Is Manhattan Really “Friendlier” Than Brooklyn?
A pretty dubious distinction in a city that’s already considered the “rudest” and “most arrogant” in the country. And it seems unfair! Have the people in this AM NY poll never seen a heartfelt piece of “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way” merch? Apparently not, given that 32 percent of them voted Manhattan the city’s friendliest borough, followed by Queens at 27 percent, with Brooklyn coming in third, at 24 percent of the vote. Better than the Bronx’s sad (and sort of uncalled for) six percent, but still not super impressive.
And seems like it may just be based on sheer proximity? Manhattan is still far denser than any other place, after all, and if you’re running into people all the time, you have to at least be cordial to them, lest the social order break down completely. “When people think about vibrant, 24/7, dynamic high-action places, they think about Manhattan,” said the president of the Municipal Art Society. Seems true enough. Brooklyn stands for a lot of things these days, and a slightly-less-frenetic-and-crowded-than-Manhattan lifestyle is one of them. Some people may read that as a warmer and fuzzier way of living, others as a little more distant and removed.
Or maybe people in Manhattan are actually just slightly nicer. It’s hard to say, empirically. Anyway, we can all probably withstand this small dent to our borough’s image. It’s a safe bet that the rents will, too.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.