SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued a driver’s license that printed “San Fran” as that person’s city of residence, according to California Sen. Scott Wiener’s X post. Wiener wrote a letter to the DMV that was sent Thursday, urging the state agency to immediately stop using this “intolerable” term to refer to San Francisco.
In recent months, at least half a dozen driver’s licenses listed addresses in “San Fran,” according to Wiener. He requested that the DMV “immediately cease and desist any and all uses of ‘San Fran.’”
In addition to his request, Wiener also listed acceptable ways to call San Francisco. Here’s what the state senator wrote:
- San Francisco (preferred)
- SF
- The City
- Best City In The World
- Frisco (only by deeply authentic San Francisco natives, who know exactly whether they fit in this category — if you don’t know whether you are in this category, then you are not)

San Francisco natives have had a long history of correcting outsiders on the appropriate ways to refer to their city. As a general consensus, “San Fran” is widely agreed upon as the most intolerable one.
“San Franciscans are gentle people, but the flowers in our hair come out quickly when The City is so egregiously misnamed,” Wiener continued in the letter. “One lifelong resident, upon learning that her daughter had received one of the offending licenses promptly advised the young woman to ‘burn it.’”
Winer’s full letter can be viewed below.


KRON4 reached out to the DMV for a response. The state agency said they will release a statement at a later time. Stay tuned for the latest.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued a driver’s license that printed “San Fran” as that person’s city of residence, according to California Sen. Scott Wiener’s X post. Wiener wrote a letter to the DMV that was sent Thursday, urging the state agency to immediately stop using this “intolerable” term to […]



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