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Why American cities are weirdly shaped

economist.com

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Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#2

Post by chrisseaton »

My understanding is that a city boundary in the US is a big deal. The police force on either side can be completely different, things that can get you in a lot of trouble like gun laws can be different on either side, prices and taxes can be very different.

In the UK a city boundary doesn't really mean anything. There might be a nice 'Welcome to X' sign but nothing really changes as it would in the US. I'm not even sure there is a legal boundary for cities here? There is for parliamentary constituencies and for local government areas, but not for cities unless they happen to overlap, that I know of.

So city boundaries in the UK don't really matter so aren't rigid, where in the US they are important and so rigid and so carefully designed.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#3

Post by robteix »

> The county is home to 88 incorporated cities, ranging in population from 76 (Vernon) to 3.9m (Los Angeles itself). Beverly Hills (population 34,506) is its own city, with its own police force, fire department and school district. So is Santa Monica (92,495). Even Vernon has a police department, with some 50-odd staff.

Am I misreading this? How/why does a city of 76 have a police dept with 50 people?

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#4

Post by captainbland »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

My understanding is that a city boundary in the US is a big deal. The police force on either side can be completely different, things that can get you in a lot of trouble like gun laws can be different on either side, prices and taxes can be very different. In the UK a city boundary doesn't really mean anything. There might be a nice 'Welcome to X' sign but nothing really changes as it would in the US. I'm not even s…

It depends a lot I think. London's an interesting case, because depending on what part of London you're in you're dealing with a totally different police force - in the City of London, there's the City of London police but this only covers the square mile. Most of London is policed by the Metropolitan Police.

Administratively, the City of London and everything else in London it's totally separate. The City has The Lord Mayor of London, the rest has Sadiq Khan. Most of London has boroughs and councilors. The City has a bizarre system where so-called Aldermen are elected by guilds from businesses local to the area, along with an amount of councillors representing the local population.

Councils do have the ability to set policy for how certain laws are enforced and have some powers to create bye-laws although I'm struggling to remember the specific pieces of legislation which are relevant to this at the moment.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#6

Post by pfdzm »

suddenstutter wrote: post #5

The answer is simple: Theyre weirdly shaped because transportation systems are not privatised. This forces businesses to accomodate to older routes and geographical layouts, making cities not only weirdly shaped but also monotonous in progress and boring.

Did you read the article? In fact it claims that part of the reason for the lack of good public transport in the US is due to the extreme fragmentation present in some counties. Cooperation between neighboring cities is lacking, making planning and securing sensible infrastructure projects a much harder task compared to a ‘monolithic’ city.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#7

Post by huffmsa »

robteix wrote: post #3

> The county is home to 88 incorporated cities, ranging in population from 76 (Vernon) to 3.9m (Los Angeles itself). Beverly Hills (population 34,506) is its own city, with its own police force, fire department and school district. So is Santa Monica (92,495). Even Vernon has a police department, with some 50-odd staff. Am I misreading this? How/why does a city of 76 have a police dept with 50 people?

You don't have to live in the city to work for the city.

Re: Why American cities are weirdly shaped

#9

Post by mc32 »

The article implies that if cities could unilaterally annex twrritory they would and that presumanly would result in nicer city shapes (boundaries) as well as more importantly better and cheaper services due to elimination of redundancies. Interestingly the article claims both rich and poor people are reluctant to give up their enclaves/ independence due to power, momey, and other aspects such as education.
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