How do municipalities in your area work?

[GCrites]

Hmm, I didn't know that. The only thing unusual I could think of was how all of Circleville magically had a township created (Yamarick) within its borders about 15 years ago. I didn't really see why they bothered and thought it was largely symbolic. Yamarick Township and Circleville Township are separate, but Circleville Township fully surrounds Yamarick. Circleville Towship extends outside of Circleville. I don't think Yamarick has any staff, officials or meetings of its own.

[empirestate]

Hmm, I didn't know that. The only thing unusual I could think of was how all of Circleville magically had a township created (Yamarick) within its borders about 15 years ago. I didn't really see why they bothered and thought it was largely symbolic. Yamarick Township and Circleville Township are separate, but Circleville Township fully surrounds Yamarick. Circleville Towship extends outside of Circleville. I don't think Yamarick has any staff, officials or meetings of its own.

Yeah, there's certainly next to nothing on the internet about Yamarick Township. I do know that non-functioning townships are created to account for the area of (some?) cities that are independent of any functioning township. But I didn't know if this was a legal reality or just something the Census Bureau devised for their hierarchy. In this case, since there's already a Circleville Township, they may have chosen Yamarick as the name of the township that coincides with the city of Circleville.

What is likely is that, like yourself, the general public has very little awareness of the details of local government in Ohio. Indeed, even in states where the system is more straightforward and where municipalities play an active role in everyday life, the public does not always make a clear distinction between governmental entities and non-legal arrangements like ZIP codes.


iPhone

[empirestate]

This one took me a while, but the Wisconsin map is finally up!

Wisconsin is a fun one because it has the archetypal "full slate" of political divisions: counties of course, civil township-style MCDs (which it calls towns), and incorporated municipalities (cities and villages). It is similar to PA (which has boroughs instead of villages) and NY (whose villages are not independent).

Cities and villages have varying thresholds for incorporated depending on area, population and density, as well as whether or not they are in a rural or metropolitan area. Wisconsin law has a lot of criteria for incorporated places based on their urban character, requiring a certain amount of built-up area at the core and the potential for development in the surrounding area–basically ensuring that cities and villages look like settlements rather than just being expanses of suburban residential area.

There are four classes of city (as mentioned earlier in the thread), and there are various optional mechanisms for cities to advance to a higher class, villages to reorganize as cities, and towns to become incorporated (which has a lot to do with whether they're adjacent to existing municipalities of a certain type or class).

http://empirestateroads.com/maps/Wisconsin.pdf <–click the link, not the image (also posted there as a lower-res .png)


Next up will be West Virginia!

[GCrites]

Hmm, I didn't know that. The only thing unusual I could think of was how all of Circleville magically had a township created (Yamarick) within its borders about 15 years ago. I didn't really see why they bothered and thought it was largely symbolic. Yamarick Township and Circleville Township are separate, but Circleville Township fully surrounds Yamarick. Circleville Towship extends outside of Circleville. I don't think Yamarick has any staff, officials or meetings of its own.

Yeah, there's certainly next to nothing on the internet about Yamarick Township. I do know that non-functioning townships are created to account for the area of (some?) cities that are independent of any functioning township. But I didn't know if this was a legal reality or just something the Census Bureau devised for their hierarchy. In this case, since there's already a Circleville Township, they may have chosen Yamarick as the name of the township that coincides with the city of Circleville.

What is likely is that, like yourself, the general public has very little awareness of the details of local government in Ohio. Indeed, even in states where the system is more straightforward and where municipalities play an active role in everyday life, the public does not always make a clear distinction between governmental entities and non-legal arrangements like ZIP codes.


iPhone

Yeah, sometimes it's hard to convince people that 43212 is part of Columbus, Marble Cliff, Grandview Heights and even part of Upper Arlington. I moved to Bexley once but thought I was in Columbus for at least six months and listed Columbus as my address. Nobody said anything since parts of Columbus had the same zip.

[triplemultiplex]

This one took me a while, but the Wisconsin map is finally up!
http://empirestateroads.com/maps/Wisconsin.pdf <–click the link, not the image (also posted there as a lower-res .png)

Cool map; to see them all displayed like that is interesting.  It is missing two recent additions.
In Calumet County, Harrison incorporated, then annexed the rest of the township.
In Dane County, the Town of Windsor incorporated as a village last year.  As a result, the two pieces of DeForest shall never meet.

[empirestate]

Cool map; to see them all displayed like that is interesting.  It is missing two recent additions.
In Calumet County, Harrison incorporated, then annexed the rest of the township.
In Dane County, the Town of Windsor incorporated as a village last year.  As a result, the two pieces of DeForest shall never meet.

Yeah, the source data is the 2015 TIGER file, the most recent available. I'll update to the 2016 vintage when that comes out, possibly next month, which still only gets as current as January 1 of this year.

Or, I also have a state GIS file that I haven't brought into the map yet; it's probably more recent. But since it's a separate database from the Census file, migrating the data is a challenge for a relative GIS novice like me. (However, the current QGIS version adds a Trace Geography tool, which might do the trick once I get the update.)


iPhone