Multi-county Municipalities

[rds70]

Colorado has Aurora, which is located in Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas Counties.

Before becoming the second City and County in Colorado in 2001, Broomfield was located in Boulder, Jefferson, Adams, and Weld Counties.

Before Denver became a City and County in 1912, it was located in Adams, Arapahoe, and a small piece of Jefferson Counties.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by TWAK

Parts of unincorporated Sacramento County have an address of "Sacramento, CA" so it could be similar for unincorporated LA County.

This is how St. Louis County works as well, and it is my undrstanding that this is all thanks to USPS. Swathes of unincorporated St. Louis County have St. Louis, MO mailing addresses, even though some areas don't even border the actual city.

To make things even more confusing, some fully incorporated munis can also use a St. Louis, MO mailing address interchangeably with the the muni they're actually in.

Centene, HQ'd in downtown Clayton, MO, uses a St. Louis mailing address, for example. Switch the mailing address to say Clayton and they'll still get it.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

In Illinois, the most extreme case I'm aware of is Aurora, IL, an old industrial satellite city of Chicago that was subsequently swallowed up by the great Chicagoland sprawl monster. It formed in the 19th century on the banks of the Fox River in the southeast corner of Kane county, relatively close to the 4-corners meeting point of Kane, Dupage, Will, and Kendall counties. In the 20th century, Aurora annexed outward as it grew, eventually spreading its municipal limits into all 4 counties, creating this mess:

I'm sure this is fun for each county's local State's Attorney's Office. "Yes, but where in Aurora did the crime occur? Oh, good, that's DuPage County's problem."

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion

This is how St. Louis County works as well, and it is my undrstanding that this is all thanks to USPS. Swathes of unincorporated St. Louis County have St. Louis, MO mailing addresses, even though some areas don't even border the actual city.

To make things even more confusing, some fully incorporated munis can also use a St. Louis, MO mailing address interchangeably with the the muni they're actually in.

Centene, HQ'd in downtown Clayton, MO, uses a St. Louis mailing address, for example. Switch the mailing address to say Clayton and they'll still get it.

Yeah. I work in Creve Coeur, an incorporated suburb that is 10 miles outside of St. Louis City Limits and we have a St. Louis street address.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Six Corners

Yeah. I work in Creve Coeur, an incorporated suburb that is 10 miles outside of St. Louis City Limits and we have a St. Louis street address.

I live in Creve Coeur *ducks* and my address says St. Louis 90% of the time. I *think* most of St. Louis County is like this. To be clear - St. Louis City/County doesn't have multicounty municipalities, however. I'm not sure this is really a thing in the region - not sure why as it's legal in Missouri, maybe an older historical precedent.

I noticed the address thing in metro Omaha as well - I was doing some permitting research and couldn't figure out what the mailing address was supposed to be at a location within a municipality (not Omaha) in Sarpy county - address came up as Omaha.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Huntsville finally annexed itself into its 4th county: Madison (seat), Limestone, Morgan, and Marshall.

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by craigs

The city of Los Angeles works similarly. Your address here is someplace like Van Nuys, North Hollywood, or Venice, not LA. It can be confusing.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Are there any places within LA that use "Los Angeles, CA" as their official address?


That does seem confusing from my Chicago perspective. I'm not aware of any place within the City of Chicago's municipal limits that doesn't use "Chicago, IL" as its official address.

I live in Boyle Heights, which is in within the city limits of Los Angeles and do use “Los Angeles” in my home address, but the nearby post office will still use “Boyle Heights” as the official address.

Not sure if it’s mentioned already in this thread, but famously enough, addresses in NYC don’t use “New York City” in the address.

If you’re in Manhattan, it’s gonna be “New York, NY”, which is the county name for the borough of Manhattan (New York County)

However, “Brooklyn, NY”, “Staten Island, NY”, and “Bronx, NY” works for the addresses for those boroughs.

I think Queens addresses are also just the neighborhood and not the borough/ county name, such as “Astoria, NY” or “Jamaica, NY”.

