San Jose. Now there’s a city with an ego problem. 
I lived for many years in Mountain View and always identified myself as living on “The Peninsula” even though technically it is probably not. Go figure.
When I was around 18 I spent a lot of time in the San Jose area and can confirm that everyone there referred to SF as “the city”. In fact the term is used as far away as Santa Cruz, or at least it was then.
[hijack]
Since the County of San Francisco and City of San Fracisco are the same geographical, is there any pragmatic distinction between the two?
[/hijack]
I include it. I’m in Cupertino, and consider Mountain View / Los Altos to be “Peninsula”, with Sunnyvale / Cupertino being the start of the “South Bay”, so I identify myself as living in “The South Bay” or “Silicon Valley”. Of course it’s rather arbitrary, and they overlap. If you look, you find businesses called “South Bay” this and that in Redwood City, and businesses called “Peninsula” this and that in Santa Clara, both of which seem a stretch.
Say that there now and hizonner Chuck Reed might have you tossed into the hoosegow.
I pick on San Jose because I never did get to go down there to see the Gran Prix. Dang!
Not really a hijack, imo.
I don’t think you can be the mayor of a county. Other than that, I don’t know.
They can ban guns.
I went to m-w and found this for “peninsula”;
I did so because I couldn’t see a real isthmus on the map.
They should cut a canal accross and make it an island. 
But then San Francisco would insist that the canal follow their border.
I hope the hell Newsom isn’t reading this.
BTW; I love SF. But for money I’d live there. I’d have a vacation flat in Manhattan.
I grew up in Palo Alto, and we lived on the Peninsula. My mom worked in the City. To me, the Peninsula includes all the cities on the west side of the bay between San Francisco and San Jose.
Now that I live in San Francisco, I find that it’s the people from outside the city who refer to it as “the City” to differentiate it from the various suburbs. I always say that I live in “San Francisco”.
I like to think of the Peninsula as a thumb, and San Francisco as the thumbnail. (After trying unsuccessfully for some time to explain how to use your hands to make a map of the Bay Area, I found this handy representation.)
No, the official name of the political entity is “The City and County of San Francisco”. We do have institutions that reflect our dual nature – a Sheriff as well as a Police Chief, a Board of Supervisors rather than a City Council, etc. Our Sheriff is a San Francisco institution. He was first elected in 1979, and has been continually re-elected ever since.
Nah. It has a rather unusual civic government setup (no city council, just a county board of supervisors), but practically speaking, it’s not a big deal. Although I do believe this arrangement is what allowed Gavin Newsom to declare that gay marriage would be legal in the city. I could be in error, but I believe that marriages are recorded by the county, and in most counties, the recorder wouldn’t be directed by a city’s mayor. Since here, they are the same thing, the mayor was able to take some rather unusual steps (which were eventually overruled as unconstitutional anyway, but I don’t think would have gotten off the ground at all in most places).
And Long Island means Nassau and Suffolk even though both Brooklyn and Queens are on that same island.
Okay San Franciscan person, how do you feel about “Frisco”? I’ve heard the word used over there, but couldn’t tell if the speakers were residents or tourists.
I rarely, if ever, hear it around here.
Every place has these regionalisms. Both Chicago and Cleveland (and probably a buncha other Great Lakes cities as well) have a distinct area they call the “lakefront” – although the lakefront is one entire border of the city and extends far beyond it.
Not any longer. Really, people from around San Jose give an eyeroll to dudes who say “The City”.
“Frisco” is pretty much hated but “esseff” is pretty common.
We have Cal State East Bay, formerly Cal State Hayward, but the traffic reports for the East Bay never cover south of Oakland. (On KCBS, at least.) Since I’m a traffic junkie, that is where my definition comes from.
I think you remember incorrectly. I grew up in Queens not very far from the Nassau County border, and it was pretty well developed when I left, 35 years ago. I suspect the difference is that it was much easier to get into the city from the outer boroughs using public transportation. Going to Long Island required a car or the dreaded LIRR.
Don’t use it. We dun like it.
Don’t say “Frisco” unless you mean here. Or, unless you’re one of these dudes, in which case most people won’t care to argue the point with you.
Musta been tourists then.
Bring 'em on.
anon