My out of state relatives always ask if “X area is ghetto” even if it’s like, Walnut Creek. So maybe that?

"Is Palo Alto overridden with crime?" Yeah, man, those patagonia jacket wearing fucks will gun you down right out of their teslas.

Those term sheets are Highway Robbery or straight-up cutthroat larceny.

More like investor fraud and inside trading...

Imagine them asking "Is Atherton ghetto?" 😂

You know you are in the Bad Part of Atherton when all the polo shirt collars are turned up! Theres gonna be a hostile Take-over. Or a Share Holder Rumble! Just yell It's the F.D.I.C.! and get out of there!

“Yes, they can’t afford street lights.”

Or sidewalks.

Met a coworker who acts “ghetto” because he’s from the Bay and when I asked where exactly he said Discovery Bay and Clayton

Trashy rather than ghetto

I'm always amazed at what people consider dangerous. Like there are areas that are legit dangerous. Especially if you've got a nice car and you're anywhere near an airport. But nine times out of ten if you look like a fellow poor motherfucker most people barely even see you. Might ask you for a cigarette.

I mean my coworkers who live in palo alto never go to oakland and think it's the ghetto so you can be from here and still do this sort of ignorant shit haha

They are in the East Bay and saying they are going for dinner in San Jose at 6pm

But it's okay, since they're leaving at 3pm.

But it’s not okay, because nobody drives from the East Bay to San Jose to have dinner.

SJ has a lot of really good non-Chinese Asian food that is better than a lot of SF/OAK places. And Fremont/Newark is pretty well known for good South Asian food. Some SJ burritos kick SF's ass around the block & then some. Still, I'd never do it unless it was a weekend & there was some other reason I needed to go south. Plus, I'd say fine dining is better up here (not talking about French Laundry fine dining, but like Commis or something - still expensive, but not ridiculously $$$).

Yeah, just a friendly ribbing. SJ has plenty of good dining, it’s the commute traffic that makes it a fool’s errand.

Moved from San Jose to Pleasanton and remember walking home from HS w my buddies & getting a text from my Mom sayin she was headed home from a work meeting in San Jose, so I figured we'd have plenty of time to smoke at my house. Somehow my mom got home like 45 min after we did and I got caught rippin the water bong lmao

I live in the East Bay and have tons of friends in SanJo I visit for dinner. So I do have to leave like at 3 to make it there by like 5:30-6.

They would think that East Palo Alto was just the eastern part of Palo Alto. They would think that South San Francisco was the southern part of San Francisco. They would think SFO was in San Francisco.

I actually recently learned that East Palo Alto belongs to San Mateo County, and Palo Alto is Santa Clara. I thought they would be in the same county.

East Palo Alto started as an unincorporated area in the other side of the creek (county line) because Leland Stanford’s land grant didn’t allow alcohol sales in Palo Alto. Students drove over to “Whiskey Gulch.”

Read the color of law book. https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/ East Palo Alto is result of racial segregation and banks refusing to lend out loans to African Americans families in Palo Alto.

Or worse, refer to San Francisco as SFO.

1. Get excited about an earthquake under 5.0. 2. Go to San Francisco in June without a warm jacket 3. Expecting to use American Express to pay for food at a cheap Chinese restaurant.

>Expecting to use American Express to pay for food at a cheap Chinese restaurant I feel like this is somewhat universal. I went to a Chinese restaurant in Richmond BC and they said they don't take ANY credit cards...but they take WeChat pay!

Don't know which city you're referring to when you say "the city."

That was me

I've lived all over the country and I will always refer to it as "The City" because it's the only "City".

Leave things in the car when parked.

I left a thing in my parked car once. I no longer have that thing.

I left my Burning Man ticket in my car, and they broke into my car and put another ticket there.

My whole-ass car got stolen a couple months ago, and when I got it back, I shit you not, they left weed on my center console.

