Lloydminster was founded a few years before the border between Sask and Alberta was surveyed. When the surveyers came through, they found the border went right though the middle of the town. The survey was in 1905, IIRC.
When it came time to incorporate (1930 or thereabouts), they persuaded the two provinces to let them make a single town crossing the border. The parliaments of the two provinces had to pass indentical legislation on the same day to make this happen. About 20 years later when they wanted to upgrade to city status, they again had to get the parliaments to pass identical laws on the same day.
For most residents of Lloydminster, the main effect is that they’re all considered citizens of both provinces, at least as far as benefits such as paying in-province tuition at provincial universities. Fortunately for the legal system, criminal law is a federal responsibility in Canada, so there’s no issue of which side of the border a crime was commited.
There’s something similar on the other side of Saskatchewan with the city of Flin Flon. It’s not quite the same and I don’t know all the details about it. Most of Flin Flon is in Manitoba, but a small section is across the border in Sask. That Sask section, BTW, is actually on the south side of Flin Flon. The SK-MB border generally goes N-S, but there’s a number of E-W jags in it and Flin Flon is on one of those jags.
There are a number of cross-border cities where the two share the name. Here’s a list I compiled quite a while ago, so it may not be up-to-date. This is only for North American places; there are more in other parts of the world. Also note that both cities are incorporated in these pairs. There’s others where only one is incorporated.
Ardmore AL/TN
Bluefield VA/WV
Bristol TN/VA
Delmar DE/MD
Junction City AR/LA
Kansas City KS/MO
Lloydminster AB/SK Canada
Niagara Falls ON/NY Canada/USA
Nogales AZ/Sonora USA/Mexico
Sault Sainte Marie ON/MI Canada/USA
Texarkana AR/TX
Texhoma TX/OK
Union City IN/OH
Here’s a thought experiment: say that an abortion clinic opens up on the Nevada side of the street in Wendover. Then Utah takes a page from Texas’ book and bans leaving the state for an abortion. Would Utah cops be able to stand on their side of the street and arrest any woman who walks across the street to enter the NV abortion clinic?
I’m sure we’ve discussed the matter of cops in Jurisdiction A conducting surveillance of Jurisdiction B, whether from their own soil or from the other state’s, and I think the answer was “it’s perfectly legal as long as they don’t try to make arrests.”
We know a guy in St Martin who purchased two adjacent pieces of land and built a home on his property. It’s been a huge pain in the ass for him, because the two properties are in different countries (Sint Maarten and Saint Martin).
His house is on the French Side, and he pays taxes to that government. His property on the Dutch side is taxed harshly since it’s unimproved even though his home is on the combined land. He also has to carry two different insurance policies, one Dutch and one French.
He has looked into selling the unimproved property on the Dutch side, but it isn’t worth anything, since someone buying it couldn’t build on it, since the house on the French side is too close.
No. Have you been there? There’s a gigantic fence and you have to go through a passport controlled border crossing. I’ve been to Mexicali on business a few times. It’s notable (to me) for the Mexican border town being nicer than the American one. Also interesting to me is that Mexicali has a Chinatown.
Ottawa and Gatineau are two different cities, with different mayors and city councils etc., but because of all the cross-provincial-border commuters, I suppose, there are some OC Transpo (Ottawa-Carleton) bus routes that cross the bridges and loop through Gatineau. Hence the transit system in Ottawa isn’t controlled at the municipal level but the federal one, which is an extra layer or two of bureaucratic nightmare.
Oh. P-man’s post didn’t indicate who they were responding to so I assumed his ‘Yep, my hometown’ was answering the OP as in: ‘Yes. My hometown is an example of a city in more than one state’ but then not telling us what it is.
Lots of examples of this, but as other posters have mentioned they may be one metropolitan area without much to distinguish one state from another, but they are different cities.
One I am (or was) very familiar with is South Lake Tahoe, CA and Stateline, NV. There are some differences though, the obvious one being the massive casinos on the NV side of the border. You are also allowed to have an open container on the NV but not on the CA side, and I’ve seen people get ticketed for carrying an open beer a few feet into California.
Open container is actually illegal, there are a few exceptions where it is explicitly legal (Las Vegas Strip which gets away because it is technically not LV) some where it is more restrictive but allowed (Fremont Street Experience and public festivals). I am not aware of Stateline being an exception but what I think is that it’s just not enforced.
There is also Verdi, NV and Verdi, CA. Most of the town is on the NV side, but there’s no clear awareness on which side you’re in unless you get a property tax bill.
In those cases where the international border literally goes through someone’s house, how much of a pain is it? Are you a resident of both municipalities? Of both countries? Double the tax paperwork? Who provides your utilities?