Some sort of hybrid might be the best.

I don’t think all counties are needed, but you don’t want to leave out some of the less populated areas that might be a desired destination for travelers, like Joshua Tree, Catalina, Death Valley, etc….

I’m going through “Los Angeles” and finding a lot of cities that aren’t part of Los Angeles and requesting they get moved to “California”, which is consistent and accurate — although, granted, many such cities like Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Glendale, etc. are certainly part of the “Greater L.A.” experience.

Things are more clear-cut in the Bay Area, and there is no political boundary called “The Bay Area”, but county seperations there could also help a bit too. (Except San Francisco, which I think is the only city that is its own county in the state, except maybe that island underneath the Bay Bridge?)

I mainly want to see if the Californians here would be interested in this. I’ve spent much of my life in California, having had road and city maps burned into my brain, so I’d be excited to help out with such hierarchy changes, if that would be O.K. with the California crew here on 43 places (and of course, The Robots…)

(Orange County is the only exception so far, because it’s often referred to by its county name when mentioned… whereas this isn’t the case with the L.A. basin or the Bay Area.)

I agree, plug in some counties for now – and then, at a later date, if people feel there is a demand for the other counties, add them.

Maybe groupings of counties and areas.

Maybe Divided like this:

1)Nothern CA above Sacremento

2)Stockton, Sacremeno and up to Lake Tahoe

3)The Bay Area

4)The Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains

5)San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial Counties plus parts of their surrounding counties for a Southern CA section

6)The Greater LA Area which is Santa Monica down to San Clemente (if going by highways East of 23 South of 118 and 210, West of somewhere between 57 and 15, West of 241, north of 5 when it meets the coast South of San Clemente)

7)The San Diego Area which goes up to Orange County but not the area in the S. CA section

8)The Coastal Area which is Monterey County to Ventura County.

I hope that helps. It seems logical to me.

Well, the arbitrary groupings — as I pointed out above — fall into the same trap. What you define as parts of California, others will see differently.

This is all moot now, because — on a parallel thread regarding L.A. — Todd Gehman, one of the Bots, mentioned that there are plans for the site to recognize the concept of “greater hubs” rooted in large cities, which will be an alternate way to deal with this situation rather than defining a “Greater Metro Area” location specifically, and re-tree.

I’m happy with the Bots’ proposal, as it recognizes the independence of the cities, but still allows casual city browsers to easily jump around a greater metro area.

So the final answer is: “NO, but a better idea is being worked on to deal with this.” :)

(..still allowing for Orange County to exist still, because its an odd exception.)

PS: otherwise, Lzygenius, I group California similarly in my mind, just so you know.

yes, at least north and south. I mean, for example, people in the north say hella while the south doesn’t. But in all honesty, the cultures are so different which is what makes the CA so awesome. Also people must remember that even the south, east, and north bay differ heavily.

My final say on the matter:

Once the mega Cali earthquake hits, California will have to be broken up into “San Andreas Island” and “Mainland California” anyway :)

OK, I’m out.

How about california seceedes from the union and america rids itself of all these plastic people and allthe horrible hollywood culture/pop music blah? I cant wait to move back to the south or east coast! wooohooo! or maybe even canada.. Ey? And whats this about people being different? Where? In california i see gym rats and athletic numb minds as far as the eye can see. SF being one and only exception.. maybe when the earth quake hits, SF will be a little island and i will already be out of here. The rest can all go to hell. death to pop culture!

Interesting question. While it could be useful for people to have the state divided up into more sections, it’s worth remembering that foreigners might not know what these are, or where the counties are. Some barely know where California is – some people think it’s a city!

:-?

OK, I promised I’d “be out”, but I can’t let this go. If anything, more non-U.S. people think California is a country rather than a city — and even that’s a very small amount of people. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but in the semi-decent amount of world travel I’ve done, I’ve gotten the impression the world is pretty aware exactly what California is, or — more to the point — very aware of the basic facts about the organization of the U.S. — dare I say moreso than some Americans, even.

Not everybody, but a lot more than you think!

…

I should also stress again that the quasi-official answer to this question about re-org’ing Cali is No, because a better solution to this issue is coming soon.. see Todd’s entry

I live in San diego. I don’t think California should be divided up anymore than it already is.

To give some examples:

We have San Diego City, inside San Diego County. Then we have school districts and government districts. Not to mention area code and zip code groups.