh, IMHO.
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I was in Hartford/Glastonbury on business a few years ago and didn't notice any unusual unfriendliness. Most people in the Northeast are in a bigger hurry than in other parts of the country and this is perceived as unfriendliness, when it isn't. It never leaves your system. I've lived in the South since 3rd grade and I'm still always in a hurry. Doggone slow drivers!
 
I spent some time in the south a few weeks ago - they're just more friendly than we are in the northeast.

They're friendlier, more pleasant and generally less abrupt.

I don't know why, but it's instantly noticeable.
 
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I was in Indianapolis earlier this month and found the city very warm and welcoming. I truly enjoyed the city and the wonderful people. I don't know if it's because I'm a Northerner but after a few days I was thinking I'd just like to pay for my bottle of water without having to tell my life story again. But the interest was genuine, though, so I learned to enjoy the people and their openness.
 
Liked the Spanish moss in the South. Liked the open space in the West.

Seven-year Midwesterner as a kid; Lake Michigan is cold.

I don't think of those places in terms of friendly or not.

But then, I'm kind of unfriendly and wouldn't notice.
 
Fishy said:
I spent some time in the south a few weeks ago - they're just more friendly than we are in the northeast.

They're friendlier, more pleasant and generally less abrupt.

I don't know why, but it's instantly noticeable.
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As long as they know you're just visiting.
 
Beemer said:
Maybe our climate has something to do with it. Let's face it, it is tough to be friendly when your toes are frozen and you still have three quarters of the driveway left to shovel ;)

On a more serious note- when I visited in my cousin in Tennessee [yes, I ventured into enemy territory lol] I was taken aback by the warmth & friendliness of everyone I met. So different from back home.
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Uh..I lived in Tennessee for 13 years, after spending the first 30+ in Connecticut. People WERE friendly, on the surface, but there was always the "y'aint from around here, are ya?"...
Bottom line, I think, is that people in general are not as friendly as they once were...
 
Shenandoah said:
Uh..I lived in Tennessee for 13 years, after spending the first 30+ in Connecticut. People WERE friendly, on the surface, but there was always the "y'aint from around here, are ya?"...
Bottom line, I think, is that people in general are not as friendly as they once were...
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I can see that. I remember getting that vibe in Georgia. Small town, though. Atlanta and Huntsville were more melting pots. But now that I'm in Iowa and back in a small town, there's just really this amazing sense of community. Everyone seems to know everyone and even strangers are chatty and friendly.
 
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I lived in Connecticut for the first 40 years of my life and moved to Texas in 1990. Here, and in all the states considered friendly, people who don't know each other nevertheless make eye contact and say hello. We don't do that in the Northeast. It doesn't mean we're unfriendly, though.
 
uconnfan68 said:
As long as they know you're just visiting.
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As a native (but exported) Texan, I went back on a business trip and another Texan (figuring I would appreciate it) asked me if I knew the difference between a Yankee and a D*** Yankee. Answer:
A D*** Yankee doesn't go home. :rolleyes:
 
I went to graduate school in southwest Virginia, an hour from the West Virginia border, in that small triangular part of the state. My roommate was from New Jersey, born and bred, and while I grew up in New York, I now live in Connecticut. We are both metro-NY people, really.

She was much more freaked out than I by the slow and friendly manner of the people we met there, grinding her teeth at how long it took us to check out, say, at the grocery store, because the cashier was chatting us up. My favorite story happened one Friday afternoon. My roommate was in her car, stopped at a red light, music and air conditioning both blasting when she heard a knock at her window. The daughter of a protective Italian father and an equally-protective boyfriend (who was a cop), she immediately bristled. The woman at her window made the universal "roll down your window" hand gesture. My roommate suspiciously let her electric window open about an inch. "Excuse me, honey," the woman said to her, in that country drawl folks down there have. "But that light is green." She pointed to the traffic light my roommate wasn't paying attention to. Then she went back to her own car. My roommate got through the intersection. And the Good Samaritan, who must have found honking her horn too unfriendly, was once again caught as it changed to red, so much time had passed.
 
If you live enough different places, you learn that they all have their charm...but they are all different...
 
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