San Francisco is “The City”
L.A. is “L.A.”
Freeways don’t have “the” in front of them if it’s just a number. It even bugs me when the British lady in my Navigation system says it.
Interstate 5 is “I-5” (that’s from growing up 'round Portland)
San Jose isn’t cool enough to have a nickname, so I just call it “Home.”
(I occationally call it “Saint Joe” but it hasn’t caught on)
NorCal, not NoCal.
Never, ever, have I heard “Cali.” ever.
OK, now there I have to beg to differ. New York is “The City”. 
Well, yes and no - living in New York, just outside the City (next to Rob and Laura Petrie’s town), yes, it is the City - no question. But on the West Coast, SF is The City. Heck, look at the old Golden State Warriors basketball jersies - they just said “the City” on them…
As for “NorCal” vs. “NoCal” - I have heard a lot of both…I don’t see a lot of quibbling over that one.
Herb Caen is the SF Newspaperman who championed the “just don’t call it Frisco” mentality - in fact, I think he wrote a book by that name…he passed some time ago, so I wonder if his influence is starting to fade…
SF is only “the City” to some few San Francisans living in the glory days and the editors of the Examiner.
Like I said- most everyone aroudn here does use the “the”, they just minimize it as opposed to the LA dudes who say “THEE 405”.
“sanhosee” is what I use and hear.
Apparently I didn’t use enough words here…
I meant San Francisco is called “The City.” Not as much as it used to, but I still use it, as in "I hate ‘the City’ or "I avoid ‘the City’ like the plague.’ This is not to say there can be no other “Cities.” 'round here it doesn’t mean New York or Oakland.
Freeways shouldn’t have “the” in front of them if it’s just a number. This is a personal preference and it bugs me to no end. It’s really its own thread though.
NorCal, not NoCal. Whatever, I wouldn’t quibble over it.
On “Cali” - I hear it used, more often than California, by the immigrant side of my family, many of whom have lived here for over 20 years. California is a difficult word, and long to boot, for some non-native speakers. Now that I think of it, ‘kali’ has phonemes that are in Vietnamese, while the rest of the word doesn’t seem to match well with that language (IANAspeakerOfVietanamese).
You’d be surprised, and probably quite saddened if you’re anything like me.
Okay, I’m sure others have pointed this out, but the reason we call it The 405 is that we’re refering to a specific object, namely, a particular freeway. To us Angelenos <sardonic grin />, that freeway - and it’s kin - is an individual thing with unique characteristics.
When they were first constructed, they had individual names, still fairly common. I’m as likely to call it The San Diego Freeway as The 405. Well, no, it doesn’t actually get anywhere close to San Diego, but we’re talking about regionalisms here, not logic.
No one else other than Herb Caen has ever called San Francisco (pronounced S’nFr’nsiscoe, I think) by that too-cute nickname “Baghdad by the Bay”, right? Of course, that doesn’t have the same ring it had a few years back…
Here in New Mexico we call all you people from Cali, or the OC, or Frisco etc who are buying all our land “Californicators”.
We still like you though.
Chicagoland is most certainly a term used by locals. I believe the objection was from outsiders who just find it weird.
Ooops, my bad.
We used to call it Philthydelphia when I grew up there. Street litter was something of… a problem. 