Municipalities with unusual boundaries

[MikeTheActuary]

Another one in Alabama -- Rehobeth.

(The discontinuous sections of its northeastern "arm" are properties that had not previously requested to be annexed into Dothan.)

One additional piece of trivia -- while poking around to see if the Wikimedia files would work for displaying some of the odd city boundaries I'm aware of around southeastern Alabama, I came to realize that part of Dothan, AL likes outside the Dothan MSA.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I noticed that same phenomenon with Sikeston, Missouri.

Even over here where (almost) every single square inch of land belongs to a municipality, weird boundaries can still occur. I can think of Albarracín and its many arms separating almost every other municipality in the area from each other (and resulting in many enclaved municipalities), or the area around the A-7/A-35 interchange (looks like they determined from which town was the owner of each plot to draw the boundaries, a la Baarle).

[NWI_Irish96]

The city of Chicago extends into DuPage County in order to include all of O'Hare in the city.

That by itself is not unusual, but whenever the boundary got drawn, it included some land that was not airport property.

In 2000, Chicago had a population of 2,896,014 in Cook County and 2 in DuPage County.

By 2010, those people (and presumably their house) was gone. I was never able to figure out exactly where the house was.

[mgk920]

Sort of like State Line Ave in Texarkana, AR/TX (et al)?

Mike

[Scott5114]

The city of Chicago extends into DuPage County in order to include all of O'Hare in the city.

That by itself is not unusual, but whenever the boundary got drawn, it included some land that was not airport property.

In 2000, Chicago had a population of 2,896,014 in Cook County and 2 in DuPage County.

By 2010, those people (and presumably their house) was gone. I was never able to figure out exactly where the house was.

Is there a possibility that this might have been the same sort of "fuzzing" of data that led to Monowi, NE temporarily showing a second person living there?

[NJRoadfan]

This is where I will again stress the superiority of New England and other northeast states in this respect. Even northern Maine has nothing and still has more sanity than any of these wacky city borders. Massachusetts just has a county with two exclaves (one by design, one due to Boston gobbling up various towns during the 1800's).

My state may have invented gerrymandering, but the spirit lives on in these city borders.

The Boro of South Hackensack, New Jersey would like a word with you (its three disjointed pieces). We also have "donut hole" towns completely surrounded by another town. One of them is Sussex Boro, which is shaped like an octagon.

New England and other northeast states didn't include NJ.

NJ is similar to states using the "New England Towns" system. There is no concept of un-incorporated areas here. Everything is in a municipality.

[NWI_Irish96]

The city of Chicago extends into DuPage County in order to include all of O'Hare in the city.

That by itself is not unusual, but whenever the boundary got drawn, it included some land that was not airport property.

In 2000, Chicago had a population of 2,896,014 in Cook County and 2 in DuPage County.

By 2010, those people (and presumably their house) was gone. I was never able to figure out exactly where the house was.

Is there a possibility that this might have been the same sort of "fuzzing" of data that led to Monowi, NE temporarily showing a second person living there?

No, there was no imputation involved in the Chicago case. There really was a housing unit there at some point.

[bandit957]

I thought someone said a long time ago that the residents of Chicago in DuPage County were airport maintenance workers.

[kalvado]

I thought someone said a long time ago that the residents of Chicago in DuPage County were airport maintenance workers.

Wasn't there a guy who got stuck between airline refusing to haul him back and CBP not admitting him into the country for a few years?
That is hard to do in US border arrangement though...

[NWI_Irish96]

I thought someone said a long time ago that the residents of Chicago in DuPage County were airport maintenance workers.

There are no housing units on airport property, so if someone was actually living at the airport, there would have been no way to enumerate them.

I know that there was a housing unit and that it wasn't on airport property. They could have worked at the airport or anywhere else.

I can't remember what Irving Park road looked like in 2000, but some parts of it along the southern edge of O'Hare are within the city limits. My best guess is that there used to be a house along there.

[JayhawkCO]

No mention of Denver?

[Scott5114]

No mention of Denver?

The boundaries of just about everything in Colorado are fucked. The state legislature ought to start from scratch and redraw the county boundaries, especially in the Denver area, because they make so little sense.

[Road Hog]

No mention of Denver?

The boundaries of just about everything in Colorado are fucked. The state legislature ought to start from scratch and redraw the county boundaries, especially in the Denver area, because they make so little sense.

The state was loose enough to create Broomfield County so good luck on your boundary journey.

[cl94]

Boulder City, Nevada is a fun one. The only incorporated city in the state to ban gambling is also Nevada's largest by land area, with city limits extending about 20 miles south of I-11 along US 95. A large percentage of the city's land is undeveloped desert, but much of this is being developed into solar farms.

[J N Winkler]

Wasn't there a guy who got stuck between airline refusing to haul him back and CBP not admitting him into the country for a few years?

That is hard to do in US border arrangement though...

The original "Terminal Man," Mehran Karimi Nasseri, was an Iranian refugee and was living at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris.  The nationalities were changed and the setting was moved to New York (JFK) for the film.

