"Today, Virginia is the only state in the US in which cities are legally
independent of the counties in which they are located."

I do not believe this statement to be exactly correct.

1) Baltimore City created out of Baltimore County, Maryland in 1850 is an
example of another independent city. Maryland has 23 counties and the
independent City of Baltimore.

2) St. Louis is an independent city. Missouri has 114 counties plus 1 city
independent. And like Baltimore the name of the county that surround it is
St. Louis.

3) Although not a current situation, Pittsburgh's North Side was the
independent City of Allegheny prior to its annexation in 1907. Other
portions of the city were also independent municipalities at various times.

4) In addition to many neighborhoods of Los Angeles, among them is the small
independent city of San Fernando.

5) Carson City, Nevada served as the seat of Ormsby County until 1969, when
the city and
county merged and became the independent city of Carson City.

6) Probably the most famous of the independents cities where those that once
existed in what is now New York City, i.e., Staten Island, Manhattan,
Brooklyn.

So what we see over time is a variety methodologies for their creation or
elimination, and there numbers in no way compare to the number of Virginia
Independent Cities, but Virginia is not the only place in the United States
where they exist.

C.

Craig R. Scott, CGRS

Willow Bend Books
65 East Main Street
Westminster, MD 21157-5026
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www.WillowBendBooks.com

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