Baltimore and St. Louis are independent cities. They are not part of their surrounding counties. And they're both pretty small, in relation to the urbanized are

Baltimore and St. Louis are independent cities. They are not part of their surrounding counties. And they're both pretty small, in relation to the urbanized areas surrounding them. This causes all sorts of problems (e.g. duplication of services) and makes other problems seem worse than they are, relative to other cities (e.g. homicide and poverty rates appear higher, because they don't account for affluent regions just outside of city limits).