Please say Detroit when visiting

**miketoronto1** · July-10-11, 11:03 AM

We had some of our family from Detroit come up to Toronto this weekend for a little family get together.

Instead of just having the family dinner, we decided to have a little tour of Toronto first, with a boat cruise of the Toronto Harbour.

Anyway the tour guide is asking everyone where they are from, and sure enough the Detroit people never say Detroit. Instead they list the suburb they are from. So my cousin goes "Washington Township, Michigan" and the tour guides face was funny, because he just totally blanked out trying to figure out where in the world Washington Township is. Then my cousin says "it is a suburb of Detroit" and then the tour guide got where it was.

This seems to be a Detroit thing. I used to deal with tourists at one of my jobs, and suburban Detroiter's are one of the only ones I find that don't list the host city as where they are from when visiting another place.

It is an interesting little quirk and I was not expecting it from my cousins, as they always call everything Detroit when we talk with them or they talk about home, etc.

My urban planning friend who came along for the cruise was laughing, because even he has picked up on the Metro Detroit quirk of using your suburb name instead of Detroit to tell people where you are from.

**313WX** · July-10-11, 11:11 AM

Exactly, you chose to live near a "hellhole" [[as many of these types will call it) so embrace it.

**BrushStart** · July-10-11, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Exactly, you chose to live near a "hellhole" [[as many of these types will call it) so embrace it.

Exactly. If they are too embarrassed to say "Detroit" or "Metro Detroit" then let then look like goofballs when they say "Shelby Township, Michigan" and people look at them inquisitively.

**401don** · July-10-11, 11:33 AM

Stating they're from a township is kind of dumb. Most Toronto area residents know of Dearborn, Livonia, Sterling Heights, etc. even though they are quite small compared to Toronto suburbs like Mississauga [[700,000) and Brampton [[450,000), which most Detroiters probably are not aware of.

**Roq** · July-10-11, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by miketoronto1

My urban planning friend who came along for the cruise was laughing, because even he has picked up on the Metro Detroit quirk of using your suburb name instead of Detroit to tell people where you are from.

I just say right outside Detroit. Who the fuck knows [[or cares) where Clinton Township is if you're not from around here?

**Ray1936** · July-10-11, 11:54 AM

Here in Las Vegas, everyone is from somewhere else. So "Where are you from?" is a stock question when meeting someone. I always say "Detroit".

By the same token, when I'm away from my home in Henderson, NV., and I'm asked where I'm from, I always say "Las Vegas".

It's just common sense. Give the most logical and understandable answer. Anyone who says "Washington Township" needs a good butt-kicking, IMHO.

**trotwood** · July-10-11, 12:01 PM

When I lived in the city proper I always said "I'm from Detroit Michigan". Now that I live in a suburban city I say "I'm from________,Michigan". If asked "Where's that?" I tell them "just outside Detroit"
This isn't something I do to distance myself from Detroit. I've done this my entire life.When I lived in Ga I'd say "I live in_____,Ga," If asked where that was I'd say "Just outside Atlanta." Same applied when I lived in Oh or Fl.

GUSHI · July-10-11, 12:05 PM

I either say Detroit or just outside Detroit. Like ROq put it who the fuck knows Shelby twp. in my case. I just think its funny the look people give u when u say Detroit. Then I usually get in a debate over cities. Like recently met some Nyers, Ofcourse the start talking shit about the lions, then i sayt u guys got 3 hockey teams in ny, and the redwings got more cups in the last 20 years than all 3 together. Or how bout those knicks. And i hate when they bring up the Yankees, but I ask them are u just on the bandwagon or our u a yankee fan. I seem to shut them up.

**English** · July-10-11, 12:24 PM

You don't get this problem with cities like New York. People who live halfway to Boston or Philly still claim New York...

**East Detroit** · July-10-11, 01:22 PM

Stand up and tell them you're from Detroit.

"Washington Township"... what a d-bag. Probably refers to people from the CoD as "them" and "oh, look what THEY did again."

**douglasm** · July-10-11, 04:37 PM

I have no problem saying "I'm from Detroit". No one out here has probably heard of Ferndale [[or they think I live north of Bellingham), in the same way that someone from Lake Forest Park probably says "I'm from Seattle" when visiting distant territory.

**ResurgetCineribus** · July-10-11, 04:47 PM

As a kid, I remember this question whenever I was vacationing. I would say I am from Detroit for simplicity, however this usually resulted in much consternation for the person who asked. This got annoying and Southeast Michigan became the new response.

**Enduro** · July-10-11, 05:00 PM

As someone who spent a lot of time and money on insurance living in Detroit, I get mad when people who ran to the suburbs say they're from Detroit. Let me see your auto insurance bill and I'll tell you if you're from Detroit.

**Mikeg** · July-10-11, 06:04 PM

I've heard all kinds of obscure place names given in response to that question during my travels and I've never thought it was a reflection of a personal bias towards their nearest big city.Typically they were either just not thinking about their audience or they were offering a reflexive expression of pride in their small-town place of residence in the hope of "breaking the ice" and maybe striking up further conversation within the group - which is exactly what the Toronto Harbour tour operator was trying to do.

This reminds me of something that happened to me in 1993. I needed to refill a prescription during a road trip to Zion National Park. I stopped in Kanab, Utah [[population 3,500) and walked into one of the only two drug stores in that town.

