For many people in Los Angeles, earthquakes are just another trend that New Yorkers have discovered years after the real cool kids did.
As Angelenos awoke to the news that the east coast had endured a 4.8-magnitude earthquake centered in New Jersey, “First time?” memes filled Los Angeles social media channels.
While New Yorkers were posting frantically and trading earthquake stories, Californians logged on to roll their eyes. An earthquake “happens every 2-3 business days in California”, one person posted. And as well as dealing with “weekly” earthquakes, Angelenos have to “pay $20 for a cheeseburger. $6 for gas. And our cops are gang members,” another quipped.
A spokesperson for California’s governor posted on X that the reaction to the New York earthquake was an example of “east coast bias”, since it had generated wall-to-wall cable news coverage, he wrote, while magnitude 4.2 and 4.4 earthquakes in northern California the previous night had prompted no more than a few tweets.
Some experts cautioned that earthquakes on the east coast should be seen as a serious matter, not just some freak phenomenon.
A US Geological Survey report released in January found that, contrary to beliefs that earthquakes are a west coast problem, “nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake”, and flagged “the possibility of more damaging earthquakes along the central and north-eastern Atlantic coastal corridor, including in the cities of Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston”.
In the bigger picture, some Californians argued, engaging in seismic side-eye might be inappropriate.
NYC got an earthquake before an erewhon
— Zach Schiffman (@schlife) April 5, 2024
“An earthquake is a funny thing to gatekeep,” one Bay Area tech reporter said, criticizing the west coast need to be “performatively unbothered about earthquakes”.
But with the east coast earthquake leaving residents unharmed, if shocked, many people welcomed the chance to poke a little fun at New Yorkers, whose view of themselves as the center of the universe was certainly not shaken by a mere earthquake.
“I AM FINE,” the account for the Empire State Building tweeted. Seven hours later, still needing attention, it tweeted: “I AM STILL FINE.”
Jenna, a media worker who lives in Bushwick, was smashing avocado into well-salted toast at the moment her apartment started moving. She froze. The soft-boiled egg she had been preparing rolled slightly around in its dish.
NYC: *has an Earthquake*
— 🥀𝓣𝓲𝓪🥀 (@NoAverageJoint) April 5, 2024
People in California to New Yorkers: pic.twitter.com/Xbe0KTIRUI
“Is my apartment building going to collapse?” she recalled thinking. “Is this how I die?”
But the earthquake, apparently not a divine intervention targeting millennials for their spending habits, subsided.
Fresh from an encounter with death, Jenna said her avocado toast tasted “very good”.
Other New Yorkers responded to the earthquake by complaining about how much rent they pay and talking about their landlords, Vogue noted, making New York’s earthquake Twitter the equivalent of 90% of New York party conversations.
“I DON’T WANT TO DIE IN A STUDIO APARTMENT,” one New Yorker contributor tweeted.
A local comedian suggested that while earthquakes in Los Angeles were “overdone” and “trite”, a New York City quake was “cheeky and camp”.
There were viral tweets in the voice of Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, suggestions that New Yorkers were going to yell at tectonic plates like they yell at taxis when they’re trying to cross the street, and expressions of frustration with how New York City’s mayor, a former police officer, approaches many of the city’s problems.
as a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit manhattan i couldn't help but wonder...was my relationship with big structurally sound enough to withstand the impact? pic.twitter.com/zRqs43m5ZH
— layla (@laylology) April 5, 2024
“Eric Adams about to send 500,000 cops to the earth’s core,” one resident joked.
Some commenters were more sincere: “Dear California … how … do you live like this?” the journalist Elie Mystal wrote.
New York’s paltry supply of A-list celebrities did their best to mark the occasion, with the Academy Award-winner Jessica Chastain tweeting: “Did we just have an earthquake?!” and “This is really nuts. Hope everyone is okay.”
The city’s most beloved celebrities, its subway rats, were not immediately available for comment.
Gabrielle Canon contributed reporting
