Some from Philly and L.A. fit that description, too.
@GrouchoTex I agree with the Philly,but I guess I have never known enough people from LA to know about them.
It does seem like "bluff and strut while talking tough" is the prime personality trait of pretty much everybody that grew up and lived all their lives in big cities,though.
Most of the ones I met from the northeast seem to have to make personality adjustments when they move south,and can no longer "trash talk" anybody without getting their lives punched out. Seems like you can do that up north,and nobody sees it as a threat. Threaten someone from the rural south,and you end up wearing them because they didn't understand you were just "chest beating" and didn't mean any harm,though.
I was friends with two guys in the army from up north. One was a Pole from Chicago,and the other a NYC Italian. Both first generation Americans,and were in reality best friends. Still,every once in while one would go off on the other with a "dumb Pollock" or "greasey Italian making rings on the beach" comment,and it was "game ON". I honestly don't think I have ever heard more vile insults in my life,but these guys were just funning with each other,and repeating what they heard said when growing up in each of their own "big city ghettos". "Yo Mama" jokes weren't a down payment on the stuff these guys were saying.
Still,once you understood they weren't going to try to murder each other,it was pretty damn funny.
