The City

[hep]

Comments

[ex_pathogen]

Years and years ago, the Contra Costa Times ran an advertising campaign about one of their columnists. Their tagline was, "When he says The City, he means Walnut Creek." Even at twelve, I still thought it was hilarious.

[themassivebri]

Most of the northeast US refers to NYC as 'The City'. Although much of the time it is applied to Manhattan, it can also mean any of the other boroughs...

[ghosthacked]

Glorious NYC. 24. Hour. Public. Transportaion.
last call @4am.

glorious.

/me singletears

[mjb]

http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_95.html

[demure]

right on.

[mooflyfoof]

I think that's pretty much true for most major metropolitan areas--especially New York City. Most east-coasters I've met seem to think of NYC as "the city".

[demure]

ditto re: nyc. everyone I know in Cali (besides Hep, apparently) refers to SF as the bay.

[mooflyfoof]

Oh hellz no. No one who actually lives in the SF Bay Area refers to it as "the bay". It's not a very useful term if, for example, you live in the East Bay. Or the South Bay. Or pretty much anywhere here, since it applies to the entire area.

Also I grew up in Monterey and no one called SF "the bay"--but I think that's because Monterey is in a bay itself and the general area is known as "the Monterery Bay Area". In Monterey we mostly referred to the Bay Area as SF or San Francisco.

[demure]

I should say, every california resident that I know that doesn't already live in the bay area refers to it as the bay. I imagine it's just outsider's ignorance.

[morbid_curious]

My city is so small (ca. 350,000) that people refer to going into the city centre as "going into town".

[demure]

this makes me lol because I live in a "city" of 90k people.

[morbid_curious]

Even more lolful, my city is also the fourth biggest in New Zealand (which has a population of around 4.5 million - less than the bay does).