Need help understanding California Lingo

austin316

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
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Ok, it seems to me no one in California no longer lives in a city, but rather just slang terminology stating a large area. I'm confused however what some of these names refer to. Ok, here goes. Bay Area -- I believe this is Oakland/San Fran. SoCal -- Southern California. But where is the cutoff at? When are you no longer in Socal, but now in the horrible NoCal? The Valley -- Is this one just the San Fernando Valley? And if so, where the hell is that? LBC -- Long Beach and Compton or Long Beach City? Is this just outside L.A.? Finally, where in the state are these three high schools. Mater Dei, De La Salle, and Poly (the jackrabbits)? Also, are they public or private schools? Thanks in advance.
 

conjur

No Lifer
Jun 7, 2001
58,686
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<shrug>

Not from Cali but I reckon No. Cal. starts around Carmel/Monterey?

Bay Area is as you thought and so is the Valley (although Valley Girl-related stuff is outside L.A. :) ) Don't know about the rest. Try Google.
 

conjur

No Lifer
Jun 7, 2001
58,686
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Originally posted by: Nyical
What ever you do don't visit Fresno area <shudder> ;)

heh...agreed!!

At least they have a Krispy Kreme now. Only good thing about Fresno is it's a short drive to Yosemite ;)
 

Toasthead

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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I believe LBC refers to the Long Beach Crips. Its a team Sublime refers to alot.

run by none other than Warren G and Snoop Dog
 

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
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Most of your questions have been answered. I'll answer your de la salle question for you. It's a private christian school in concord (about an hour north of san fran/oaktown) that basically has one of the best high school sports programs in the country. After middle school, I had a lot of friends that elected to go to De La Salle. They're known to recruit sports players coming out of middle schools, which of course is illegal, but as their reputation stands right now, just everyone wants to go there. I know of one person that makes an hour commute just to get there every freakin day. Anyways, I pass by De La Salle a million times a day, the school itself doesn't look that impressive but the football/track field is gorgeous (yeah I guess that's what #1 high school football ranking gets you these days) and the parking lot is filled with nice cars (for a high school). I hear tuition fee there is over 10 grand but that's just speculation
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
38,241
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People live in the "Bay Area" because no one knows where Campbell is unless you live in Nor Cal. "I live in the South Bay" is more meaningful than "I live in Campbell" to most people from out of the area.
 

LordSnailz

Diamond Member
Nov 2, 1999
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Originally posted by: notfred
People live in the "Bay Area" because no one knows where Campbell is unless you live in Nor Cal. "I live in the South Bay" is more meaningful than "I live in Campbell" to most people from out of the area.

ooOO .. campbell is a pretty nice area, it is actually one of the cities I'm looking to get a house at.
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
Originally posted by: austin316
Ok, it seems to me no one in California no longer lives in a city, but rather just slang terminology stating a large area. I'm confused however what some of these names refer to. Ok, here goes. Bay Area -- I believe this is Oakland/San Fran. SoCal -- Southern California. But where is the cutoff at? When are you no longer in Socal, but now in the horrible NoCal? The Valley -- Is this one just the San Fernando Valley? And if so, where the hell is that? LBC -- Long Beach and Compton or Long Beach City? Is this just outside L.A.? Finally, where in the state are these three high schools. Mater Dei, De La Salle, and Poly (the jackrabbits)? Also, are they public or private schools? Thanks in advance.

Ok before some morons start misinforming you from crap they hear in hip-hop:

SoCal - Begins at San Luis Obispo at the north and ends at the Mexican Border. However, generally when people refer to SoCal, they have in mind Los Angeles, Orange County, or San Diego.

The Valley - You are correct. "The Valley" usually refers to the San Fernando Valley. It is a few miles north of West Los Angeles, and includes Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, North Hollywood, and surrounding areas. Why do people hate the valley? Because it sucks, end of story. It's impossible to enter or leave due to sh!tty traffic, the weather is always 20 degrees hotter than the rest of LA and muggy to boot, and it's generally full of suck. YES I will concede that there are "nicer" areas of the valley, so you whiny bitches just shut up and accept the fact that no one likes living there.

