silverspots

Sarah 🪶 F1330

@silverspots

  • it/its

Please don't be a stranger! Contact me on Discord, Telegram, or FA as @silverspots

log inask
silverspots
@silverspots

I'm a map nerd and I learned a new word

Coterminous: two things sharing the same borders. In the USA this normally applies to major cities and the counties in which they reside. For example, the borough of Manhattan is coterminous with the (largely defunct) county of New York. I believe the same is true of Chicago and Cook County.

Do you know of any coterminous things? I would love to find some more!

Edit: I learned two interesting ones in Hawaii. The county of Hawaii is coterminous with "The Big Island" of Hawaii, which makes sense. Also there's a village called Kalawao which is its own county due to its history of being a leper colony at some point in the past!

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @silverspots's post:

toad
@toad

chicago and cook county are not actually coterminous — chicago only comprises about 14% of the county’s area. as far as i know the only border they share is the lake!

login to reply
toad
@toad

strangely enough some of chicago even extends outside of cook county into dupage county — specifically the southwest corner of ohare airport, which is itself a weird and obviously tax revenue-motivated extension of the city border

login to reply
fizbin
@fizbin

Philadelphia (the city) and Philadelphia County are coterminous.

Philadelphia (city) is the county seat of Philadelphia County.

Prior to 1854, there were parts of Philadelphia County that were not in Philadelphia the city.

Map fact that is the inverse of what you asked: Baltimore City is not only not coterminous with Baltimore County, Baltimore City is not in Baltimore County; in fact, Baltimore City is not in a county at all! Maryland is at the top level divided into 23 counties and 1 city.

login to reply
fizbin
@fizbin

A new piece of map terminology for you: independent city. In the US, that term means a city that is not a part of a county or county-equivalent (like "parish" in Louisiana or "borough" in Alaska). (well, new to me and for you, whether it's new to you or not)

There are 41 independent cities in the US, 38 of which are in Virginia which decided to be weird about cities right after the Civil War and declare everything called a "city" independent. The other three independent cities are Baltimore as mentioned; St. Louis, MO; and Carson City, NV.

login to reply
sirocyl
@sirocyl

Kinda reminds me of the New Jersey situation, where each municipality is a boro (of towns), a township (of villages and one town), or a city (of wards), and it's all structured out in a menu, a literal "choose your own adventure" book kept in Trenton for municipal incorporations. Like an installer wizard, for government.

"County" is only kept as a largely standards-keeping notion in NJ government (e.g., some databases and the USGS/BGN standards require "county" names); most are coterminous with a boro, township or city.

login to reply
fizbin
@fizbin

I don't understand that second paragraph: I live in NJ and none of the counties near me are coterminous with some smaller division.

I live in a city, divided into wards, surrounded by two townships and the state border. There are three cities, six boroughs, and 31 townships in the county.

The county government has separate duties from the city government. Code enforcement, cops? That's city. Prosecutor? That's county. Trash pickup and hauling is city, but the county handles all recycling. Need a building inspection for some construction you're doing? That's city, except that the city decided to partner with one of the neighboring townships so you go to their building to file plans and schedule that. Real estate records (deeds and whatever) are county level and you have to go to the county seat to get copies.

login to reply
Pinned Tags