Similar to LA, but I think even here in LA, it’s mainly the neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley portion of the city have their own addresses distinct from the city, such as Van Nuys, Tarzana, and North Hollywood. Hollywood itself, although a neighborhood within the basin portion of LA city, also has the address “Hollywood, CA”.

Edit: looks like folks in the last page already explained these nuances, but I will still keep my post here lol

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by jd3189

I live in Boyle Heights, which is in within the city limits of Los Angeles and do use “Los Angeles” in my home address, but the nearby post office will still use “Boyle Heights” as the official address.

Not sure if it’s mentioned already in this thread, but famously enough, addresses in NYC don’t use “New York City” in the address.

If you’re in Manhattan, it’s gonna be “New York, NY”, which is the county name for the borough of Manhattan (New York County)

However, “Brooklyn, NY”, “Staten Island, NY”, and “Bronx, NY” works for the addresses for those boroughs.

I think Queens addresses are also just the neighborhood and not the borough/ county name, such as “Astoria, NY” or “Jamaica, NY”.

Similar to LA, but I think even here in LA, it’s mainly the neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley portion of the city have their own addresses distinct from the city, such as Van Nuys, Tarzana, and North Hollywood. Hollywood itself, although a neighborhood within the basin portion of LA city, also has the address “Hollywood, CA”.

Edit: looks like folks in the last page already explained these nuances, but I will still keep my post here lol

You can actually still put in Los Angeles and the mail will get delivered to the correct place. I believe the zip code is the most important thing on the letter. I live within the city of LA, specifically the neighborhood of Valley Glen in the San Fernando Valley. I have received mail with just Los Angeles as the city which is correct, but rarely this is how my mail is addressed. I noticed some cases when I ordered something online and put in my zip code there it just shows up as LA.

The other funny thing is Valley Glen isn’t that well known, it was established years later and part of it used to be Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, so it’s not uncommon for my mail to be addressed with these neighborhoods names. Most of the time it’s Van Nuys, then Sherman Oaks, and rarely N.H.. I believe the Valley Glen neighborhood formed to separate themselves from the negative reputation of Van Nuys, and North Hollywood and protect their property values. The same thing happened in a lot of neighborhoods in the Valley. July some other examples, West Hills used to be part of Canoga Park, and other parts of C.P. is marketed as The Warner Center because they are full of high end new apartments that don’t want to associate with being part of Canoga Park. Lake Balboa also used to be part of Van Nuys, but now these separations are the nicer parts of the former districts.

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

I noticed the address thing in metro Omaha as well - I was doing some permitting research and couldn't figure out what the mailing address was supposed to be at a location within a municipality (not Omaha) in Sarpy county - address came up as Omaha.

Hmm, that's kind of odd. Usually addresses in Sarpy County municipalities use the city name. That said, I wonder if the property was recently annexed into a municipality. The unincorporated development in the northwest part of the county usually has an Omaha address and Nebraska has somewhat unique annexation laws and norms where municipalities typically annex new territory after it's been developed. Perhaps out of convenience they left the street address intact from its unincorporated days. The City of Omaha annexed the City of Elkhorn like 15-20 years ago, yet addresses there still use Elkhorn as the "city." But then even newer development, like my sister's house, which was built maybe four years ago in a new subdivision, has an Elkhorn address.

[ChrisLA]

It was back in 1990 when I lived in Chicago, but I don’t recall a lot of the neighborhoods being that well known. I think most people would just say they live in Chicago, but I could be wrong. For example I lived in Edgewater, and I didn’t even know that was the name of the neighborhood until I actually moved back to California. Usually most of the people I worked with would either say they lived on the north side, west side or south side. Some would mention specifically Hyde Park and Wrigleyville. Again I could be wrong in my limited knowledge since I was a transplant. This was just my personal experience that a specific neighborhood wasn’t mentioned, it was north, south or west, and downtown/loop.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

You can actually still put in Los Angeles and the mail will get delivered to the correct place. I believe the zip code is the most important thing on the letter. I live within the city of LA, specifically the neighborhood of Valley Glen in the San Fernando Valley.

