Study reveals America's rudest city, and its residents aren't happy
A 2019 Business Insider study has revealed America's rudest city, and the winner — or loser, depending on how you see it — is, you guessed it, New York City.
In October and November, the publication asked 2,092 American adults to rank the rudest cities based on a list of the country's 50 largest metropolitan areas.
The Big Apple was rated the rudest by 34.3 percent of the respondents, nearly twice as much as the next city on the list, Los Angeles, which garnered 19.4 percent of all votes. The top five was rounded out by Washington D.C., Chicago and Boston.
New Yorkers have long struggled with the stereotype that they're among the most ill-mannered residents in the U.S. In fact, that negative perception goes as far back as the 1700s, according to Manhattan borough historian Michael Miscione, who cited President John Adams' diary entry in a 2011 interview with the New York Times.
"We have been treated with an assiduous respect but I have not seen one real gentleman, one well-bred man, since I came to town," Adams reportedly wrote in 1774. "At their entertainments there is no conversation that is agreeable; there is no modesty, no attention to one another. They talk very loud, very fast and altogether."
Following Business Insider's most recent survey, the New York Post published a story of its own that seemingly confirmed that New Yorkers have quite the reputation for being unnecessarily aggressive.
"F*** off!" one man in Harlem allegedly told a Post reporter when asked for his opinion on the study.
Others refused to accept the survey's results.
"Screw those people," one Bronx resident told the newspaper. "Half the people probably haven’t been here!"
And at least one person offered a less-than-stellar explanation for what might be perceived as rudeness.
"People got places to be, people to see," another man in Harlem said. "If I bump into you, sorry … but not really."
