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What is generally considered to be the beginning of Northern California and the end of Southern California? Is there a hard and fast line in the desert somehere?
Strangely enough, when looking at a map, one find that the San Francisco Bay Area is actually...GASP ...near the MIDDLE of the state, and that there is at least 40% of the state north of the Bay Area!
For all intents and purposes, people think of San Diego to about Santa Barbara as Southern Cal, and the things north of that as Northern, with the Central Valley sometimes being separated out and some of the Central coast like San Louis Obispo to Monterey?
the areas north of Sacramento and the Bay Area have recently begun floating a new term, " Upstate California". Uhh, whatever..they are truly NORTHERN California.
Its debatable.... Having lived here all my life I have been able to identify 4 regions north to south that different people will ascribe to different regions... Sothern Cal is probably the easiest... most people would agree that it extends all the way north to and including Santa Barbara... with Point Conception providing a geographical boundary... Next there is a region refered to as the central coast... some will tell you that this includes the Monterey Bay area others will say that the Monterey area is part of Northern Cal... I tend to think of the area that includes Monterey to the south and all the way north to the Somoma/napa area as the "Bay Area".... My main reason for this is that people that live north of the Somoma/Napa area tend to draw the southern boundary of Northern Cal someplace north of San Fran. For them anything south of Sonoma/Napa is Southern Cal. but any person from the Bay area will tell you they live in Northern Cal... This might all seem academic if it weren't for the fact that about every 10 years or so people start talking about splitting the state into two or more states... which then leads to this argument and a whole bunch of news coverage...
I think you have to look at the Counties. To me, Santa Barbara County would be Central Coast, while Ventura County and below is Southern CA. San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Cruz all would be in the Central Coast. With Santa Cruz being the furthest north point for the Central Coast, all above Santa Cruz, including Silicon Valley is Northern CA. I guess that is why KSBW keeps on telling me its the best news station in the Central Coast
Oh yea, in high school all the schools locally participate in the CCS (Central Coast Section).
But isn't Santa Cruz almost as far north as San Jose? I think 17 runs almost as much east-west as it does north/south, but I don't have a map in front of me.
Having lived in L.A. and Orange County, then San Jose and now Napa, I would say that southern California is just north of Mexico and is a separate state. And since there are only 12 people that live north of Santa Rosa, what they think about boundaries doesn't count.
01-21-2002, 12:52 PM
...near the MIDDLE of the state, and that there is at least 40% of the state north of the Bay Area!
