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You're Not A Real New Yorker Until...

By

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 8, 2016

Modified Feb 8, 2016

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By

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 8, 2016

Modified Feb 8, 2016

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Rosie Perez is one of the realest New Yorkers

What makes a New Yorker? Ed Koch once said that "to be a New Yorker you have to live here for six months, and if at the end of the six months you find you walk faster, talk faster, think faster, you're a New Yorker." R. L. Stine said that "a real New Yorker likes the sound of a garbage truck in the morning." And David Bowie hinted that time was a factor, once saying, "I realized the other day that I've lived in New York longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's amazing: I am a New Yorker. It's strange; I never thought I would be."

The most common answer to what makes a real New Yorker is either being born here, or having done at least a ten year stint, but there are variations on the theme. Every so often our own Jake Dobkin will state that "you ain't a real New Yorker until..." something. A while back I created a document, titled "Jake's Real New Yorkerisms," to keep track of these very specific declarations—they include:

On the search to find the realest answer (is it "until you cry on the subway"?), we decided to hit the pavement to ask locals to finish the sentence for us — a fool's errand perhaps, because as Dobkin stated on 3/8/14, "There's no such thing as a ‘real’ New Yorker, that's an illusion you're clinging to because of insecurity.”

Video by Jessica Leibowitz/Gothamist

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Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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