Howdy, neighbor! I'm in Valley Village!

The other funny thing is Valley Glen isn’t that well known, it was established years later and part of it used to be Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, so it’s not uncommon for my mail to be addressed with these neighborhoods names. Most of the time it’s Van Nuys, then Sherman Oaks, and rarely N.H.. I believe the Valley Glen neighborhood formed to separate themselves from the negative reputation of Van Nuys, and North Hollywood and protect their property values. The same thing happened in a lot of neighborhoods in the Valley. July some other examples, West Hills used to be part of Canoga Park, and other parts of C.P. is marketed as The Warner Center because they are full of high end new apartments that don’t want to associate with being part of Canoga Park. Lake Balboa also used to be part of Van Nuys, but now these separations are the nicer parts of the former districts.

Yeah, Valley Village was once part of North Hollywood, too. The area was renamed before North Hollywood started gentrifying, especially the parts near the Metro station.

When I lived on Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys, I tried addressing something to my address using only "Los Angeles." It was returned to sender because there was an identical address somewhere on the West Side, and while nobody really makes the distinction, technically, one stretch is North Sepulveda and the other is South Sepulveda.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

It was back in 1990 when I lived in Chicago, but I don’t recall a lot of the neighborhoods being that well known. I think most people would just say they live in Chicago, but I could be wrong. For example I lived in Edgewater, and I didn’t even know that was the name of the neighborhood until I actually moved back to California. Usually most of the people I worked with would either say they lived on the north side, west side or south side. Some would mention specifically Hyde Park and Wrigleyville. Again I could be wrong in my limited knowledge since I was a transplant. This was just my personal experience that a specific neighborhood wasn’t mentioned, it was north, south or west, and downtown/loop.

Not knowing your chicago neighborgood is a textbook transplant thing.

People born and raised in the city know their hood.

Chicago is one of the most well known neighborhood cities around. The University of Chicago made sure of that.

[mhays]

It feels odd to have neighborhoods that aren't based primarily on topography -- relationship to a waterfront, a hill, a valley, etc.

That is my decree, along with not using reinvented neighborhood names devised by business groups. It's Lower Queen Anne and not the millionth "Uptown" god damn it.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mhays

It feels odd to have neighborhoods that aren't based primarily on topography

Not all places have topography.

It would be odd AF to have a city the size of chicago not broken up into neighborhoods.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Not knowing your chicago neighborgood is a textbook transplant thing.

People born and raised in the city know their hood.

Chicago is one of the most well known neighborhood cities around. The University of Chicago made sure of that.

I stand corrected, I’ll admit I’m limited in what I know about Chicago. I only knew what some of my colleagues would say. I have relatives (sort of they are kin to my nephew, older brother ex) who are natives to Chicago and go back a few generations. I guess you can say they are by-coastal (lol) because they move back and forth between LA and Chicago every two to three years. They are a bit strange, but they seem to only know of the neighborhoods they grew up in which they just say the south side of Chicago, Hyde Park, and Streeterville. To them anything north of the loop/downtown is just the north side, and don’t even mention the west side, they are terrified, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I been in the car with them when they got lost. They were taking me Ohare and somehow ended up on the streets and just about had a seizure.

My nephew has an uncle on his mom side who owns two condos in the same building in Streeterville just across the street from the Aqua, it’s a nice location I certainly wouldn’t have a problem living there. I get the feeling most of the residents are transplants, but I like that it’s close to a lot of things.

Again they might not be the typical native because they are back and forth, and I grew up with them here in LA, but they have deep roots in Chicago. They have a lot of connections and are the type of people that mingled in the circle with Obama before he became the president and worked in partnership with Jesse Jackson son.

