The magazine gave Boston the ranking in its January issue in an article that listed the 20 rudest cities in the nation. Results were based on an online survey that asked readers to rate certain aspects of 35 U.S. cities, according to the magazine’s website.
Etiquette coach Susan Callender is CEO of Oh My Gauche!, a company dedicated to “transforming individuals from gauche to grace,” according to its website. She said many of her clients are Boston residents.
“Many people are from the Greater Boston area, but I also have in every [etiquette] class a contingent of people that have moved here for work and what they find is that people [Bostonians] are not smiling,” Callender said. “They’re not friendly.”
Boston ranks as the fifth rudest city in the country.
Much of the rudeness stems from Bostonians’ love for their sports teams, according to Travel + Leisure, which also listed Boston as the second most sports-crazed city in the U.S.
Boston University students said their experiences with sports fans in Boston back up the magazine’s claims.
“I think Red Sox fans are rude. I mean, if you are not a Red Sox fan and you happen to run into Red Sox fans they can be mean,” said Ilana Oestreicher, a junior in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences, a New Yorker and a self-proclaimed Yankees fan.
In the case of BU School of Hospitality Administration freshman Brian Chernin, “mean” might be an understatement.
“Frankly, I’ve been to enough Yankees – Red Sox games where I’ve had beer thrown at me, almost gotten punched in the face, and gotten in fights and such that I’m totally aware that New Yorkers and Bostonians are very rude people,” Chernin, another Yankees fan, said.
Bostonians may be rude, but the Big Apple made it to first place on the magazine’s list. Miami, D.C. and Los Angeles rounded out the magazine’s top five rudest cities.
Boston’s high concentration of college students may also contribute to the city’s low friendliness-factor, Callender said.
“College students today . . . are very tech-savvy and that is where they have a social connection,” she said, adding that an ability to connect through technology may not translate to an ability to connect socially in the real world.
Chernin, however, said many college students in the city are less rude than the article suggests.
“Walking down the street on the BU campus and on Commonwealth [Avenue], I’ve found that people are really, really friendly,” Chernin said.
Beyond the street, however, Callender said some of the alleged rudeness might come from Bostonians’ concentration on their jobs.
“People are more focused on their tasks,” she said, “and when you are more focused on your work, you are less involved with the people around you, so you become very self-centered and single-minded, not taking into account the feelings of others.”
The workforce aside, visitors to Boston may want to be wary of local pedestrians and drivers, said CAS junior Emelia Thompson.
“I’m not surprised [about Boston’s ranking]. I mean just look at how people cross the street,” Thompson said. “Have you ever driven in Massachusetts? It’s the worst. It’s like cut-throat driving.”
However, the issue may be less complex than driver-to-driver or driver-to-pedestrian relations. It lies in simple, everyday interactions, Callender said.
Wearing ear buds in public, not saying “excuse me,” looking down while walking and constant texting may all contribute to Boston’s ranking, Callender said.
“You cannot tune out in conversations,” she said. “You can’t walk away and say, ‘I’ll friend you on Facebook.’”