The pharmacist took a look at me and said "My guess is that you're not from around here - can I see your driver's license?" I handed it to him and after satisfying himself that I was the owner of the Rx he asked, "so you're from Sterling Heights - is that anywhere near Center Line?"

I responded, "How is it that you know of tiny Center Line, but not the city of Sterling Heights that is ten times larger and only a few miles to the north?"

He answered that 40 years earlier when he was a child, his parents had moved the entire family from Center Line to Utah and that he didn't remember the names of the nearby suburbs and townships. He also mentioned his grandfather had once been on the Center Line public school board and they had named a school after him. After learning his name, I told him that my wife had attended that school and that my uncle had taught there as well!

We had a nice conversation that day based on a chance encounter 1,600 miles away from our shared hometown.

**Al Publican** · July-10-11, 06:06 PM

I often say, "Detroit, City of" to indicate that I was born in and lived in Detroit Detroit for decades.

Curious if the name of the city was changed to Detroit Detroit if it would catch on like Duran Duran.

**Maof** · July-10-11, 06:32 PM

seriously, who cares....if you live in a "suburb" of detroit, why wouldn't you say that. why the big explanation.

**Al Publican** · July-10-11, 07:05 PM

I've had people notice sometimes that I would say "I stay downtown." I used to "stay" on the NE side, but I "stayed" downtown for over ten years.

**MidTownMs** · July-10-11, 07:54 PM

I live in Detroit and I have never heard of Washington Township.

DetroitPole · July-10-11, 08:10 PM

Unfortunately some people who live in places like Washington Township, for some reason, believe they live in some kind of unique, consequential, meaningful place that has an identity outside of being a suburb of Detroit. As anyone from the civilized world could tell them, they're wrong.

I've had the opposite happen. I told a customs official [[US, coming from Canada, of course) when asked the perfunctory question of where I live, upon saying "Detroit" he asked me, with typical US Customs officer charm, "IN Detroit?!?" Of course, because, as if my handle didn't give it away, I happen to be white.

Yes, in Detroit. Which, I may add, bears little semblance to Washington Township or the other surreal, unearthly places that have sprung up outside of the City of Detroit due to the massive flight of capital and people. Frankly I don't know which is worse, saying you're from Washington Township, or the pitiful thought of someone whose driver's license says "Washington Township" having the audacity to say they're from Detroit.

**miketoronto1** · July-10-11, 10:00 PM

Its still interesting.

Because I remember dealing with tourists on a daily basis at one of my old jobs.

And say I got someone from Metro Buffalo, they would just say "from Buffalo". I would then ask what area and then they would tell me the suburbs like "Amherst", "Tonawanda", etc.
Same goes for other cities like Cleveland, Philly, etc.

Detroit is one of the only ones that is in reverse, where people say the suburb first.
Of course I would always bug the Detroit visitors when they would say they are from for example "Sterling Heights". And I would go, "ohh thats a nice part of Detroit".

It catches people off guard, and one person I remember was like "ohh its not part of Detroit". And I was said "well its just a suburb, its all Detroit".

**Enduro** · July-10-11, 10:10 PM

But it isn't all Detroit. So much of the suburbs exist solely because many of their citizens want nothing to do with Detroit. Until they change Wayne county to Detroit county or there's some kind of meaningful regional cooperation and revenue sharing it's not all Detroit. I made a joke earlier but it does bug me when people who never go into the city or spend money there [[except maybe the stadiums) and would never in a million years live there [[just ask them) say they're from Detroit because it sounds cool.

**BillyBBrew** · July-10-11, 10:31 PM

Seems it's always the opposite for me.

"Where are you from?"

"Detroit"

"Oh really, what suburb?"

"Detroit"

"You actually live in Detroit?"

"Yes, near downtown"

It's like it's a crime or horrible thing to actually live IN the city. Maybe someday that will change.

**English** · July-10-11, 10:56 PM

^You only get that response if you're not black. If you're black, no matter what your socioeconomic profile, no one questions whether you really live within city limits.

bartock · July-11-11, 12:37 AM

Originally Posted by Enduro

As someone who spent a lot of time and money on insurance living in Detroit, I get mad when people who ran to the suburbs say they're from Detroit. Let me see your auto insurance bill and I'll tell you if you're from Detroit.

This is exactly the thing that makes me laugh about this area. So the background shouldn't matter, but for context, in my 34 years I've lived in Detroit, in the outer suburbs, in Detroit again, in a "Detroit suburb [[Hamtramck, not sure how to classify) in the inner suburbs, and am now in the outer suburbs again. From half of you, I'd get shit for saying I live "in Detroit" and even more shit for saying I live "in Metro Detroit." From the other half, I'd get shit for saying I live "in Detroit" and even more shit for saying I live "in Metro Detroit."

See the problem?

**casscorridor** · July-11-11, 01:17 AM

Metro Detroit is also the only place where a suburb is considered the cool place to live [[Royal Oak/Ferndale). You might think Buckhead in Atlanta and Berkeley in the Bay Area and Winter Park in Orlando. But they are all very connected to their respective central cities, which also have "cool" areas of their own. Visitors to Detroit laugh at this fact. They are shocked such a dynamic exists.