[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i used to think that "The City" was used in every metro area, more or less exclusively, to delineate the city proper from the burbs, but according to the map, it's most predominately used that way around NYC, Chicago, and SF, with other significant pockets around minneapolis and seattle. in much of the nation, even places thousands of miles away, a shockingly high percentage of people bewilderingly still answered "new york city".

The City doesn't refer to NYC proper. It refers to Manhattan only.

People in Brooklyn will say "I'm headed to the City" and everyone knows what they're talking about.