If I wanted to take public transit from Sacramento to San Francisco right now it would take me over three hours. Not exactly hopping on a BART train.
If you’re saying people commute from “the Sacramento area” to “the Bay Area” then that’s a lot more common, but it’s still not the same as saying Sacramento IS “the Bay Area.”
You seem a bit hung up on “San Francisco” as the only part of the “greater bay area.”
The greater bay area, according to the definition provided by the Association of Bay Area Governments, includes the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. While this boundary does not include Sacramento county (and Sacramento), it is bordered on the south and west by counties which are. One can literally cross the bridges going west from Sacramento and reach the greater bay region on the opposite bank.
Thus, calling a suburb OF the greater bay region (but not defining it as part of it) seems accurate to me. But what do I know, I’m in a small suburb of the greater Baltimore/Washington region, part of the great east coast Megalopolis.
A “suburb” is more or less by definition a smaller city outlying a larger city. San Francisco is the closest city to Sacramento that has a larger population than Sacramento itself.
Fair enough. I can see how that would feel offensive. It belittles Sacramento and its contributions to California.
San Francisco is definitely a suburb of San Jose though. People always forget about San Jose!
The nation’s 10th most populous city, bigger than San Francisco, more people than 6 different states, and even a hit song by Dionne Warwick isn’t enough to get people to remember it exists.
Yes, San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area. Sacramento is marginally larger than Oakland, but Oakland will take it in a fight ANY DAY OF THE WEEK – so this is all bunk.
Sounds like you actually know rather a lot about it. 
I only lived there for ten years, but those are solid takeaways.
Why the music?
I shot and edited broadcast news for a long time, so I know a bit about this subject. This piece was branded as an “ABC10 Original,” which means it’s basically a standard news package that’s dressed up to look like a mini-doc. Station management says “send them out with a drone for that one standup!” “Use stock footage of every city we talk about!” “Make sure the reporter is wearing different clothes for standups in each location so we can swish-wipe among them, giving the audience the impression we’ve been working on this ‘documentary’ for years!” “Do some slightly-more-fancy-than-normal motion graphics.” “Oh, and add a ton of creepy library music — that’ll make George and Mildred at home think we’ve pulled out all the stops on this ‘original.’”
Gotta keep George and Mildred tuning in, you know….
Media that generates strong negative emotions is way more engaging – it gets way more clicks and views, so generates more income.
CGP Grey had a great explainer way back in 2015:
Don’t forget your media vaccines people.
Yes, strange choice of music indeed.
Hi, also Sacramentan here. Seconded on all counts (came here to post your three points almost exactly).
I suppose its worth mentioning that the migration in question isn’t exactly new. But it has historically happened over longer cycles, so the economic pressures haven’t been as exacerbated as recently.
Be this as it may, “we” (Sacramento) share almost nothing by means of topology, geography, weather, etc with San Francisco. Even if I would grant you that 88 miles is “nearby” (a concept which I think only holds in the West), that proximity is the only thing that really links Sacramento and San Francisco. There’s not even a continuity of populated areas, let alone a continuous conurbation. There are sizable swathes of “emptiness” between Vallejo and Fairfield, Vacaville and Davis (although Dixon is asserting itself of late), and Davis and Sacramento proper (like there’s a literal empty expanse of frequently innudated seasonal wetlands between these last two).
Its pretty uncommon, but its not unheard of. It tends to happen more in cycles like this when the tech sector manpower comes to Sacramento for “cheap” housing (I’ll table my snark), leaving higher-paying jobs available in the San Francisco Bay Area available to folks from Sactown willing to make the trip.
That said, its not one I’d be willing to do on the daily, and I have passed on a few different interesting job opportunities that would’ve required me to be in SF, Emeryville, etc 5 days a week.
Not sure why the sarc tag, it’s been happening as long as I’ve been alive. They sell postcards like this all over the northwest.
Hello fellow Sacramentan! Nice to see you! It’sa dry heat lol
It’s a party!
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