Looking at this vote I notice a buch of “dots” that appear in counties. Are these seperate counties, or cities that are somehow seperate from the county? How does this work and why aren’t all counties like this?
Virginia has a system in which many cities are independent entities from county governments. Those dots are these cities.
Why this is the case, I will leave to an actual resident of the state…
Specifically, all municipalities incorporated as a cities here are politically independant of any county, even if they are the seat of a county. Don’t ask me why, either. I’ve not a clue. Virginia is one of the very few, if not the only, state where this is the case.
I believe Baltimore is independent from any county. If I’m wrong — and I am a lot more these days — please be kind when you correct me. I know St. Louis is not a part of St. Louis County. I’m not wrong about that.
But, no, I don’t know why that is.
There are a bunch of cities across the U.S. that are administratively independent of the county/-ies in/bordering which they lie. Some constitute counties in their own right, and others are classified as “independent cities.” New York City, a unique case, constitutes the whole five counties corresponding to its boroughs.
Honolulu and the Alaskan boroughs constitute other odd exceptions to the system as well; inhabitants of those states may clarify their system.
That said, the following are cities which are either a county in and of themselves or are administratively independent of any county. The list is intended to be comprehensive, but I’m confident there are omissions:
[ul][li]San Francisco, CA[/li][li]Jacksonville-Duval County, FL[/li][li]Indianapolis-Marion County, IN[/li][li]Baltimore, MD[/li][li]St. Louis, MO[/li][li]Carson City, NV[/li][li]Philadelphia, PA[/li][li]Nashville-Davidson County, TN[/li][li]Arlington, VA[/li][li]Alexandria, VA[/li][li]Fairfax, VA[/li][li]Falls Church, VA[/li][li]Manassas, VA[/li][li]Manassas Junction, VA[/li][li]Winchester, VA[/li][li]Harrisonburg, VA[/li][li]Staunton, VA[/li][li]Waynesboro, VA[/li][li]Charlottesville, VA[/li][li]Fredericksburg, VA[/li][li]Richmond, VA[/li][li]Colonial Heights, VA[/li][li]Petersburg, VA[/li][li]Covington, VA[/li][li]Lexington, VA[/li][li]Roanoke, VA[/li][li]Salem, VA[/li][li]Danville, VA[/li][li]Martinsville, VA[/li][li]Christiansburg, VA[/li][li]Blacksburg, VA[/li][li]Wytheville, VA[/li][li]Radford, VA[/li][li]Pulaski, VA[/li][li]Norton, VA[/li][li]Bristol, VA[/li][li]Lexington, VA[/li][li]Lynchburg, VA[/li][li]Bedford, VA[/li][li]South Boston, VA[/li][li]Emporia, VA[/li][li]Williamsburg, VA[/li][li]Newport News, VA[/li][li]Hampton, VA[/li][li]Portsmouth, VA[/li][li]Suffolk, VA[/li][li]Norfolk, VA[/li][li]Chesapeake, VA[/li][li]Virginia Beach, VA[/ul][/li]
AFAIK, Miami-Dade, Florida, was a consolidation of services but not a creation of coterminous status. I’ve omitted ones I’m not certain of, including Oklahoma City. A number of cities and counties are contemplating creating a single coterminous unit, including Durham, NC
Those dots aren’t dots; they’re outlines of the cities enclosed within (but generally not a part of) the counties.
If you’re confused, let me muddy the waters a little bit: Many, if not most, of those cities are the seat of government for the county that surrounds them but they’re allegedly not a part of. Fairfax is the county seat of Fairfax County. Charlottesville is the county seat of Albemarle county. Arlington is, on paper, a county but it’s a tiny one and the “towns” and “cities” in it are more accurately known as “neighborhoods.”
It’s all having to do with apportioning money for county-level services. Towns (like Herndon and Vienna, both in Fairfax County) have their own small police forces that work in conjunction with Fairfax County police, but with an eye on the specific needs of the community and local businesses. City of Alexandria has its own police force and a sheriff’s department, totally independent of Fairfax County (and pays no taxes to Fairfax County). But all of eastern unincorporated Fairfax County calls itself “Alexandria” and gets all its services from the county, none from the City of Alexandria.
On paper, the cities are independent entities of the county. In practice, it varies by degree from county to county. Virginia has a proud tradition of winking and looking the other way.
If you go to this map, you get the city name when you roll over them, and you can click on them to see the individual stats.
I know Blacksburg and Christiansburg aren’t independent cities, they are towns incorporated into Montgomery County.
A friend of mine used to work for the Henrico County (VA) government. Henrico County’s seat of government was Richmond.
Richmond is not part of Henrico County governmentally however.
Honolulu is the name of the city and county; it’s indivisible.
FYI: Hawaii[the island] is it’s own county, with it’s county seat being the city of Hilo. Kauai and Maui are multi-island counties. Kauai County comprises Kauai and Niihau. It’s county seat is the city if Lihue. Maui County comprises Kahoolawe, Lanai, Maui, and Molokai, except that Kalawao County occupies a small portion of Molokai. Kalawao *County *, where the Kalaupapa settlement resides, was set aside as a colony for sufferers of Hansen’s Disease. It is now administered by Maui county. The county seat for Maui is the city of Wailuku.
Thanks. My World Almanac having disintegrated, I was using a political map of Virginia on a relatively small scale, and it looked like they were demarcated as independent cities.
Question: Does Virginia have non-independent cities? Or does achieving city status entail mandatory separation from the surrounding county?
In Virginia, a “City” by definition is independent. The inbetween status is “Town”.
Strictly speaking, one refers only to St. Louis, Baltimore, Carson City, and either 40 or 41 (sources differ) cities in Virginia as “independent cities”. There are many other instances, some of them listed by Polycarp, of consolidated city/county governments. For historical reasons, however, these are still considered to be “counties”, and the city is not independent but rather consolidated with its former parent county. For example, we have the “City and County of San Francisco”, which is one entity, but St. Louis County and the independent City of St. Louis, which are separate and distinct. Some parts of New England have abolished county government altogether, but the counties linger on in atlases and are still used by the Census Bureau for various statistical purposes, so their cities aren’t quite “independent” either.
According to the 2004 World Almanac, these are the independent cities of Virginia:
Alexandria
Bedford
Bristol
Buena Vista (pronounced BYOO-na VISS-ta)
Charlottesville
Chesapeake
Colonial Heights
Covington
Danville
Emporia
Fairfax
Falls Church
Franklin
Fredericksburg
Galax
Hampton
Harrisonburg
Hopewell
Lexington
Lynchburg
Manassas
Manassas Park
Martinsville
Newport News
Norfolk
Norton
Petersburg
Poquoson (puh-KOE-son)
Portsmouth
Radford
Richmond
Roanoke
Salem
Staunton (STAN-ton)
Suffolk
Virginia Beach
Waynesboro
Williamsburg
Winchester
Also, the independent city of Clifton Forge joined Alleghany County in 2001. There are many “lost counties” in the Old Dominion. For example, one of my former history professors wrote an illustrated remembrance of old Princess Anne County, which was absorbed into the city of Virginia Beach.