Doug
@doug.city
Not actually a train. Personal account, views mine. He/they. 🏙️🚇🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
The Maryland and Pennsylvania ones at least have similarities.
November 9, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The Maryland and Pennsylvania ones at least have similarities.
I hate it SO MUCH. Not just vertical video but the whole genre of "a video of a person staring at me talking at me," although vertical is worse. Just...absolutely not.
November 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I hate it SO MUCH. Not just vertical video but the whole genre of "a video of a person staring at me talking at me," although vertical is worse. Just...absolutely not.
Railing against immigrants from other countries will also rightly get you called out as xenophobic, which railing against domestic migrants generally won't.
November 8, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Railing against immigrants from other countries will also rightly get you called out as xenophobic, which railing against domestic migrants generally won't.
"Moves to NYC for college and stays" is definitely a big source of domestic migrants in general. My own circles don't really have more people from the West Coast than the Midwest in them though (but of course the Midwest is closer and has more people).
November 8, 2025 at 5:39 AM
"Moves to NYC for college and stays" is definitely a big source of domestic migrants in general. My own circles don't really have more people from the West Coast than the Midwest in them though (but of course the Midwest is closer and has more people).
Yeah this also describes a fairly large share of the people I know who were born/grew up somewhere in the US outside the metro area (although in most cases it's somewhere else in the Northeast, not always).
November 8, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Yeah this also describes a fairly large share of the people I know who were born/grew up somewhere in the US outside the metro area (although in most cases it's somewhere else in the Northeast, not always).
But even if I hadn't, a low single digit number of people is...not many!
November 8, 2025 at 4:44 AM
But even if I hadn't, a low single digit number of people is...not many!
I forgot that multiple people who grew up in the Chicago area did, LOL.
November 8, 2025 at 4:43 AM
I forgot that multiple people who grew up in the Chicago area did, LOL.
Oh true, Iowa does get invoked a fair bit. I am unable to think of anyone I've even *met* who moved here from Iowa. I have known a few people who moved here from Ohio over the years, at least. Of course, Ohio is a very populous state...
November 8, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Oh true, Iowa does get invoked a fair bit. I am unable to think of anyone I've even *met* who moved here from Iowa. I have known a few people who moved here from Ohio over the years, at least. Of course, Ohio is a very populous state...
I've since thought of two more, in fact (yourself included)—although I feel like the stereotypical Midwestern transplant is not ever really from Chicagoland.
November 8, 2025 at 4:25 AM
I've since thought of two more, in fact (yourself included)—although I feel like the stereotypical Midwestern transplant is not ever really from Chicagoland.
Definitely. I guess in my mind I’m specifically thinking of the culture industry having been temporarily a bit more accessible by the overlap between widespread higher education and relatively low rents in the places where it’s located.
November 8, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Definitely. I guess in my mind I’m specifically thinking of the culture industry having been temporarily a bit more accessible by the overlap between widespread higher education and relatively low rents in the places where it’s located.
Yeah, my point is not that it’s wildly uncommon, but that it gets presented as near-universal (and I suspect some people do have social circles where it is). Living in the same metro area if not the literal same neighborhood/town (although sometimes that, too) where you grew up is common!
November 8, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Yeah, my point is not that it’s wildly uncommon, but that it gets presented as near-universal (and I suspect some people do have social circles where it is). Living in the same metro area if not the literal same neighborhood/town (although sometimes that, too) where you grew up is common!
I actually associate it with a somewhat later era, it scans as very boomer-ish to me (importantly, the first generation that encountered mass higher education), although I’m sure it has antecedents.
November 8, 2025 at 4:02 AM
I actually associate it with a somewhat later era, it scans as very boomer-ish to me (importantly, the first generation that encountered mass higher education), although I’m sure it has antecedents.
It’s hardly rare now, but the degree to which it’s presented as *the norm* is odd—it’s not like this was ever a time when this would have been true of the majority of people. But it’s probably disproportionately true of TV or movie writers in NYC and LA, perhaps especially a few decades ago.
November 8, 2025 at 4:01 AM
It’s hardly rare now, but the degree to which it’s presented as *the norm* is odd—it’s not like this was ever a time when this would have been true of the majority of people. But it’s probably disproportionately true of TV or movie writers in NYC and LA, perhaps especially a few decades ago.
I am always struck by how much it is a widespread cultural assumption that people go “back to their hometown” for holidays, as if the country is divided between “hometowns” populated exclusively by parents of adult children and cities populated entirely by people who moved there from somewhere else.
November 8, 2025 at 3:55 AM
I am always struck by how much it is a widespread cultural assumption that people go “back to their hometown” for holidays, as if the country is divided between “hometowns” populated exclusively by parents of adult children and cities populated entirely by people who moved there from somewhere else.
The culture industry also does have a disproportionate number of domestic migrants because there are certain jobs that only exist in NYC (or LA, or in some cases both), and the idea that this is much more common than it really is seeps into cultural products.
November 8, 2025 at 3:49 AM
The culture industry also does have a disproportionate number of domestic migrants because there are certain jobs that only exist in NYC (or LA, or in some cases both), and the idea that this is much more common than it really is seeps into cultural products.
(That said, I do find the meme that hordes of Ohioans are descending on the city and driving up rents because…people from Ohio are all very rich? to be fairly baffling. I don’t know why it’s always Ohio, either.)
November 8, 2025 at 3:35 AM
(That said, I do find the meme that hordes of Ohioans are descending on the city and driving up rents because…people from Ohio are all very rich? to be fairly baffling. I don’t know why it’s always Ohio, either.)
I know a lot more people who moved here from other places in the Northeast whose parents definitely weren’t rich enough to pay their way than I do from other parts of the country, so it’s not just about being able to afford it…and this should not strike anyone as a curious phenomenon!
November 8, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I know a lot more people who moved here from other places in the Northeast whose parents definitely weren’t rich enough to pay their way than I do from other parts of the country, so it’s not just about being able to afford it…and this should not strike anyone as a curious phenomenon!
There’s also just a question of proximity: People are likelier to move a shorter distance than a longer one! I don’t know tons of people here from the West Coast even though there are very many rich people there. And you can’t, say, start out living with family if you don’t have any anywhere nearby.
November 8, 2025 at 3:26 AM
There’s also just a question of proximity: People are likelier to move a shorter distance than a longer one! I don’t know tons of people here from the West Coast even though there are very many rich people there. And you can’t, say, start out living with family if you don’t have any anywhere nearby.
Yeah. And to be fair, someone like Gastby who wanted to work their way into the very upper crust of society might well have moved here, and probably still would.
November 8, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Yeah. And to be fair, someone like Gastby who wanted to work their way into the very upper crust of society might well have moved here, and probably still would.
As far as NYC possibly losing some people to the Midwest, I’m thinking of recent immigrants leaving for relatively high-paying heavy industrial jobs in the Midwest after spending some time here. (That wasn’t a type of employment that was very available in NYC.)
November 8, 2025 at 3:16 AM
As far as NYC possibly losing some people to the Midwest, I’m thinking of recent immigrants leaving for relatively high-paying heavy industrial jobs in the Midwest after spending some time here. (That wasn’t a type of employment that was very available in NYC.)
The US was definitely rapidly urbanizing then, but so much of that was happening in the Midwest itself that I suspect most people who e.g. grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to a big city moved to the nearest one, not to NYC or elsewhere on the East Coast.
November 8, 2025 at 3:12 AM
The US was definitely rapidly urbanizing then, but so much of that was happening in the Midwest itself that I suspect most people who e.g. grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to a big city moved to the nearest one, not to NYC or elsewhere on the East Coast.