My impression is that it might have been a way to allow city residents to have a separate government. Therefore when a town got big enough to need various services such as a water system, street lighting, street cleaning, trash collection and the like, the cost for these would be borne by those who would benefit and not by rural residents who might not be willing to support those costs.
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From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Keith Kirkland [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 1:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] Why does Virginia, alone among states, require that its cities be discrete municipal entities from its counties (aka Independent Cities)?
I'm passing this question along from a social media website I frequent
because I'm wondering if someone better qualified could shed any light on
the matter. Additional reading sources for further information would be
appreciated.
"Independent cities are cities that do not even nominally exist within a
county -- they are beholden only to the state. In the United States, there
are 42 independent cities, and 39 of them are in Virginia (the exceptions
are Baltimore, St. Louis, and Carson City, NV).
I have been trying for some time to figure out why this is so. I know that
this practice started in the Virginia Constitution of 1870, so I'll wager
it has something to do with the civil war, the secession of the counties
that became West Virginia, and/or reconstruction. However, I have been
unable to locate any sources that give me a firm answer. Particularly
frustrating is the fact that the Virginia General Assembly didn't keep
records until the 20th century.
For more information: [1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_(United_States)"<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_%28United_States%29>
Thank you.
--
Keith Kirkland
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