Cities that aren't

[hotdogPi]

Missouri City, TX
Midwest City, OK
Liberal, KS
Jersey Shore, PA
Huron, OH (it's on Lake Erie)
Several cities in this thread (directional cities that lack a namesake)

[index]

Colorado City, AZ - Self explanatory
Dixie Valley, NV - Doesn't look like that's in Dixie.
Hurricane, UT - No hurricanes here.


Bonus: Mountain Island Lake, NC and Mountain Island, NC. No mountains near or on any of these.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Bielefeld, Germany
Teruel, Spain

Both are said not to exist .

In Spain we have a variation on this: The "villages of the three lies" (Pueblos de las tres mentiras). One such example is Santillana del Mar. It's not holy (Santa, rendered here as Santi), it's not flat (llana) and it's not by the sea (Mar) (Although it's decently close).

[Max Rockatansky]

Tulare, CA...the lake of the same name is long gone. 

[cjk374]

Oil City, LA

[jeffandnicole]

NJ has 10 cities under 5,000 people, another 9 with populations between 5,000 and 10,000 people.

Corbin City is our smallest 'city', with 492 people over nearly 9 square miles of land.  Estell Manor is the 4th smallest 'city' at 1,735 people, yet is 50 square miles large.  NJ's 11 largest cities by population are all less half that in size in area.

[Road Hog]

The Holy Roman Empire was neither of the three.

[oscar]

Pearl City, HI -- Pearl City is a small part of the City and County of Honolulu (which covers the entire island of Oahu), and Hawaii has no local governments below the county level.

[Eth]

Stone Mountain, GA. It's not a mountain, just one really big rock.

[Brandon]

In Illinois, there are two types.  One is "cities" that actually are villages or towns.  The other is places that people think are "cities".

Villages & Towns:
Village of Beecher City
Town of Belle Prairie City
Village of Central City
Village of Clay City
Village of Coal City
Village of Crescent City
Village of Dalton City
Village of Hanna City
Village of Junction City
Village of Pearl City
Village of Piper City
Village of Rapids City
Village of Rock City
Village of Schram City
Village of Standard City
Village of Valley City
Village of Wayne City
Village of West City
Village of White City
Village of Yates City

Keep in mind that the difference between a city and a village in Illinois is governmental, not size-based.  We have large villages and small cities.

Places:
Boulder Hill
Future City
Illinois City
National City

To name a few.

[Flint1979]

Oil City, Michigan (between Mt. Pleasant and Midland)
Barton City, Michigan (Alcona County)
Beal City, Michigan (Isabella County)

[US 89]

In Utah:
-White City is a census-designated place, not a city
-Meadow has no meadows to speak of
-Oranges have never been grown in Orangeville, the town was named after Orange Seely
-Sandy doesn't really have any sand
-South Jordan is west of the Jordan River, not south of it
-Tropic is nowhere near the tropics

And while it isn't a city, Snow Canyon rarely ever sees snow. It was named after Lorenzo Snow.

[Rothman]

White City insists on being independent from Sandy as well.  Its drainage system is failing (or failed by now) and, last I heard, the residents still vote to stay independent.

Can't forget Erastus Snow as well.  Snow Canyon was named for both.

[webny99]

I assume the premise is to name cities that have misleading names, or refer to something that doesn't exist (not the literal interpretation of the title).

We've done this with streets names - for example, where's the creek on Creek St? and where's the bricks on Yellow Brick Rd?

Place names in New York tend not to refer to actual things, so I can't come up with too many off hand.
You could probably make a case for Sea Breeze...

[ssp77]

Mountain Lake, MN.  Middle of the prairie and no lake!

SM-G950U1

[freebrickproductions]

Hillsboro, AL - located in what has to be the flattest part of the Tennessee Valley...

Paint Rock, AL isn't anywhere near any painted rocks.

White City, AL and White City, FL aren't really cities at all (the one in Alabama isn't even incorporated).

Centre, AL; Center Point, AL; and Center Star, AL are all nowhere near the center of Alabama, nor any of their counties.

Cherokee, AL isn't in Cherokee County, AL.

Georgiana, AL isn't anywhere near Georgia or Louisiana.

And finally, Mobile, AL isn't very movable.

[Takumi]

Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.

[oscar]

Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.

Of course, "Rhode Island" isn't "Rhode Island". Official state name is "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". Smallest state, biggest name.

[roadman65]

Wesley Chapel, FL!  If it were a city it would be Pasco County, FL largest and most populous city.
Merritt Island, FL, is not a city even though it has a lot of homes and businesses and appears as one.

[Flint1979]

Missouri City, TX
Midwest City, OK
Liberal, KS
Jersey Shore, PA
Huron, OH (it's on Lake Erie)
Several cities in this thread (directional cities that lack a namesake)

Huron, Ohio is most likely named for the Wyandot people, a Native-American tribe, same people the lake was named after.

[roadman65]

Many people consider each of NYC's five boroughs to be cities in themselves.   As each borough are like their own municipality (and each one in itself is several times larger than most American cities) many just treat them as five completely different cities even though all part of the Great New York.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Castle Danger, MN - no castles here

[Max Rockatansky]

Castle Danger, MN - no castles here

Don't the cliffs supposedly resemble a castle?

One that came to mind for Arizona is the ghost town Vulture City.  I'm sure vultures were copious but even in it's heyday it definitely wasn't a city.  On the other hand Nothing (the place) is interesting because there is actually some scant remains of the rock shop but I suspect in decade or two it will literally become the embodiment of it's name.   

[jp the roadgeek]

In CT

East Hampton is west of Hampton
Old Lyme is newer than Lyme by over 200 years
Watertown is 99% land.
Certainly no orange groves in Orange
South Windsor is on the same latitude as Windsor.  East Windsor is more north of Windsor than east.
There is very little farm land left in Farmington.
The homicide rates in Killingworth and Killingly are actually quite low
There is no more Saybrook for Old Saybrook to be older than (Saybrook is now Deep River)
Preston City is not a city; it is a village in the Town of Preston
Jewett City is a borough in the town of Griswold
Rocky Hill is generally flat
My town of 43,000 is larger than 8 of the 19 cities in CT

A national one: High Point, NC is more than 5,000 feet in elevation below the highest point (Mt. Mitchell) in NC.

[GenExpwy]

New York:

Johnson City (next to Binghamton) – incorporated village, not a city
Java Village (Wyoming County) – unincorporated, not a village
New City (Rockland County) – unincorporated, not a city

If you assume that place names like Somethingtown or Somethingville imply town or village, then there are many more examples

Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.

However, it does have an island called "Rhode Island" , best known for the city of Newport.