Independent city (United States)
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In the United States, an independent city is a city that is not in the territory of any
Of the 41 independent U.S. cities,[3] 38 are in Virginia, whose state constitution makes them a special case. The three independent cities outside Virginia are Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Carson City, Nevada. Baltimore is the most populous independent city in the United States.
Virginia
History
In the
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, there are two classes of city. The primary difference relates to the court system. A first-class city (e.g., Richmond) has its own
Three older Virginia counties, whose origins go back to the original eight shires of Virginia formed in 1634 in the Colony of Virginia, have or had the word city in their names; politically, however, they are counties. The independent cities were formed to centralize trading and legal matters as the older system of merchant ships cruising from plantation to plantation was inefficient. The colonial capital of Williamsburg was created for this reason, being a port on the James River. Two of these counties are Charles City County and James City County, whose names originated with earlier "incorporations" created in 1619 by the Virginia Company as Charles Cittie and James Cittie. Additionally, Elizabeth City County, which was originally part of the older Elizabeth Cittie, became extinct in 1952 when it was consolidated politically by mutual consent with the small City of Hampton, its county seat, and the Town of Phoebus. These merged entities became the current independent city of Hampton, Virginia, one of the largest cities of Virginia.
Former cities
Former independent cities, now extinct, that were long extant in Virginia include:
- city charter in 2013, and is now an incorporated town in Bedford County.
- Clifton Forge, which gave up its city charter in 2001, and is now an incorporated town in Alleghany County.
- Manchester, which was consolidated by mutual agreement with the City of Richmondin 1910.
- South Boston, which gave up its city charter in 1994, and is now an incorporated town in Halifax County.
- South Norfolk, which merged with Norfolk County in 1963 to form the City of Chesapeake.
Two other independent cities existed only for a short time:
- unincorporated towns within the county's former boundaries, to form today's City of Suffolk.
- Warwick, which was formed from the former Warwick County in 1952, was in 1958 consolidated by mutual agreement with the newly expanded City of Newport News.
Other states
- The City of Baltimore has been separate from Baltimore County, Maryland since the adoption of the Maryland Constitution of 1851.[5]
- Carson City, Nevada consolidated with Ormsby County in 1969, and the county was simultaneously dissolved. Debates about consolidating Carson City and Ormsby County began in the 1940s, and it required Nevada voters to approve a state constitutional amendment in 1968 to allow the Nevada Legislature to perform such a consolidation.[6]
- The City of St. Louis was separated from St. Louis County, Missouri in 1876 after voters approved secession from the county.[7]
Other entities similar to independent cities
An independent city is not the same as:
- A consolidated city-county (such as San Francisco, Philadelphia, or Denver), in which the city and county (or, as in Louisiana, a parish; or as in Alaska, a borough) governments have been merged. A consolidated city-county differs from an independent city in that the city and county both nominally exist, although they have a consolidated government, whereas in an independent city, the county does not even nominally exist.[2]
- A highly urbanized county, such as unincorporated communities, no incorporated cities or municipalities.
- A "federated" city-county multi-tiered type of government such as applies between Miami and Miami-Dade County, Florida.
- The boroughs, each of which is territorially coterminous with a county of New York State.
- Washington, D.C., which has a special status as the U.S. capital. It is not part of any state; instead, the Alexandria County (which now forms Arlington County) and the independent city of Alexandria were returned to Virginia in 1846. The three remaining entities (the City of Washington, Georgetown, and Washington County) were merged into a consolidated government by an act of Congress in 1871. Congress has established a home rulegovernment for the city, although city laws can be overridden by Congress. In practice, the city operates much like other independent cities in the United States.
- Cities and towns in New England traditionally have very strong governments, while counties have correspondingly less importance. Today, most counties in southern New England (Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts) have almost no governmental institutions or roles associated with them (aside from serving as a basis for court districts, along with demarcating National Weather Service warnings and media markets). Counties in southern New England still have a nominal existence, and so no city or town in those three states is truly separate from a county, although the town and the county of Nantucket, Massachusetts (on the island of that name), are coterminous, and the City of Boston used to provide both the complete governance and the complete revenue of its county, Suffolk County, although Suffolk County also includes three much smaller cities.
- Cities and towns in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska. Alaska is not divided into counties, but has near-equivalents called boroughs. However, unlike county-equivalents in the other 49 states, the boroughs do not cover the entire land area of the state. The area not territory of any borough is referred to as the Unorganized Borough, although it does not have its own local government. The Census Bureau divides the Unorganized Borough into several census areas which it treats as county equivalents for statistical purposes.[8]
- A city or village in Ohio may be independent of any township because it is more or less coextensive with a paper township. The Census Bureau classifies these municipalities as independent places.
See also
References
- ^ States, Counties, and Statistically Equivalent Entities, from the United States Census Bureau
- ^ a b Cities 101 -- Consolidations, from National League of Cities
- ^ "Counties and Equivalent Entities of the United States, Its Possessions, and Associated Areas; Change Notice No. 7". 2001. Archived from the original on September 29, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2006.
- ^ "Cities and Towns: Geography of Virginia". Virginiaplaces.org. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ "Baltimore City, Maryland". Maryland Manual On-Line: A Guide to Maryland Government. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ "About Carson City". Carson City. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ "A Brief History of St. Louis". The City of St. Louis. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ "2010 FIPS Codes for Counties and County Equivalent Entities". Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved July 29, 2016.