quote:Originally posted by Jhai: That's because it's SoCal - I've never met anyone from NorCal (specifically the Bay Area) who didn't want to go back. Despite the traffic.
And I know several former NorCalers who would never move back.
Of course, that's because they moved to SoCal. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Jhai: What's worse is when they don't know where San Jose is. Or that San Jose is in Silicon Valley. We're just the 11th largest city in the country. People know where little towns like Atlanta and Minneapolis are. Yet you tell them you're in a town of 900,000 people and you have to say "we're near SF." (a town they know even by it's initials.)
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Or they think that 101 is the way to San Jose. People, people: 280 is faster AND prettier - it's only one more exit/junction from SFO.
Edited to say: I've given up saying San Jose - no one ever knows where it is out here in the Midwest. And only Apple-crazed people have even HEARD of Cupertino. Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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280 is especially beautiful when the coastside fog is spilling over the Santa Cruz mountains. It almost looks like water over a dam.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I'm originally from California. It's a nice place to visit.
But I've been away so long I may go wrong and lose my way to San Jose.
Well, I'm from Westminster. I'm not sure I ever went to San Jose. I've been to San Francisco though. I think I could find my way back there. And Modesto.
Say, while we're at it, who has a reaction for "Frisco?"
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Annie I have to use that way of explaining too, even though I'm from NJ. It's weird, sometimes the people in NJ don't even know the county I'm from. I have to say you know how NJ has a point (like so /\), well I live at the tip.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: SoCal and NorCal are two very different places, with different outlooks... (For instance, people in NorCal do not need to know how to spell "Angelenos," Rivka. )
Actually, there are three "states" of California that are very different, not just two, and I think the difference is more a state of mind than a state of geography. There is Southern California, which I like to think of as civilization ; there's Northern California, which has its good and its bad places; and then there is The Valley - and I don't mean San Fernando Valley.
Having lived here in what we learned in fourth grade to call "The Great Central Valley", I can assure you that it isn't like either southern California or northern California outside of the valley. Sure, Bakersfield orients more toward L.A. because of its proximity, and Fresno and points north orient more toward San Francisco because the drive is a little shorter than to L.A., but people are just different here. It's much more like the midwest than anywhere else. In fact, driving into many of the small towns around the valley, you would swear that you've suddenly been transported to one of those "in the middle" states.
Having said that, would I like to see California split in two? Three? No, mostly because Fresno would probably end up being included in the the northern state, and I'm a southern California native.
And on yet another subject, calling the San Francisco area "the Bay Area" doesn't really bother me all that much, but it absolutely drives me up a wall when people refer to San Francisco as "The City", as if it is the only one that ever existed, does exist, or will exist. The only thing I will admit to really liking about San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge, which is a magnificent structure, although I like the East Bay a lot, especially Berkeley and all its used bookstores.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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And how many people specify which state "New York" is in?
I don't even have a problem with people who say they're from "LA," but the "bay area" just drives me nuts.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I think that saying I'm from the Bay Area is fine when I'm talking to other California natives.
Posts: 155 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Ok, people don't know where Silicon Valley is. People don't know where San Jose is (I've actually had people ask me how it was in Costa Rica) and apparently we're not allowed to say "Bay Area".
And there's no way in HELL I'm going to say I'm from San Francisco.
so I'm out of options.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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You're allowed to say "Bay Area." Just don't expect people to know what you're talking about.
Unless they're from California. I can see that point. Maybe Nevada and Oregon too, but don't expect someone from the east to understand.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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And I won't say I'm from SF because I don't like that place. They're a smaller town than SJ yet they insist on living directly on top of one another and there's never any place to park and the place is so one sided ideologically that Bush came in third in 2000. (Even Arkansas, which I left in large part for being too conservative, isn't that lopsided.) Plus the cultural aspects of the city bother me. The saying "If I can do it, it ain't art." applies to that town in spades.
Folks from here in Chicago say "The City," so do folks from NYC. I guess the folks in SF are just doing what people do when referring to the biggest and oldest city around. LA can't be "The City" becasue there isn't one really. Its all spread out with a crappy downtown area.
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
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Pix, people usually understand what I'm talking about when I say I was born in the Bay Area, or Silicon Valley. Then again, I live in Oregon, so perhaps that's why people know that Bay Area = San Francisco Bay Area. I sometimes say that it's about an hour away from San Francisco, too. We rarely went there though, except to go to the airport.
Oh, and I've rarely ever heard people give distances in miles. Maybe it's a West Coast thing, but I thought that everyone gave distances in time. I don't even know how far it is to the cities around here, but I can tell you how long it will take to get there.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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South Cali, North Cali: it's all the same to me. I've lived in the armpit of Cali (Bakersfield) since birth and I'm fed up with this state.
The econ here is shot, the housing market is INSANE, gas prices are the worst in the nation, the illegals are taking their country back, and Arnie's up a creek without a boat or floaties. I'm outta here.
The house here is sold (CHA-CHING!) and a new one closes in five weeks in my new home: Portland, Oregon.
Cali has gone to hell and I'm tired of living in it.
Posts: 339 | Registered: Mar 2005
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And I know several former NorCalers who would never move back.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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