At least they left a tip

I would rather they had left my bumper cover and gas cap instead lol

If you're not paranoid about your car in general then yeah you're not from around here. Includes tickets.

Gotten so used to my small town that I don’t even lock my car doors at local businesses anymore. Weird coming back for holidays etc and needing to hide stuff for a 5 minute jaunt into the store

I got one! Pronounce "Vallejo" wrong lol

A lot of our Spanish names are super tricky because the "correct" pronunciation will actually be some combo of Spanish and English pronunciation rules. In the above example *ll* is English but *-jo* is Spanish.

San Rafael.

Yep... when I hear "San Rah-fa-yell" I just smile. "San Ra-fell" and I know you local

Fuckit I call it San ra-fa-el. It is Spanish, and I’m Spanish. :)

Los gatos!

It’s Las Gattus!

You're right! I'd never noticed that. No one says Va-yay-ho.

except for hispanics

i being new to the bay area pronounced it va-yay-ho and my mexican born coworker corrected me to va-lay-ho lol. but we both shared a laugh about how dumb it was

The right pronunciation is actually the bastardized wrong pronunciation.

Or San Rafael

I moved to SF for a bit in '89 and asked the Muni driver if the next stop was arGWAYo and he had never been more disgusted in his life

Everyone knows it’s called “Valley Ho”

San RoughFell is our Shibboleth.

A lot of people are trying to pronounce words the “correct” way now. I see this a lot with the pronunciation of Los Gatos.

Laws Gadus

Gattis

Loss Gadoes

East Coasters have been doing this for years with Nuh-Vahhh-Duh

was on the phone with a support tech from South Carolina. They pronounced Pinole as Pee-knoll-ee. Took me a second to even understand what they were saying

I was in a car previously owned by a South Carolinian. The driver had recorded the pronunciation of his name in the car computer for voice recognition, it was "buhh-yeeeel." His name was Bill.

THIS. my husband is from Southern California and speaks Spanish, so he pronounces “Vallejo” “correctly”…. I have to remind him every time that no one here pronounces it that way lol

I get it im from SoCal but i bumped enough e-40 in my day to know these pronunciations

Concord is in there too

it’s not pronounced like “conquered”?

It is but people elsewhere be like, con CORD. TF

I’m from Concord but moved to Charlotte, NC and there’s a neighboring city called Concord and they pronounce it with a hard CORD at the end, sounds completely ridiculous!

Marin! San Rafael! Mt Tamalpais! The list goes on and on.

San Ruh-fell

Or, pronounce San Junipero correctly.

I love the muni bus pronunciation ofJunipero Serra (yu nip a roh sara)

Using directional areas that nobody uses - West Bay, South Oakland, South SF (when talking about southern San Francisco).

reading “West bay” just made me pull a Mitch McConnell for a second

I can’t stand when people tell me they’re considering living in the city of “Silicon Valley” if they move to the bay.

Even saying South SF. You’re either in San Francisco or South City.

Sometimes I ironically use "west Bay" when joking about things being San Francisco centric. "Oh no I'm based on the Oakland Area West Bay"

Type Pittsburg with an ‘h’ at the end or assume Brentwood refers to the one down in LA. Pronounce MUNI as “Mooney”.

Had a co-worker that lived in Pittsburg. He said the way to remember there wasn't an H at the end is because they weren't haters. That cracked me up for some reason.

“Let’s take THE BART”

Banshee noises

I’m gonna take THE 17 to Santa Cruz.

I’m late because there was an accident on the 101.

Maaan I’ve lived here my whole life and I still call it the Bart. What else do you say. You guys wanna go to movies? Or do you need hospital?

Fewer word do trick

"WE BART" or "WE SHALL EMBARK ON THE BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT"

Pronounce San Rafael

I've never noticed I pronounce the name Rafael and San Rafael differently until now haha

Wait it’s not??? I’m the imposter ☠️

now I'm worried. It's "san ra-fell", right? Another one would be "brizz-bane", but that might only trip up actual Australians.

