Misconceptions about town lines

[Desert Man]

I may live inside the city of La Quinta CA, however I have an Indio CA zip code and across the street from me is Palm Desert and another is Riverside county jurisdiction (Bermuda Dunes). I can walk to Indian Wells and ride my bike 2 miles to another community: Sun City Palm Desert (the overwhelming majority of residents are over age 55-club policy states a home owner must be that age, and seasonal "snowbird" residents). I refer this place as "five points within a mile from me", ROFL.

[Rothman]

The borders between ZIP codes, school districts and municipalities in the Capital Region of NY is bizarre, indeed.  At one point, I technically lived in Bethlehem, NY with an Albany, NY address in the Guilderland, NY School District.

[Doctor Whom]

I've lost count on how many independent cities Virginia has. Would Arlington be considered a case like Philadelphia? I stayed at a hotel there two weeks ago. I seem to remember seeing Arlington County on a couple of vehicles there.

There is no city or town of Arlington; there's just the county.

[noelbotevera]

I've lost count on how many independent cities Virginia has. Would Arlington be considered a case like Philadelphia? I stayed at a hotel there two weeks ago. I seem to remember seeing Arlington County on a couple of vehicles there.

There is no city or town of Arlington; there's just the county.

Arlington in common principle is simply called a city - which is incorrect. Arlington is in fact a county, but most people interpret Arlington as a city; to boot, they say "Arlington, Virginia", and even TV shows say that.

[Zeffy]

My question is why in old maps is Belle Meade shown - but Hillsborough was always left out in the dust? We're the largest by land area in all of Somerset County, yet we always seemed to get shunned on older maps.


From http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-095.html

[Desert Man]

Looking at the map, I believe Trenton is the only state capital on a state boundary, not placed in the middle of the state like NJ. My Mom's family friend is from Lawrenceville between Trenton and the ivy league college town Princeton. And how old is the map? It shows I-95 and I-295 under construction to connect Lawrenceville with NYC or Philly (I-95) and a commercial airport (I-295).

[empirestate]

Arlington in common principle is simply called a city - which is incorrect. Arlington is in fact a county, but most people interpret Arlington as a city; to boot, they say "Arlington, Virginia", and even TV shows say that.

Right, although I'm pretty sure the postal service designates it as the "postal city" of Arlington, VA, and the Census Bureau reckons the whole county as an unincorporated place called Arlington.

My question is why in old maps is Belle Meade shown - but Hillsborough was always left out in the dust? We're the largest by land area in all of Somerset County, yet we always seemed to get shunned on older maps.

It's because Hillsborough, being a township and thus a minor civil division, is considered an areal feature rather than a point feature. By contrast, Belle Mead, being a hamlet (or whatever NJ calls those), is a locatable place, however minor. In cartographic terms, an areal feature like Hillsborough Township would be shown by drawing a border or shading an area and labeling it subtly, probably, with spread-out lettering (as the counties are in your map example). However, the mapmakers have decided not to show areal features at the low level of townships on this map, so it's omitted. On the other hand, populated places, whether incorporated or not, are shown on this map by basically drawing a dot at the location of the population center.

The problem is that this kind of symbology doesn't jive well with modern population patterns, where many people live spread across a non-centralized area, often not incorporated in the traditional sense, and so not traditionally depicted on maps except at the largest of scales. However, to adopt a new symbology that accurately shows where the population lives would tend to conflict with the cartographic goals of your typical road atlas, so they haven't really bothered trying (other than to use a subtle built-up area shading, but your example hasn't elected to do so).

[lordsutch]

Looking at the map, I believe Trenton is the only state capital on a state boundary, not placed in the middle of the state like NJ.

Even more OT: Carson City NV borders California, Albany NY is pretty darn close to Massachusetts, Tallahassee is within 20 miles or so of the Georgia line, Cheyenne WY is right next to Colorado, and Juneau is closer to most of British Columbia than it is to most of Alaska. And Providence is basically on the Massachusetts line too, but in Rhode Island that's pretty much unavoidable (same deal with Hartford CT - it's hard to get far from a state line). So Trenton isn't that exceptional.

[mrsman]

Looking at the map, I believe Trenton is the only state capital on a state boundary, not placed in the middle of the state like NJ.

Even more OT: Carson City NV borders California, Albany NY is pretty darn close to Massachusetts, Tallahassee is within 20 miles or so of the Georgia line, Cheyenne WY is right next to Colorado, and Juneau is closer to most of British Columbia than it is to most of Alaska. And Providence is basically on the Massachusetts line too, but in Rhode Island that's pretty much unavoidable (same deal with Hartford CT - it's hard to get far from a state line). So Trenton isn't that exceptional.

And don't forget that the ocean is a boundary of some states.  So Boston is on a boundary too.