What do you think makes a city rude? Loud citizens? Reckless drivers? Absorption with phones? Well, these are just a few factors that a new study by Preply used to rank various American cities on how rude their residents are.
East Meck’s home, Charlotte, was ranked as the 10th rudest city in America, with an overall score of 8.11/10 on rudeness. Recently, Charlotte has been placed in a variety of top ten lists, including the top ten most desirable American cities to live in, and the top ten most underrated American cities. The top ten rudest cities of the country is quite an outlier compared to these other lists, and some may wonder if Charlotte (even) belongs on this list.
As someone who has lived in Charlotte their whole life, there are three words that come to mind when I think of the city: growth, change, and diversity.
117, this is the number of people who move to Charlotte every day based on a 2023 estimate by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. This equates to over 42,000 people moving to Charlotte in one year. Every two years, enough people to fill the entire Bank of America stadium move to Charlotte.
It is no secret to residents that the city is currently in a huge stage of growth, and has been for years. The question is, is this growth good or bad for the once-small city?
One common subject that students and staff around East brought up regarding the effects of this growth is the recent driving experience in Charlotte.
Sophomore Alexa Gonalez said, “…When driving, people don’t respect any of the laws.” Throughout the city, it is not at all uncommon for drivers to cut people off, tailgate, and drive dangerously. According to the NC Vision Zero report, there are roughly 82 car accidents a day in Charlotte. Considering that this Preply study used driving as a major factor when ranking cities on rudeness, it seems more than likely to me that Charlotte’s rank on this list is a result of the citizens poor driving habits rather than general rude behaviors.
Charlotte is currently transitioning from a smaller city into one of the largest cities in the country and freshman Halley Toth said that peoples opinion on this “really just depends on whether you like a smaller or bigger city, and some people may just miss it the way it was.”
East Meck is lucky to have many staff members who have lived in Charlotte for most of their lives and have seen the city grow and flourish. Staff member Mary Felker is one of these individuals and said, “the city has gotten much bigger since I was a child in Charlotte…but I don’t see a major difference, [in the people] no.”
Although the city is growing, this does not necessarily mean it’s losing any of its charm or is causing people to lose their manners, rather it is simply gaining diversity. Ms. Felker went on to say “I personally believe the diversity in the city is one of its biggest strengths.”
In a city with such diverse demographics of people there are many different cultures combining in one single location. East Mecks IB Coordinator, Erica Flanagan said, “Rude isn’t necessarily what everybody considers rude. If you’re American born and bred you have certain cultural norms, and if somebody violates those you think, how rude? But was it really rude or just different?”
Charlotte is changing, growing and diversifying every day, this is undeniable. After hearing a variety of opinions and doing some basic research it is clear to me that Charlotte is not a rude city. Drivers may need to learn to let people merge and understand that just because a car has a horn doesn’t mean you have to use it so often, but we are not rude. There’s a reason people are moving to Charlotte. Although they may bring differences and change to the city, that’s what makes Charlotte so unique.
