SF and the valley (or san jose as well) are often used interchangeably, yet: 1. They're in different counties (heck..the valley is even spread over multiple cou

SF and the valley (or san jose as well) are often used interchangeably, yet: 1. They're in different counties (heck..the valley is even spread over multiple counties). 2. San Jose to SF is often over an hour (with traffic) 3. SF, Valley, San jose have very different vibes 4. Is Palo Alto (for example) a suburb of Fan Francisco or of San Jose? What I'm trying to show is that it's typically called the "detroit area" for simplicity's sake. Just like "the valley" or "sf area" is often used to encompass SF to San Jose (and the east bay as well). It's more of a moniker for the region.