San Diego is in Southern California too

Southern California includes San Diego.

Reader Wayne Jacobs wanted to make that point to The Times, which he feels uses the term to refer only to the Los Angeles area.

“You regularly refer to the five counties of Southern California (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino),” wrote Jacobs, who called himself a loyal subscriber from San Diego. “Where do you think San Diego and Imperial counties are?

“Southern California is a geographic term. The northern boundary of it is a matter of judgment. The southern boundary of Southern California is not a subject of judgment. It is firmly fixed by an international border.”

The Times stylebook agrees with Jacobs, as does Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann. “An accurate definition would include San Diego and Imperial counties — and Santa Barbara too,” Fuhrmann said. The stylebook definition encompasses all eight counties.

Jacobs may have been recalling a Business article last month on the economic impact of Los Angeles International Airport to “Southern California” and the jobs and dollars provided to Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Not San Diego or Imperial counties.

But another example cited by Jacobs was an article Aug. 27 on the “Southern California Code of Fan Conduct.”

The article reported:

Representatives of the Dodgers, Angels, USC, UCLA, the Coliseum, Tournament of Roses, Santa Anita and AEG — which owns Staples Center and the Home Depot Center — are among those expected to appear at a downtown news conference Monday. L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, Police Chief Charlie Beck, and L.A. County Supervisors Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky are also scheduled to attend.

“All of the people who met were from Los Angeles,” Jacobs wrote. “There are pro sports teams, university sports teams and police in San Diego.”

True — but this group was assembled by a nonprofit organization called the Los Angeles Sports Council, and that was who named the fan code of conduct.

Still, there have been other slips — and Jacobs said he’s been subscribing for 32 years, so his memory is long.

The Times published a correction in February 2011 after a Sports article stated that Southern California last staged a Super Bowl in 1993. That’s when the L.A. area last held one. But the most recent Super Bowl in Southern California was in 2003 — in San Diego.

readers.representative@latimes.com

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