LBC - Long Beach City, which is properly known as the City of Long Beach. It is a LOT bigger than most people think. There's the "nice" area of Long Beach near the harbor and the "ghetto" of Long Beach where Sublime and Snoop Dogg called home. It's about 25-30 miles due south of downtown Los Angeles. It's technically still in Los Angeles, but borders on Orange County.


Also this one is confusing.

South Bay - Refers to EITHER the southern portion of the Bay Area of NorCal OR the cluster of cities surrounding Torrance in the south part of Los Angeles (Torrance, Beach Cities, "the hill", San Pedro, etc)
 

shopbruin

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2000
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bay area - oakland, sf, and san jose area. it can stretch down as far as monterey and carmel. it stretches up north past the wine valley, and some stretch it as far east as like tracy/stockton/modesto. i use it interchangeably with "norcal" (NOT NOCAL)

socal - los angeles and san diego area. the furthest north is before the grapevine.

central california - boring middle of california. my friends from delano refer to themselves as being from the armpit of california.

the valley is just north of los angeles. this is burbank, van nuys, glendale, etc. this is the "cheaper" more run down area of LA. hot as heck up there. some people call the silicon valley the valley, which is just stupid. the true valley is the sf valley. just call the silicon valley the silicon valley.

de la salle is in concord. i know mater dei is in the bay area, i'm thinking east bay. poly i've never heard of. de la salle has probably one of the best football programs in the nation - they've been undefeated for a good ten years. (unless they lost in the last four years and i didn't realize it). they're all private.
 

austin316

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: amnesiac
Originally posted by: austin316
Ok, it seems to me no one in California no longer lives in a city, but rather just slang terminology stating a large area. I'm confused however what some of these names refer to. Ok, here goes. Bay Area -- I believe this is Oakland/San Fran. SoCal -- Southern California. But where is the cutoff at? When are you no longer in Socal, but now in the horrible NoCal? The Valley -- Is this one just the San Fernando Valley? And if so, where the hell is that? LBC -- Long Beach and Compton or Long Beach City? Is this just outside L.A.? Finally, where in the state are these three high schools. Mater Dei, De La Salle, and Poly (the jackrabbits)? Also, are they public or private schools? Thanks in advance.

Ok before some morons start misinforming you from crap they hear in hip-hop:

SoCal - Begins at San Luis Obispo at the north and ends at the Mexican Border. However, generally when people refer to SoCal, they have in mind Los Angeles, Orange County, or San Diego.

The Valley - You are correct. "The Valley" usually refers to the San Fernando Valley. It is a few miles north of West Los Angeles, and includes Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, North Hollywood, and surrounding areas. Why do people hate the valley? Because it sucks, end of story. It's impossible to enter or leave due to sh!tty traffic, the weather is always 20 degrees hotter than the rest of LA and muggy to boot, and it's generally full of suck. YES I will concede that there are "nicer" areas of the valley, so you whiny bitches just shut up and accept the fact that no one likes living there.

LBC - Long Beach City, which is properly known as the City of Long Beach. It is a LOT bigger than most people think. There's the "nice" area of Long Beach near the harbor and the "ghetto" of Long Beach where Sublime and Snoop Dogg called home. It's about 25-30 miles due south of downtown Los Angeles. It's technically still in Los Angeles, but borders on Orange County.


Also this one is confusing.

South Bay - Refers to EITHER the southern portion of the Bay Area of NorCal OR the cluster of cities surrounding Torrance in the south part of Los Angeles (Torrance, Beach Cities, "the hill", San Pedro, etc)

Awesome post. thanks!!!
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
Originally posted by: brtspears2
No love for the IE ... Inland Empire, the dusty, smogy, really hot valley.

The 909 might as well be in outer space. It fvcking sucks. Not only is it isolated, a pain to get to, and overly hot like the Valley, it's boring as hell. I pity anyone who lives there.
 

