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A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

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Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#151

Post by School-Cotton »

dragonwriter wrote: post #148
mehrdadn wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a r…

> So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? Postal addresses have to do with mail delivery and are only loosely associated with political geography. > If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a risk)? The city you live in. See above regarding postal addresses and political geography. > And how does on…

A substantial portion of people do not live in any incorporated city, town, village, etc. This is part of why the concept of census-designated place exists. It's not just a farmer thing -- a lot of what you would consider to be small towns are unincorporated.

Example: Black Canyon City, a small town (arguably becoming a very outer suburb of Phoenix). Population ~5,000 in 2010. Totally unincorporated with no city hall, mayor, or anything like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canyon_City,_Arizona

So I would be surprised if there is any federal form that requires you to put the "city" you live in, outside the context of a USPS address.

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#152

Post by mehrdadn »

School-Cotton wrote: post #146
mehrdadn wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a r…

Well, not everyone even lives in an incorporated city or town. Rural areas are usually not part of them, for example. So I don't think there are any federal forms that would ask you that. As far as I know they just ask for your address. For example, the form to apply for a passport is here: https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf . The only place it asks for city is as part of the mailing address. In general, the way…

> In general, the ways individual states decide to divide up their local administration are just not something the federal government cares about. Arizona could decide tomorrow to abolish all its cities and counties and just administer everything centrally, and they'd be perfectly allowed to do that under federal law.

This isn't the impression I've gotten though? Just looking at tax forms, 1040 literally asks for "home address" on one line, and "city, town or post office, state, and ZIP code" on the next line. They certainly seem to care about the city? Now the problem is my common sense would dictate that the city should be the one used for the mailing address rather than what you officially live in, but that's not what it literally says -- it just says "city, town or post office". And given you're signing under penalty of perjury it seems kind of awful that there should be this kind of ambiguity?

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#153

Post by joncrane »

mehrdadn wrote: post #134
School-Cotton wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another point is that in some parts of the country the concept of “city” breaks down. There is basically no meaningful difference between being from suburban neighborhoods of Glendale, AZ and nearby suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix. (People who are too young to be dealing with water bills, garbage collection, etc. often don’t even know which one they live in). Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect l…

> Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a r…

Nope, the "City" in the address is the name of the Post Office that delivers the mail.

So you may be on the west end of one town, and the post office that's closest to you is in another town (or is just named after another town, the name of the post office can be arbitrary as well). That's your address.

It even affects property values. You can look at boundaries between post offices and people will pay more to have an address with a desirable post-office name.

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#154

Post by School-Cotton »

mehrdadn wrote: post #152
School-Cotton wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, not everyone even lives in an incorporated city or town. Rural areas are usually not part of them, for example. So I don't think there are any federal forms that would ask you that. As far as I know they just ask for your address. For example, the form to apply for a passport is here: https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf . The only place it asks for city is as part of the mailing address. In general, the way…

> In general, the ways individual states decide to divide up their local administration are just not something the federal government cares about. Arizona could decide tomorrow to abolish all its cities and counties and just administer everything centrally, and they'd be perfectly allowed to do that under federal law. This isn't the impression I've gotten though? Just looking at tax forms, 1040 literally asks for "ho…

Yes, "city" is one of the fields in your postal address, which is not necessarily related to what your particular state decides to call its "cities".

If you live in Phoenix but your postal address says "Glendale, AZ", then you would put "Glendale" on that form.

If you are genuinely confused about this and write "Phoenix" instead, (or, for example, "New York, NY" even though your address says "Brooklyn, NY"), I would be very surprised if any court would convict you of perjury. Your statement having been literally true is an affirmative defense to a perjury charge. The worst that will happen is the IRS won't be able to send you mail.

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#155

Post by RandallBrown »

stallmanite wrote: post #58
rmason wrote: post #39

Expected Lansing would be Magic Johnson but instead its Larry Page. Magic comes back often and is active in local charities, even leading efforts to raise money for college scholarships. On the other hand Larry Page has to my knowledge never returned or given a dime to local charities. So perhaps that makes people ever more curious about him.

As a resident of East Lansing I’ve often wondered what was the deal with Larry Page never having anything to do with the town. I figured it’s a tradition if you “make it big” to throw money around in your hometown even if it’s purely for egocentric reasons. Is there bad blood somehow?

Well, he did go to the University of Michigan...

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#156

Post by jhbadger »

dlivingston wrote: post #132

Very cool, but...Murray Gell-Man for Santa Fe? Not George R.R. Martin? Drew Goddard for Los Alamos, not Richard Feynman?

Besides the physics, Gell-Mann is known for the place that makes Santa Fe known to people who have no idea where it is -- the famous Santa Fe Institute.

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#157

Post by mehrdadn »

joncrane wrote: post #153
mehrdadn wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a r…

Nope, the "City" in the address is the name of the Post Office that delivers the mail. So you may be on the west end of one town, and the post office that's closest to you is in another town (or is just named after another town, the name of the post office can be arbitrary as well). That's your address. It even affects property values. You can look at boundaries between post offices and people will pay more to have a…

Learning more every day! Thanks!

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#158

Post by TheMissingData »

fhoffa wrote: post #90
sonnyblarney wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Worldwide, Larry Page is certainly more of a public figure than Magic Johnson." Is what I responded to. Don't misconstrue how much people do not care about business people, and how much they do care about sports figures. Nobody in my family knows who Larry Page is.

Ok, I see. Just for fun: - In Silicon Valley... Magic Johnson has more google searches than Larry Page. - In India... Larry Page has more google searches than Magic Johnson. - https://imgur.com/a/KwQ5wJt Just checking Google Trends, as you suggested...

Larry > Magic might be the HN bubble, but Magic > Larry definitely is the US bubble.

Most of the world does not care about basketball at all.

Re: A map of the US where city names are replaced by most Wikipedia’ed resident

#159

Post by dragonwriter »

School-Cotton wrote: post #154
mehrdadn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In general, the ways individual states decide to divide up their local administration are just not something the federal government cares about. Arizona could decide tomorrow to abolish all its cities and counties and just administer everything centrally, and they'd be perfectly allowed to do that under federal law. This isn't the impression I've gotten though? Just looking at tax forms, 1040 literally asks for "ho…

Yes, "city" is one of the fields in your postal address, which is not necessarily related to what your particular state decides to call its "cities". If you live in Phoenix but your postal address says "Glendale, AZ", then you would put "Glendale" on that form. If you are genuinely confused about this and write "Phoenix" instead, (or, for example, "New York, NY" even though your address says "Brooklyn, NY"), I would…

> So I would be surprised if there is any federal form that requires you to put the "city" you live in, outside the context of a USPS address.

Forms that ask for separate physical and mailing addresses often use the shape of a USPS address for the physical address (including ZIP code), even though many of the fields may not apply. “Physical locations all have addresses shaped like postal addresses” is a common belief that is often reflected in form (and software/DB) design.

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