He knows where he's going. Do you? (PeterJBellis, flickr)
Aside from their adherence to sidewalk etiquette and an affinity for one-handing pizza, when they put their feet to the street New Yorkers may not differ as much from their touristy brethren as they thought they did.
A New York Post survey of 100 New Yorkers showed that an overwhelming number don’t know where basic Big Apple landmarks are, making them little better than the confused Times Square tourists trying to navigate the city.
Apparently, only 32 percent of New York residents know where the Guggenheim is and only 21 percent can name the location of The Algonquin, the New York Post reports.
In fact, 71 percent of the surveyed New York natives answered five or fewer answers correctly. The Post used questions from the Taxi Master Academy to test New Yorkers' where-are-we? wherewithal.
The good news is that at least somebody in New York knows where they're going—the largely foreign-born New Yorkers who work as professional taxi drivers. The cabbies, when questioned, proved adept at identifying what the Joe DiMaggio Highway (a.k.a. The Westside Highway) turns into downtown (West Street), although they were less successful identifying Joe DiMaggio himself. (The baseball star's marriage to Marilyn Monroe proved an effective prod).
“They always know that,” Terry Gelber, an ex-cabby, told The Post.
New Yorkers may not know their streets, but at least they know their celebrities.
sgrothjan@observer.com