Monday, August 27, 2007

Where the heck is Northern California?

If you spend anytime with people in the Valley or other Southern portions of the state, you get a wide array of claims for Northern California. People in Santa Cruz, Fresno, San Jose and even people as far south as Bakersfield consider themselves "Northern Californians." My break off point is Ukiah/Redding personally. Any thoughts?

19 comments:

mresquan said...

In my ideal world,we'd be living in the state of Jefferson,in which our southern border would be in Mendo.county.But other than that,I'm with you Richard,Ukiah/Redding is the breaking point.

Jennifer Savage said...

Growing up in SoCal (Mojave desert, 60 miles north of El Lay), we considered Santa Cruz to San Francisco "Northern California." I didn't really realize how much more California existed until I was 25 and took a road trip past SF, all the way to Seattle. I notice my SoCal friends who haven't visited still think the same way.

"So you're north of San Fran?"
"Yeah, about 300 miles north."
"But that's Oregon! Or Washington!"
"No, no – it's still California!"

They never believe me.

But now I hear people say they're going "down south" when they mean Santa Rosa, which cracks me up, too.

Now that I've lived in places from San Diego to Manila, I define SoCal as Santa Barbara and south, Central Cal as Santa Cruz to SF, and Northern California as Sonoma County upward.

rick mitchell said...

I agree with Jennifer, try this one.SF belongs to the south except the 9ers we keep them. And the north gets Sac.
Just so ya know other people away from CA.
In other states,califorin's are all the same. Northern and Southern.
Rick

Anonymous said...

Always thought that they would split up Southern to Northen with a line divided across the Golden Gate...

Then again, powers will be, never happened....

Fred Mangels said...

I'm with Jennifer, too. Sonoma north is Northern CA and we should divide south of that into central and southern CA, southern being south of Santa Barbara. That said, I nearly always refer to anyone from south of Sonoma County as southern Californians.

I don't know what to think when I tell someone I'm from Eureka, in northern CA, and they say something along the line of, "That's up near San Francisco, isn't it?".

Had a guy from San Diego tell me once that a mutual acquaintance was "moving up near you.", or something like that. The gal was moving to San Luis Obispo.

Anonymous said...

The Golden Gate for me is the split for northern California.
But I would draw a line with a jog up to Red Bluff and eliminate Chico south as central California.

Is Quincy, Alturas and Truckee Eastern California or Northern California?

The North Coast on the other hand is from Fort Bragg to Smith River. I tell people I'm from Extreme Northern California...up by Oregon.

Ah, The State of Jefferson. If that ever happened, we would surely become the poorest state in the nation. Medford and Redding would have the financial influence because of their penchance for industry while Humboldt and Del Norte would be where the state prisons would go.

Unless of course logging and fishing came back. But again, we're speaking of a mythical state.

Hey, someone should bring up the State of Jefferson idea on the blogs and see the variety of comments. Heraldo? Eric?

Fred Mangels said...

"I tell people I'm from Extreme Northern California...".

A guy I know from Redding called it the "Far North". First time I'd ever heard it referred to as other than Northern CA.

"someone should bring up the State of Jefferson idea on the blogs and see the variety of comments.".

There used to be a forum on the State of Jefferson web page but they got rid of it for some reason. At least I can't see a link to it anymore. Not much going on there, anyway.


http://jeffersonstate.com/

Anonymous said...

Bakersfield??? Come on Richard, you've got to be kidding.

The break between central and northern California is at Ridgewood Summit, just south of Willits. When you leave the Russian River watershed and enter the Eel River watershed at Riddgewood Summit, the landscape changes dramatically and you are then in northern California.

Eric V. Kirk said...

Santa Cruz and above technically speaking. I generally think of anything north of Sonoma County as "Northern California."

Anonymous said...

At a conference I attended in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago one speaker indicated he thought "Northern California" was north of Monterey. Yuck. Let the south have Santa Rosa. Everything north of there is cool.

Anonymous said...

I consider Northern California anything North of Sodom and Gamorah (San Francisco and Oakland)

Anonymous said...

Let's not get technical Erik. Sonoma County and the bay area is central. Mendicino is as far south as I would classify as northern california.

kaivalya said...

It seems to me that the economic divide is somewhere between SF and LA.

I say, let SF be NoCal, LA/SD be SoCal - because I'm proud live in the State of Jefferson.

Anonymous said...

I am a Northern CA native. I was born in San Francisco in 1952. I was brought home to Mill Valley, where I lived until 1970, when I moved to San Francisco to attend SF State. Then I moved to Humboldt County in 1971, where I lived until 1998. I now am back in Marin County.
Here is how my family and friends see it, and remember folks, it's all up to interpretation, as I am undertaking:
There are 2 parts to CA, North and South.
Northern Ca starts on the coast just north of Santa Cruz. Inland- who cares! We always said that San Jose was the demarcation for So Cal growing up.

Now, for the real old feel-I do not feel comfortable until I am outside of Cloverdale on Hwy 101...not like I am commuting anymore!! But I used to!!!
SO, for us oldtimers, there is no "central Ca". There is north and south. SF had NOTHING to do with LA in the old days, so the line was hard.

Anonymous said...

At 2:40 PM, Anonymous said...
I consider Northern California anything North of Sodom and Gamorah (San Francisco and Oakland)

It's comforting to know that the bigots are also unable to spell the names of at least one of their favorite cities. A plethora of insulting remarks comes to mind. And there they will stay.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

There was an interesting discussion about electoral votes on a national blog and a map where there was a proposal to divide the State of California into 5 separate states. Northern California, called Jefferson starts just below Sacramento and above Mendocino leaving the entire Bay Area to be included in another State. San Francisco is NOT in Northern California geographically or philosopically.

See the map and the descriptions http://immodestproposals.blogspot.com/2007/08/five-state-solution-for-dividing.html

Personally, I think Northern California should start somewhere just south of Williams. Everything south of that INCLUDING San Francisco to the Montery/San Luis Obispo is in Middle California. Everything else is southern Ca.

kaivalya said...

10:20PM said: "SO, for us oldtimers, there is no 'central Ca'. There is north and south. SF had NOTHING to do with LA in the old days, so the line was hard."

I think Steinbeck and Chavez would disagree.
My grandparents are buried in Tehachapi.

kaivalya said...

Here's a thought...

Crescant City is at about 41*46N latitude.
While San Ysidro (city at the Mexican border) is about about 32*32'N latitude.

That would put the mean central line of latitude at 36*45N. Or somewhere around Chowchilla, Merced, Santa Cruz, Bishop, San Jose.

SF and Yosemite Park would be north. On the south-side would be Fresno and Kings Canyon Park.

That's what the math tells me anyhow.

[Cross-posted on Eric's blog]

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