New Yorkers love to debate what makes someone a New Yorker. Is it how often you take the subway? Your sports team allegiances? How you eat a slice of pizza?
Some believe that spending a decade in the city or having children here cements your status as a New Yorker.
One of the most famous New Yorkers weighed in on Friday, reviving a heated debate. The actress Jennifer Lopez, who famously hails from the Bronx, said in an interview that only one factor matters. “You have to be born in New York to be a New Yorker,” Ms. Lopez said sitting in a subway car, wearing a trench coat and baseball cap, for the popular video series “Subway Takes.”
The host, Kareem Rahma, groaned before begrudgingly agreeing. He pressed Ms. Lopez, wondering if she would feel the same about someone who had lived in the city for 50 years, but was born somewhere else.
Ms. Lopez did not budge: “I have to say no. You live in New York. You take on characteristics of New Yorkers probably by that time. You have a New York sensibility.”
But she added: “When you’re born in New York is when you’re really a New Yorker.”
The video quickly went viral, and many New Yorkers agreed with Ms. Lopez on social media, including Kenneth Reyes, a radio host known as Ken Starrrz, who said that you could also qualify by eating 500 bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches.
Julia Fox, an actress who grew up in New York City, endorsed her take: “If you haven’t suffered through child hood here, you are NOT a New Yorker sorryyyy,” Ms. Fox wrote on Instagram.
Many others strongly objected, arguing that the city had long been a bastion for immigrants and there should be no litmus test. Aaron Carr, a housing activist who was born on Long Island and has lived in the city for almost 15 years, noted that nearly 40 percent of the city’s residents are immigrants and called her comments a “holy grail of idiotic takes.”
With the New York Knicks in the N.B.A. finals, New York City is reveling in a moment of hometown pride. The city is also grappling with questions over whether native New Yorkers or newer residents should shape the city’s future in political races.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda and moved to New York City as a child in 1999. Many immigrants and younger New Yorkers helped him rise from anonymity to win the mayor’s race last year.
Bill de Blasio, the former mayor who was born in New York City and grew up in Massachusetts, said in an interview that Ms. Lopez’s comments were “absolutely outrageous” and that New York was the “ultimate city of immigrants.”
“There is no purity test,” he said. “In fact, it’s been the opposite. We’ve said, ‘Come here and become one of us.’”
Mr. de Blasio, whose authenticity was questioned at times over eating pizza with a fork and supporting the Boston Red Sox, said that he identified as a New Yorker “because of how long I’ve lived here and because I raised my family here.”
“This place gave me everything in life,” he said. “Your definition of home is the place that means the most to you. New York City has been my whole world.”
The question of whether newer residents belong has repeatedly surfaced in New York City politics, especially as the cost of living has soared. When Eric Adams was running for mayor in 2020, he said that newer residents were “hijacking” apartments from longtime residents and that they should “go back to Iowa.”
While campaigning for a competitive Congressional primary in Brooklyn and Queens this month, Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, has focused on his roots as a lifelong New Yorker. His opponent, Claire Valdez, who is backed by Mr. Mamdani, grew up in Texas and moved to the city in 2015 to pursue a “career in the arts.”
Shaun Abreu, a City Council member from northern Manhattan who was born in New York City, said that he had to agree with Ms. Lopez.
“It doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to love New York,” he said, adding that people who had lived in the city for 15 years or more could have a separate title like “honorary New Yorker.”
Still, Ms. Lopez, who is promoting a new film called “Office Romance,” may be an imperfect champion for New York City pride. Her 2002 song “Jenny from the Block” highlighted her upbringing in the Bronx, and her first album was named for the 6 train.
But she appears to live primarily in Los Angeles, where one of her children recently gradated from high school.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is a public policy correspondent for The Times, covering New York City.
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