I would add that many of my colleagues seem to not know alot about their own city. Only four of us lived on the north side and the rest from the south side. Every Monday they like to ask me what sites in the city I would visit, and would often comment I had visited more areas of the city than they ever did there whole life living in Chicago. I guess we are a different breed, because it’s really not that much different than people in LA.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by craigs

Howdy, neighbor! I'm in Valley Village!



Yeah, Valley Village was once part of North Hollywood, too. The area was renamed before North Hollywood started gentrifying, especially the parts near the Metro station.

When I lived on Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys, I tried addressing something to my address using only "Los Angeles." It was returned to sender because there was an identical address somewhere on the West Side, and while nobody really makes the distinction, technically, one stretch is North Sepulveda and the other is South Sepulveda.

Hey neighbor, I like Valley Village it’s a nice neighborhood. I was in the west valley for quite a while and ended up purchasing a place in the east valley a few years ago. There are things I miss about Woodland Hills, specifically the Warner Center but I much prefer this side of town now. It’s much easier to get to LA, downtown, west side and I like the option of public transportation near by. I was close to the G line in Woodland Hills as well but it was a little bit of a journey to reach the subway in North Hollywood. I’ll take Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Valley Village, and Toluca Lake over anything in the west valley.

[New Brisavoine]

This is a very US topic. In Europe and most of the rest of the world, municipalities belong to one upper division and one only.

In France the only exception is the municipality of Poya, in New Caledonia (something only geography buffs like me know). The largest part of that municipality belongs to the Kanak-dominated North province, whereas a smaller part of that municipality belongs to the European-dominated South Province. That's because of a racial divide in the municipality, with the north of the municipality being inhabited more by pro-independence tribal Kanaks, whereas the south of the municipality is inhabited more by anti-independence European stockmen (what's called "cowboys" in the US).

Both parts of the municipality share the same town hall (mairie), but depend from two different provincial administrations, which complicates matters on the ground. The entire municipality is 58.9% Kanak, 22.4% European, 5.0% Wallisians and Futunians (Polynesians who came from Wallis and Futuna), and 13.7% mixed people.



White and Kanak inhabitants of Poya demonstrating (a very French tradition even 16,000 km/10,000 miles from Paris), here against petty vandalism and social disturbances by unruly youths (they had vandalized the church, which triggered the demonstration I believe, religion being very important in New Caledonia among all ethnic groups):



This video shows aerial views of the municipality and the rest area (along the main north-south highway of New Caledonia) that is located right at the provincial border, in the middle of the municipality.

• Video Link

The stockmen culture in Poya (this would be more in the southern part, which belongs to the South Province):

• Video Link

And the Kanak tribes of Poya (this would be more in the northern part, which belongs to the North Province):

• Video Link

All ethnic groups meet for communal gatherings in the main settlement of the municipality (this is a promotional video by the town hall):

• Video Link

[craigs]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

Hey neighbor, I like Valley Village it’s a nice neighborhood. I was in the west valley for quite a while and ended up purchasing a place in the east valley a few years ago. There are things I miss about Woodland Hills, specifically the Warner Center but I much prefer this side of town now. It’s much easier to get to LA, downtown, west side and I like the option of public transportation near by. I was close to the G line in Woodland Hills as well but it was a little bit of a journey to reach the subway in North Hollywood. I’ll take Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Valley Village, and Toluca Lake over anything in the west valley.

For a while, I lived in West LA (Sawtelle-adjacent). That side of the hills is too hectic for me in my middle age, though, so I am really loving this part of the Valley. It's got everything I need and want close by--I'm a six-minute walk to Starbucks and a good Mexican seafood restaurant, for example. I'm roughly a ten-minute drive between home and the North Hollywood station for when I'm working downtown. Within 15 minutes or so, I can be on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, and as you know, the boulevard has absolutely everything under the sun. But I also like how this part of LA calms down at the end of the workday compared to neighborhoods in the Basin. It's more homey.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Not all places have topography.

It would be odd AF to have a city the size of chicago not broken up into neighborhoods.

AND it feels odd.

[Steely Dan]

AND it feels normal.