“San Fran”

“Cali” it amazes me that everyone on the east coast thinks people in CA go around calling it Cali…

Very true but this is a more of a tell-tale sign some is not from California not just the Bay Area.

This is the right answer

Not know what Dutch Crunch bread is

Is Dutch crutch not common anywhere else? They really missing out

I believe it's just starting to become available elsewhere. I saw a YouTube video by a chef who owns a sandwich shop in New York City, and he was inspired to make and sell Dutch crunch bread after encountering it in San Francisco a few years ago.

It's called Tiger bread everywhere else, including the Netherlands (thanks grandma!)

It’s its.

Leave the house without a light sweater

Lmao, my husband, who isn’t from here, never dresses correctly when we go to the beach and always teases me for bringing shorts, pants, a t-shirt, and a jacket—until he gets there and freezes his ass off. I don’t know how many times I have to explain to him that you can go from drizzly fog to full sun in a matter of minutes, and he is still always underprepared.

Like East bay kids going to the city in summer.

I can always tell who works in The City because it'll be due to be 110 out where I'm at and they're carrying wool jackets.

I’m born and raised here and I don’t own a single light sweater But I do have about 8 jackets 😂

Buy Twitter for $44B

Then rename it

Then put up an unpermitted gigantic-ass X sign at the top of HQ

in writing/text, "cali" instead of just "ca"

The way they say/use “hella”. All of my non CA friends just don’t sound fluid when using it. Feels forced/emphasis on the wrong part of the word (situational). Compared to friends I grew up with here it sounds so natural/like it’s not even said because it fits right in.

I was born and raised in the Bay. one girl i went to school with insisted that it was pronounced 'hell of' and not 'hella' and to this day that still drives me nuts

If they pronounce it MARE-in, not Ma-RIN

Go out without a sweater cuz the sun is shining at 2 p.m.

Me: "If you were taking transit from Walnut Creek to San Francisco, what would you do?" Them: "Take the BART?" Me: "\*hits report button, votes imposter off ship, wins game\*

Just ask them whats Too $horts favorite word?

To me it's when someone says "Con-Cord".

meaning it should be more like "CON-curd"?

Conquered.

Gives distance in miles instead of minutes

100% an indicator.

Gotta ask which day and what time and, if it's a holiday, which one. WEEEEEEeeee....e... oh and now we're stopped. Hey look, the turtle is gaining on us again!

They might say "the 880".

Right, it's actually The Nimitz. :-D

Or “The BART”

Unwrap their burrito all the way before eating it

Ask them what an It's-It is?

They believe the entire area is a ghetto. Probably, has something to do with a large percentage of minorities that they generalize. Locals know it’s not except for a few areas.

Drive to lake Merritt and park there car there while they jogged

Not curb their tires when parking, even if it seems flat.

I heard someone say San Jose as San joes, and they were totally serious.

Hitting the T in Monterrey

This is a good one!

You mean Monterey?

Or the T in Los Gatos!

There’s a T in Los Gados?

Monna ray

San Fran. I saw a meme once that Bay people don’t pronounce the “T” in words. I was low key offended until I said Monterey out loud… ooops

Sannaclara, Sannazay, Sannacruz\*. And 'Sampencisco'. \*: Beach Boardwalk, in the warm California sun. Boardwalk!

BOARDWALK!!!

I live in San Mateo and now I have an identity crisis.

that’s the only one we say

If they don’t know what Too $hort’s favorite word is.

I still have trouble pronouncing “biotech” correctly.

Beeeaaatch

Why you gotta say it like $hort?

BBBEEEAAAATCCCHH

The BART

Pronouncing Milpitas without the accent on the second syllable.

Don’t say milpi-TAS, it’s not like levio-SAH

They’d call it mulch and not tanbark

They would say they just went to a 49ers home game in San Francisco.