[bing101]

This is Santa Rosa, California and there are 5 fragments that is separate from the rest of the city.

[mgk920]

No mention of Denver?

The boundaries of just about everything in Colorado are fucked. The state legislature ought to start from scratch and redraw the county boundaries, especially in the Denver area, because they make so little sense.

As an outsider with an interest in 'the city', the Denver. CO area needs a redux of the Poundstone law, to bring the entire metro area, and then some, into a single city and county.

Mike

[Rothman]

Syracuse has that fun tiny extension to the west to maintain control over part of its water supply:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KsJ5nKAVK9kdzhkM7

[TheCatalyst31]

I thought someone said a long time ago that the residents of Chicago in DuPage County were airport maintenance workers.

There are no housing units on airport property, so if someone was actually living at the airport, there would have been no way to enumerate them.

I know that there was a housing unit and that it wasn't on airport property. They could have worked at the airport or anywhere else.

I can't remember what Irving Park road looked like in 2000, but some parts of it along the southern edge of O'Hare are within the city limits. My best guess is that there used to be a house along there.

It's possible that whatever housing unit was there got demolished as part of the O'Hare expansion of the past twenty years or so. Part of why that expansion took so long was all the legal wrangling over using eminent domain on nearby land, including a few suburban neighborhoods.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellaire,_Texas


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston

Bellaire, Texas is surrounded by the city of Houston and the city limits of Houston has some strips that connect them to other parts of their city.

San Antonio has holes in its city limits. Some of this is because some of the land belongs to other cities like Balcones Heights, Alamo Heights and Castle Hills. Yes one can be easily forgiven if one thinks these are neighborhoods within San Antonio.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcones_Heights,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Heights,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Hills,_Texas

This is like the Los Angeles situation where Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, San Fernando, Culver City, Santa Monica are all separate cities surrounded by the city of Los Angeles proper.

[Rothman]

Makes me think of Sandy, Utah, where White City is cut out of it:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JwCp7U32zPCXebqq6

White City's infrastructure is crumbling, however, as they cling onto a rather unfortunate idea that they have their own distinct community.  That mentality is causing them to be in denial about their inability to maintain their drainage/sewer and water utilities.  You can tell where Sandy's jurisdiction ends and theirs begins by the state of things.

[bing101]

Makes me think of Sandy, Utah, where White City is cut out of it:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JwCp7U32zPCXebqq6

White City's infrastructure is crumbling, however, as they cling onto a rather unfortunate idea that they have their own distinct community.  That mentality is causing them to be in denial about their inability to maintain their drainage/sewer and water utilities.  You can tell where Sandy's jurisdiction ends and theirs begins by the state of things.

White City, Utah how does Salt Lake County respond to the infrastructure situation? Don't they have to step in with maintenance. It's like cities that are separate jurisdictions but surrounded by Los Angeles city proper they are dependent on county resources for protection and infrastructure.

[mrsman]

City of San Diego has two parts.

I beleive there was some rules as to cities being contiguous in California.  Despite the two separate sections of San Diego, they are connected through water in the San Diego Bay.

https://historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1576109/page+030/San+Diego+County+1956/California/

https://historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1576106/page+032/San+Diego+County+1956/California/



Los Angeles also has these types of continuities.  As others on the thread mentioned the famous "shoestring" addition that connects Wilmington/San Pedro to the rest of the city.  But there is also another shoestring that connects Westchester to the rest of the city.  See this corridor along 63rd street just north of Inglewood.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Los+Angeles,+CA/@33.9703193,-118.3934484,12.75z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x80c2c75ddc27da13:0xe22fdf6f254608f4!8m2!3d34.0549076!4d-118.242643!16s%2Fm%2F030qb3t?entry=ttu




While not so apparent in current maps, at one time, this was the only way to bring Westchester into the contiguous city.  Playa Vista was then the Hughes Airport and it was in unincorporated territory.

It was added as part of the West Coast Addition, as seen here:

https://homesteadmuseum.blog/2020/01/31/all-over-the-map-map-showing-annexations-and-boundaries-of-city-of-los-angeles-31-january-1918/

https://geohub.lacity.org/datasets/a548e9c6717c4d3985260ee9598fda78/explore

[bing101]

City of Industry, California has two parts to its city and it's in a curve.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton,_California

Here's another one Stockton, California has holes inside its city limits. This may be a carryover when parts of the city was farmland and the outlying areas were under the jurisdiction of San Joaquin County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno,_California

Fresno city limits have holes. Note in California the holes in cities are unincorporated areas under county jurisdiction or a different city in some cases.

Fremont has a hole in its city limits due to Newark, California.

Long Beach, California same thing have a hole in its city limits due to Signal Hill, California.

Rome has a hole because of the Vatican.

[mgk920]

The limit line of the City of Industry was drawn as such to have no residents inside of its borders.  Ooops, they did get a few hundred anyways.

 

Mike