City (United States)
City is a term used in the United States to refer to an inhabited settlement that, depending on the laws of the individual states, has the administrative form of a registered municipality . The number of inhabitants of a place is often irrelevant for differentiating a city from other forms of municipality such as village or town ; the smallest city in the United States, Maza , North Dakota, had just five residents. In most states, cities are run by an elected mayor with a city council, as opposed to the administration of a town, which is administered by the citizens through town councils, a select board or a board of trustees . In a number of states - such as Arizona - city and town are interchangeable terms. The largest cities in the United States are New York City , Los Angeles, and Chicago .
Special features in individual states
In Idaho , Oregon , Kansas , Kentucky , North Dakota , Minnesota and Iowa all listed locations as are city designated. In Ohio , a place automatically becomes a city if it has more than 5,000 inhabitants in the regular census, which in the United States is constitutionally carried out every ten years, and becomes a village again if the population falls below 5,000. In Illinois a city must have at least 2500 inhabitants, in Nebraska 800 inhabitants are sufficient for a city second class, 5000 inhabitants are necessary for a city first class.
In Virginia , all places listed as cities are independent and do not belong to a county , towns belong to the respective county. In California , there are both Towns and City's, both terms are used synonymously, however. In Pennsylvania , any registered place with more than ten residents can be incorporated as a borough . Every township and every borough with more than 10,000 inhabitants can request state legislation to designate this location as a city.
In the states of New England , the demarcation between town and city corresponds to the form of their administration and does not depend on the size of the population. A town is represented in the executive by a city council and the legislature is formed by a community assembly . In a city, the executive is headed by the elected mayor, the legislature consists of a city council or a council of elders.
In New York every resident lives either in an Indian reservation, a city or in a town. Here, a city is a largely self-governing municipality that has a considerable degree of tax sovereignty over its citizens. In New York, a city differs from a village in that a city does not belong to a town - City of Sherrill is the only exception - while a village is part of one or more towns. Some of these cities, for which there is no minimum size in this state, are completely surrounded by a town; this often has the same name. New York City and Albany have been statutes as a city since 1686, all 60 other cities in New York were each made a city by a decision of the state government. New York City is a special case because it spans five complete counties.
The island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii is fully registered as a single city, the City and County of Honolulu .