Everybody in the Bay Area grew up San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants fans. The Oakland Raiders and the Oakland A's never really pushed their fan base outside of the East Bay.

You could not escape San Francisco if you lived in the Bay Area, and by that I mean, you could literally NEVER go to the city, and yet, identify with being from there.

6/7

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Back to "The City". Before the rise of Silicon Valley in the '80s everything outside of San Francisco existed in the shadow of the city. My dad worked for AT&T and when he worked his way up the chain, he naturally had to take a job in "The City" which meant a 1+ hour commute there and back each day. It was the anchor, the heartbeat and the identity of the entire Bay Area.

5/7

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The "South Bay": This is where I was from, San Jose. It used to be cherry orchards and farms, and was spread over almost 200 square miles of rich farmland. All that room meant urban sprawl. Single-story tract homes and strip malls dominated the growth. Almost everybody had a parent that had to leave at 7am to commute to "their job" somewhere else.

4/7

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