Photo by Brian Addison.

While there are a number of other cities called Long Beach in the United States—seven by our count—ours certainly stands out. Despite other areas having our name, we are unique: where else can you watch a drag queen imitate Jenni Rivera in the place that launched Snoop Dogg’s career? Or see one of the largest auto racing events in the world overlooking a historic oceanliner?

Demographically speaking, Long Beach, New York, is the city that comes closest to ours, but we’re still vastly larger. We have an aquarium. We have an airport. We have a university and community college. While the city in New York does not have any of those, we do applaud it for having an LGBT center and a place for animals. Obviously, they took a page out of our book. Probably not. But, hey, it’s nice to flatter ourselves because, again, we know we’re awesome.

Here are how the numbers stack between the Warren G and the Jay Z Long Beaches:

	Long Beach, California	Long Beach, New York
Population	467,892	33,552
Land Area in Square Miles	50.29	2.22
Median Household Income	$52,900	$81,688
% Below Poverty Level	20.2%	10.2%
% with High School Degree or Higher	79%	92.8%
% with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher	28.6%	44.6%
% White	46.1%	83.2%
% Black	13.5%	6.4%
% American Indian	.7%	.3%
% Asian	12.9%	2.7%
% Hispanic	40.8%	14.1%
% of people 65 and older	9.3%	16.1%
% of people under 18	24.9%	16.3%
Animal Services	Long Beach Animal Care Services	Long Beach Animal Shelter
LGBT Center	The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach	LGBT Center of Long Beach

Let’s not forget about the other Long Beaches.

Could you imagine living in a city where it’s likely possible that everyone knows everyone? And we don’t mean in our own city’s “big-city small-town” sense, but we mean quite literally. That’s probably what it is like in Long Beach, Minnesota, a city with a population of only 335 people, according to the U.S. census.

And then there’s the Long Beach equivalent of the lost city of Atlantis. North Carolina once had its own Long Beach neighborhood in the area of Oak Island, but it was destroyed in 1954 when it was hit by Hurricane Hazel. Only five of 357 buildings survived the storm. What was left of the city merged with the neighboring Yaupon Beach in 1999 to form the city of Oak Island.

Other people call Long Beach home in the states of Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey and Washington.

But the Long Beach name doesn’t just stop in the United States. For one, there’s “The Long Beach” in Hong Kong, which is a private housing estate. There are also cities called Long Beach in British Columbia, Ontario, Australia and New Zealand.

While we hate redundancy, we love our city more so must say just one more time: our Long Beach is the best.