4 ms·

In a similar vein, I used to think that counties contained cities, but then in college I met someone from NYC who correctly pointed out that cities can contain

In a similar vein, I used to think that counties contained cities, but then in college I met someone from NYC who correctly pointed out that cities can contain counties.

jherskovic 4y ago
There's several cities within Harris County (Houston, Texas), and the Houston area -which some people will refer to as "Houston", "Greater Houston", or "the Greater Houston Area", overlaps several counties. There are also several cities wholly contained within the City of Houston itself. West University and Bellaire come to mind; there's probably more but I can't be bothered. It's a mess to someone who likes things neat :)
madcaptenor 4y ago
I used to think that most major cities were their own county, because I'm from Philadelphia and it is. This describes some other major cities, too: San Francisco, and to a first approximation Boston. And in some states cities can cross county lines. (This is different than the NYC case because New York City consists of five entire counties.) List from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._municipalities_in_multiple_counties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._municipalities_in.... Most cities in multiple counties are in two counties, but some are in more. Some are large cities - from a quick scan through the list these include Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City. But some are just cities that happened to be founded near a county line and expanded into adjacent counties. Braselton, Georgia has eleven thousand people and it's in four counties.
- JJMcJ 4y ago
  A few parts of Chicago near O'Hare airport are in DuPage county. In California a city by law cannot cross a county line. San Francisco has a unified city/county government. That's why it's the Board of Supervisors. I think Miami/Dade County is similar.
jcranmer 4y ago
And there are some cities where being in the city means you are in no county. Baltimore is like this (Baltimore, MD is not part of Baltimore County, MD, nor any other county), as is every city in Virginia.
- madcaptenor 4y ago
  St. Louis, also. It's similar to Baltimore - in both cases there's a city that's part of no county, and a county with the same name.

In a similar vein, I used to think that counties contained cities, but then in college I met someone from NYC who correctly pointed out that cities can contain counties.

jherskovic 4y ago

There's several cities within Harris County (Houston, Texas), and the Houston area -which some people will refer to as "Houston", "Greater Houston", or "the Greater Houston Area", overlaps several counties. There are also several cities wholly contained within the City of Houston itself. West University and Bellaire come to mind; there's probably more but I can't be bothered. It's a mess to someone who likes things neat :)

madcaptenor 4y ago

I used to think that most major cities were their own county, because I'm from Philadelphia and it is. This describes some other major cities, too: San Francisco, and to a first approximation Boston. And in some states cities can cross county lines. (This is different than the NYC case because New York City consists of five entire counties.) List from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._municipalities_in_multiple_counties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._municipalities_in.... Most cities in multiple counties are in two counties, but some are in more. Some are large cities - from a quick scan through the list these include Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City. But some are just cities that happened to be founded near a county line and expanded into adjacent counties. Braselton, Georgia has eleven thousand people and it's in four counties.

JJMcJ 4y ago
A few parts of Chicago near O'Hare airport are in DuPage county. In California a city by law cannot cross a county line. San Francisco has a unified city/county government. That's why it's the Board of Supervisors. I think Miami/Dade County is similar.

jcranmer 4y ago

And there are some cities where being in the city means you are in no county. Baltimore is like this (Baltimore, MD is not part of Baltimore County, MD, nor any other county), as is every city in Virginia.

madcaptenor 4y ago
St. Louis, also. It's similar to Baltimore - in both cases there's a city that's part of no county, and a county with the same name.