Georgia has a similar thing going on. Looks like a pretty large radius around Atlanta thinks Atlanta is "the City".

Atlantan here. This was my first thought as well. Pretty much anyone in Georgia and a little bit into the surrounding states think that too. People on the coast of Georgia usually refer to Savannah though.

Yeah, I'm surprised San Francisco wasn't one of the options. Clearly the administer of this survey isn't from the Bay Area.

You know, I'm a little surprised that Socal doesn't have a similar concentration around LA.

LA is just called LA, though people do say downtown LA. I've only heard of San Francisco being referred to as the City by West Coasters.

Similarly around Salt Lake City - you may go "downtown" but not to "the City".

It probably has to do with the density gradient. With more spread out urban areas having less distinction between "the city" and outlying areas.

That's because people don't think of LA as a city, just a slightly more urbanized area within the larger semi-suburban expanse of the metro area.

It's all city down there...that's why.

It wasn't a game of "which of these does not belong."

My point was that everyone around San Francisco calls it "the City" (even those in more populous San José), so they would have done well to add it to their set. In contrast, people around, say, Los Angeles don't typically call it "the City", so leaving out LA is not a relevant omission.

Does anyone actually say Los Angeles? Maybe in Louisiana whose abbreviation is LA?

People around Sioux Falls, SD call it "the city" doesn't mean it should be added to the chart.