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I have no objection to "I went into the city today." It's "I went into The City" that I will not abide.

by raldi 13y ago

bcantrill 13y ago
Oh, brother. I -- like everyone else in the Bay Area -- also say "the East Bay", "the Peninsula", "the North Bay", "the South Bay" and "the Central Valley" -- even though all of these things are just nouns with minimal adjectives that aren't unique to the Bay Area. (Hell, even "Bay Area" isn't unique to the Bay Area.) So yes, I (again, like everyone around here) say "the City" -- and I know that New Yorkers and Londoners and many others say the same when they're talking about their burg. But this story wasn't a story about New York or London or whatever -- it was about San Francisco, which to me is the City. And if you can find it within yourself to abide my my use of the City in this context, I'll return the favor when we're talking about where you live by letting you refer to it as you do!
- raldi 13y ago
  I grew up in New York, spent about a decade in Manhattan itself, and have never once seen anyone capitalize either as "The City". In fact, I've never seen anyone refer to any city that way except a minority of people in and around SF. This is why South Park characterized residents of the city as "in love with the smell of their own farts."
nostrademons 13y ago
I was all set to argue, but apparently the Internet's grammar nazis agree with you: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/17423-Rule-for-capitalization-of-geographical-areas http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/17423-Rule-for-cap... Geographic regions should be capitalized when they refer unambiguously to only one place. A capitalized "the City" implies that "the City" only refers to San Francisco, which is pretty pompous to many other people around the Globe. If this were a Bay Area-only forum, however, it would be justified, as "the City" is pretty unambiguously SF within the Bay Area.

I have no objection to "I went into the city today." It's "I went into The City" that I will not abide.

by raldi 13y ago

I have no objection to "I went into the city today." It's "I went into The City" that I will not abide.

Oh, brother. I -- like everyone else in the Bay Area -- also say "the East Bay", "the Peninsula", "the North Bay", "the South Bay" and "the Central Valley" -- even though all of these things are just nouns with minimal adjectives that aren't unique to the Bay Area. (Hell, even "Bay Area" isn't unique to the Bay Area.) So yes, I (again, like everyone around here) say "the City" -- and I know that New Yorkers and Londoners and many others say the same when they're talking about their burg. But this story wasn't a story about New York or London or whatever -- it was about San Francisco, which to me is the City. And if you can find it within yourself to abide my my use of the City in this context, I'll return the favor when we're talking about where you live by letting you refer to it as you do!

raldi 13y ago
I grew up in New York, spent about a decade in Manhattan itself, and have never once seen anyone capitalize either as "The City". In fact, I've never seen anyone refer to any city that way except a minority of people in and around SF. This is why South Park characterized residents of the city as "in love with the smell of their own farts."

nostrademons 13y ago

I was all set to argue, but apparently the Internet's grammar nazis agree with you: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/17423-Rule-for-capitalization-of-geographical-areas http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/17423-Rule-for-cap... Geographic regions should be capitalized when they refer unambiguously to only one place. A capitalized "the City" implies that "the City" only refers to San Francisco, which is pretty pompous to many other people around the Globe. If this were a Bay Area-only forum, however, it would be justified, as "the City" is pretty unambiguously SF within the Bay Area.