PaNsyBoy8

Golden Member
Jul 19, 2001
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bay area is the area around the san francisco bay, sf, oakland, san jose would be the the south cutoff for the bay area the east and north cut-offs would be by lesser known towns, i think so cal ends at about the grape vine. where are u from exactly? i'm assuming ur not from california. the bay area and so cal are not close to each other, its about a 4.5-5 hr drive from the southern most point of the bay area to the northern most point of so-cal (driving from la to sacrament is 1 mile closer than driving to sanfrancisco, weird eh?) the reason i say this is because when ppl live outside california, ppl think that sanfrancisco and la are only an hour away or so. So what's up with the questions? are u looking into goign to school out here?
 

austin316

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: freesia39
bay area - oakland, sf, and san jose area. it can stretch down as far as monterey and carmel. it stretches up north past the wine valley, and some stretch it as far east as like tracy/stockton/modesto. i use it interchangeably with "norcal" (NOT NOCAL)

socal - los angeles and san diego area. the furthest north is before the grapevine.

central california - boring middle of california. my friends from delano refer to themselves as being from the armpit of california.

the valley is just north of los angeles. this is burbank, van nuys, glendale, etc. this is the "cheaper" more run down area of LA. hot as heck up there. some people call the silicon valley the valley, which is just stupid. the true valley is the sf valley. just call the silicon valley the silicon valley.

de la salle is in concord. i know mater dei is in the bay area, i'm thinking east bay. poly i've never heard of. de la salle has probably one of the best football programs in the nation - they've been undefeated for a good ten years. (unless they lost in the last four years and i didn't realize it). they're all private.


thanks for the info. I found the Poly is Polytechnical school in Long Beach. Kevin Spacey, Cameron Diaz, and Snoop all graduated from there, along with countless professional athletes. one more ? then, where is Silicon Valley? Sounds pretty high tech.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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Originally posted by: austin316When are you no longer in Socal, but now in the horrible NoCal?
WTF? bay area > socal. end of story.
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
^^^ Silicon Valley is the area near San Jose / Santa Clara (I think along the 101?) where much of the tech sector used to be based, and where all the dot-coms set up shop. THere's still quite a few tech companies up in Palo Alto and environs but if you drive along the highway you'll see a staggering number of very nice but very deserted office buildings.

Also "poly" can also be used to refer to CalPoly Pomona, but more often than not it's called Cal Poly.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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oh, and wtf is up with calling freeways and area codes "the"? no other part of the country talks like that!
 

austin316

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: PaNsyBoy8
So what's up with the questions? are u looking into goign to school out here?

Naw. I'll be a senior in college out here in Ohio. Just wanted to now this stuff cuz I read about 'em all the time in those dam Frys posts. IE: ECS mobo combo for $79.99, Bay Area Only. Reply: Just confirmed, deal is available for SoCal too. Etc..
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
Originally posted by: austin316When are you no longer in Socal, but now in the horrible NoCal?
WTF? bay area > socal. end of story.

Each has its charm.
Personally NorCal is really starting to grow on me. I visited my g/f's old stomping grounds in Santa Clara and it was a pretty nice town. San Jose is definitely a cool place, as is San Francisco. The highlight was Napa Valley though. Good lord, that place is beautiful. I need to find a way to spend a good week or so up there. :D

However, I don't think I could see myself leaving Los Angeles. Been here all my life and I know it like the back of my hand. I like the weather and the people too much to go anywhere else.
 

PaNsyBoy8

Golden Member
Jul 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: austin316
Originally posted by: PaNsyBoy8
So what's up with the questions? are u looking into goign to school out here?

Naw. I'll be a senior in college out here in Ohio. Just wanted to now this stuff cuz I read about 'em all the time in those dam Frys posts. IE: ECS mobo combo for $79.99, Bay Area Only. Reply: Just confirmed, deal is available for SoCal too. Etc..

i c, some ppl actually call bay area norcal i think its still kinda in the middle, there's a huge section above sac that's totally forgotten about by many californians. the thing with the fry's bits is that the norcal ads and socal ads are different, its basically cuz so cal and nor cal are pretty far apart.