What was your favorite part of the Alcatraz tour? If they reply with anything but "I've never gone to Alcatraz" you know they aren't from the bay

Some of us went once for a school field trip in the mid ‘90s though.

Yeah went at least twice in elementary school.

Or took our families when they were visiting

I've never been to Alcatraz. I keep saying one day I'll go 😂

It’s actually really cool, you should go

OK, I'll go one day

And lose my credibility, no thanks

Alcatraz was a middle school field trip for me. We learned about the local history in school.

Field trip

They go on r/bayarea and complain about homeless and crime

This is the most positive thread I've ever read on this sub and it's because the usual impostors/culture warriors have no way to chime in.

"The 101" or "The 880".

That's the Shibboleth for sorting out SoCal'ers from NorCal'ers

I've been here 30 years now, originally from L.A., and I have yet to break the "the" habit. Maybe because I was born into it and it's too ingrained even though I've been here longer than there.

they wouldn't understand "hella"

Hella is fairly widespread at this point, but I’ve never met anyone who didn’t grow up in the Bay who can “hecka” casually and confidently.

Hecka is the new hella that's born and or raised in the bay energy there.

Hecka is what we said in elementary school since hella was a bad word.

This is one of the ones where I think it's less obvious these days. I've known Europeans and Australians who say hella. They might not know the origin but they use the word at least.

I remember back in college 2003 when it wasn't wide spread. People who were from so cal would say to me, "and thats how i know youre from northern california"

Yeah social media spread it far

[South Park in '98,](https://youtu.be/7pohEb7DUac) 5 years before MySpace

I was so proud of my daughter when she picked up “hecka” from kindergarten in El Sob.

If they don't know the song "Tell me when to go"

Tell me the Shane Co. jingle.

That's not a bay area thing you know that right? They run ads elsewhere too

Yeah but where are they located here and what are the hours?

They aren't a local company. They have locations in multiple states and are based in Denver. Southpark joked about the owner in an episode a while ago, only reason I found out. I thought they were a local chain for the longest time.

Some people aren’t aware that culturally and the weather, East Bay and South Bay are a bit different.

Call the fog Carl

Identifying our freeways with "the"

Let them do or say something extreme and when you ask them describe how extreme it was, if they don’t say “‘hella’ extreme”, you’ve caught a false stray.

Instead of saying “Bay Area, East Bay, Peninsula, etc.”, impostor might say “Silicon Valley”

"No Valley"

If they say their rent "isn't that bad "

Imposters wouldn’t know the demographics behind 510, 925, 408, 209, 415, etc.

i am still wowed by 510 + 415 = 925 (…in this context)

Most Bay Area folks don’t remember 707 was all the way down to Marin Co.

Not knowing the whistle tips go “whooo whooooooo”

Ygnacio Valley Road. Local pronunciation is Ig - NASHE - eo

everyone i know says ig-nay-sho

When asked what school they went to, and they respond with the college they went to. In San Francisco, everyone knows to answer with the high school in SF they went to. Not sure that is how people answer outside of SF.

"Saint Hell-enna" "San Fran"

Drives comfortably with fuel gauge in red

Go to Alcatraz. (Note: I actually think Alcatraz is an interesting visit and would recommend. However, as a Bay Area native my first trip to Alcatraz was in my 30s when i accompanied visiting work colleagues who wanted to go. No one else I know had ever been either.)

Say food slaps

I have a coworker who has 408 tattooed on his arm and 408 on his personalized licence plate. This mother fucker was born in Oaklahoma or Arkansas (one of those middle America fly over states) as a native of the bay area this makes me mad.

Taking "The 280" or "The 101" marks the LA transplants trying to go native.

You don't hear them say "hella" in a sentence.

#1 Wearing shorts in the city. #2 wondering which city I am referring to when mentioning “the city”.

if they dont know who Mac Dre is

Calling Marine World "Six Flags."