why aren't un-incorporated communities in california called towns? (Roseville, Porterville: moving to, design)

[the city]

why is there just cities and un-incorporated communities (census designated places and census tracts) in california? why no villages or townships?

i think it would be so much easier to call un-incorporated communities villages or towns.

[bhcompy]

Because that's an east coast(or even european) thing. They aren't villages or townships. They're just places. I might call something like Solvang a village, but that's because it looks like a village.

[the city]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

Because that's an east coast(or even european) thing. They aren't villages or townships. They're just places. I might call something like Solvang a village, but that's because it looks like a village.

So we have cities and communties also known as places? why not call a community or place a town though? and make it simple.

West Coast:
-city
-community/place

East Coast
-city
-township
-village (within villages are hamlets)

[Majin]

Because there are no towns on the west coast it's just one continious suburb from the washington/canadian border to mexico.

[bhcompy]

Rossmoor is an unincorporated community, and goes by such. Village or Township indicates some kind of formality(infact the US census classifies a Village or Town as an incorporated place because they have in place governments and various states, such as many northeastern states, have townships, villages, etc as a formal designation for an incorporated community), and there is no formality to an unincorporated area. An unincorporated community in CA is just that. It has no official government and all services are provided by the county or contracted with a nearby city.

[Charles]

That's interesting that there aren't too many cities/place names ending in "ville" in California (Porterville is one.) When me moved to Huntsville my native California wife sighed and said 'We're moving to a "ville"': so plain, so fly over state, so generic, no spices, pickup trucks, no diversity, so boring. She's sort of right.

[the city]

so i guess there are cities/towns and un-incorporated communities in west coast. and cities and townships and villages and hamlets in east coast.

ugh, but i wish un-incorporated community were called something else. and the fact that town is another word for city is also annoying. town usually referring to smaller cities.

i just refer to my hometown then as a community near the nearest city or as a town.

[mrsltd]

Originally Posted by Charles

That's interesting that there aren't too many cities/place names ending in "ville" in California (Porterville is one.) When me moved to Huntsville my native California wife sighed and said 'We're moving to a "ville"': so plain, so fly over state, so generic, no spices, pickup trucks, no diversity, so boring. She's sort of right.

Such "villes" as there are in California are either in the central or northern sections, such as:

Porterville (already mentioned)
Susanville (Lassen Co.)
Cedarville (Alturas Co.)
Roseville (Placer Co.)
Garberville (Humboldt Co.)
Guerneville (Sonoma Co.)

I am trying to think of some in the Southland but haven't as of yet...

Amazing, that the term "-ville" is from the French, who at one time in many parts of the world were considered THE standard for that which is sophisticated. Now any town in USA with a "ville" is considered blah. I wonder how that happened. Perhaps too many of them?

[Curmudgeon]

Because California prefers to have "hoods!"

[EscapeCalifornia]

We don't have a lot of bergs either unless it was named after a berg back east. Everything here is named after a Catholic saint in Spanish. You don't see much of that in New England.