Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm confused about the municipal level gov't in NYC. Are all 5 boroughs located within the incorporated city limits of NYC -or- is each boraough it's own incorporated city?
As far as I can tell, each borough is basically its own county, but they don't have any county government set up, only the local borough government. Each borough is not its own city, they are parts of NYC.
NY State has a weird county/town/village system of local government that maybe is why NYC is split into several boroughs. Does anyone know if any other states other than NY have a county/town/village sort of system or where NY got it from?
As far as I can tell, each borough is basically its own county, but they don't have any county government set up, only the local borough government. Each borough is not its own city, they are parts of NYC.
NY State has a weird county/town/village system of local government that maybe is why NYC is split into several boroughs. Does anyone know if any other states other than NY have a county/town/village sort of system or where NY got it from?
The NYC thing is different from what goes on in the counties of NYS outside NYC. The five boroughs are, since 1898, all one city. One mayor, one city council, one NYPD and one FDNY.
Before the consolidation in 1898, "New York City" was only Manhattan and "New York County" at that time included Manhattan and the Bronx. Brooklyn was a separate city, coterminous with Kings County. Queens County (Queens) contained a number of cities and villages. It is largely for this reason that Queens mailing addresses follow the neighborhood (e.g. "Forest Hills, NY" or "Bayside, NY") rather than "Queens, NY." Richmond County (Staten Island) was largely rural with some small villages in it.
In 1898, modern greater "New York City" was formed by combining the five present day boros. Manhattan and the Bronx were two boros within New York County from 1898 until 1914, when the Bronx became a separate county, Bronx County. So from 1898 to 1914, NYC had five boros in four counties. Since 1914, each boro has been its own county. It's unusual in that usually a city is within a county, rather than having multiple counties make up one city.
Within NYC there aren't really county governments (e.g. there's only one sheriff's office and one elections board for all of NYC), but the state does use the county designations for the court system (e.g. the Supreme Court of State of New York for Kings County). Each borough also has a borough president and staff. Borough presidents don't have the power they used to have when the Board of Estimate (mayor and boro presidents) governed NYC, rather than a city council with roughly equal-sized districts.
Outside NYC, NYS does have a bizarre system. All the land in each county is split into towns or cities, but small areas within a town can petition to become an incorporated "village." Thus Nassau County on Long Island has the Town of Hempstead, the Town of North Hempstead, the Town of Oyster Bay, the City of Long Beach and the City of Glen Cove. That's it. But within the towns are literally dozens of incorporated villages. Some have their own police, etc., others don't. The school district and zip code lines don't exactly match the village lines either, so you could live "in" the village of East Rockaway with a Rockville Centre address and Lynbrook schools. Unlike within NYC, county governments do a lot in the other counties of NYS.
NYS's system is unusual for the northeast. It's not common to have villages incorporated within larger towns. In the south, really starting in Maryland, the county is the predominant form of local government and much of the land within the counties isn't incorporated into any city or town at all. So a lot of the "town" names people have heard of in the DC suburbs, like Bethesda or Silver Spring, have really no town government at all. In the western metro areas it's similar except there seem to be more incorporated areas. It's often very hard to know if you're in an incorporated city or some unincorporated part of the county. And in the south and west it's fairly common for large cities to annex whatever's next to them.
All five boroughs are fully incorporated into the City of New York... A borough is basically a county in which everything is unified... Everything in the County of Queens is unified into the city of New York... Same as the County of Kings, Richmond, Bronx, and New York... Where as Nassau County or Westchester County have cities, villages, and towns and are not unified
A borough is basically a county in which everything is unified...
While each of the 5 New York City boroughs are coterminous with each of 5 different New York State counties, a borough is not a county.
Boroughs are basically administrative districts of New York City while counties are political sub-divisions of New York State:
......Borough............County
......Manhattan.........New York
......Staten Island.....Richmond
......Brooklyn...........Kings
......the Bronx..........Bronx
......Queens............Queens
In 1974, the Borough of Richmond was renamed Staten Island.
Additionally, the 5 counties that are jointly coterminous with New York State are vestigial counties, with only a few county responsibilities, such as a Supreme Court and a Surrogate's Court.
What leads to much of the confusion about New York City is the fact that the majority of addresses in New York City are not "New York, NY".
The U.S. Postal Service has divided the City of New York into 7+ postal cities: New York (covers Manhattan and the Bronx), Staten Island, Brooklyn (covers most of Brooklyn and parts of northwest and southwest Queens), Long Island City (most of the original Town of Newtown in Queens), Flushing (includes all of the original Town of Flushing and parts of the Town of Newtown in Queens and also part of what was Town of Bushwick in Brooklyn), Jamaica (most of the original Town of Jamaica in Queens and a small area in what was the East New York section of the Town of New Lots in Brooklyn) and Far Rockaway (in Queens). (Additionally, a few small areas in the Bronx are serviced by post offices located in Westchester County and hence have "Westchester" mailing addresses, such as "Yonkers, NY", "Pelham Manor, NY", etc.)
The U.S. Postal Service has divided the City of New York into 7+ postal cities...
...Although you can tell what's what within the city by zip code prefixes:
100, 101, 102...Manhattan
103...Staten Island
104...Bronx
111,113,114,116...Queens (indicating a holdover from the original towns that eventually became Queens County--111 is Long Island City, 113 is Flushing, 114 is Jamaica and 116 is the Rockaways)
112...Brooklyn (which, alone among the four "outer boroughs" had been an independent municipality, from 1834 to 1898).
...Although you can tell what's what within the city by zip code prefixes: ...
If they are all in New York City, then they should all be "New York, NY" with the appropriate ZIP Code postal zone.
While the USPS instructs everyone that a place's mailing address is "City/Town, State and ZIP Code", what they really mean is "Postal City/Postal Town, Postal State and ZIP Code".
A "Postal City" and "Postal Town" is an administrative district established by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail. "Postal City" and "Postal Town" may not (but are encouraged to) conform to municipal or community borders. Thus, postal zone location does not always determine city, village or hamlet location; and, in many areas of New York State, as well as in many parts of the U.S., the problem of non-conforming postal zones leads to a situation where the majority of places have a different community name in their mailing address, such as in New York City, than the community where that place is actually located.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Geography & Governmental Organization of NYC
