Ugly city boundaries

[Bacon King]

I figure this will make an interesting thread; Georgia (along with other states, of course) has really lax laws governing how a city can expand its boundaries, resulting in some grotesque boundary maps. For your amusement, here are some of the worst offenders that I know of (others are welcome to contribute, of course).

My hometown of Auburn, Georgia:


Jefferson, GA: (actually juts a good bit further to the west along the red ine road)


Sugar Hill, GA: (I couldn't get a good image showing the entire city, but this patchwork exists along the entire perimeter)


Dawsonville, GA:

[All Along The Watchtower]

San Jose, CA (the shaded red is the city of San Jose)

[Hash]

In Canada, Montreal is the one with the best known ugly boundaries thanks to demergers:



In Spain, there's lot of stuff like this (eg: Donostia)

[Hatman 🍁]

the only one in Ontario I can think of is Greenstone



Not the best map (I created it), but I couldn't find anything else.

[Verily]

Why did Montreal-Est demerge from Montreal? The rest I understand, all being wealthy and heavily Anglophone, but as far as I am aware, Montreal-Est is neither.

And, to keep this post on topic... South Hackensack, NJ (in red on the county map). It looks that way because Teterboro, Moonachie, Hasbrouck Heights, Wood-Ridge and Little Ferry all incorporated during Boroughitis, leaving the Township of South Hackensack split into three parts. The southeastern sliver is all industrial, while most of the population lives in the northeastern portion. Most of the western portion is taken up by a cemetery, but there are a few residents.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Liechtenstein has ridiculous and illogical town borders for a joke country:

The capital of Vaduz:


Largest city of Schaan (which has about 5600 people):

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

Columbus, OH.

[RBH]

Missouri reporting in

Kansas City



Nevada, MO (the limbs are the municipal airport and a park)



Higginsville (the tail goes down MO13 to I70)

[Bacon King]

Why did Montreal-Est demerge from Montreal? The rest I understand, all being wealthy and heavily Anglophone, but as far as I am aware, Montreal-Est is neither.

It's apparently a big hub for the oil industry, which might have something to do with it. Montreal-Est has four of Montreal's six petrochemical plants, and two of the city's three commercial refineries (with the third one barely out of the city).

Montreal-Est also refused to rename its stretch of Dorchester Blvd. to René Lévesque Blvd., so I assume there's some hostility to separatism as well.

[Verily]

Why did Montreal-Est demerge from Montreal? The rest I understand, all being wealthy and heavily Anglophone, but as far as I am aware, Montreal-Est is neither.

It's apparently a big hub for the oil industry, which might have something to do with it. Montreal-Est has four of Montreal's six petrochemical plants, and two of the city's three commercial refineries (with the third one barely out of the city).

Montreal-Est also refused to rename its stretch of Dorchester Blvd. to René Lévesque Blvd., so I assume there's some hostility to separatism as well.

Can't be that much hostility to separatism; it's in the federal seat of La-Pointe-de-L'Ile, which was the Bloc's strongest seat 2004-2008, and the provincial seat of Pointe-aux-Trembles, which has been represented by a PQ MNA continuously since at least 1989 (and was 63% Oui in the 1995 referendum).

[jimrtex]

As a special bonus, a map of Houston, showing the familiar shape of a galloping hedgehog with antlers and a television antenna, as a squirrel and a hunchback man in a stovepipe hat pushing a wheelbarrow try to avoid getting bucked off.

One measure of compactness is the ratio of the perimeter squared to the area.  A circle has a normalized value of 1.00.  A square of 1.27.  A Houston-shaped 13340-gon has a value of 60.0.

This is the same as a 4-mile wide strip across Texas, a shotgun house 560 feet deep and 3 feet wide, or a one millimeter-wide filament 18.6 cm in length.

Click To Texasize

[Linus Van Pelt]

Why did Montreal-Est demerge from Montreal? The rest I understand, all being wealthy and heavily Anglophone, but as far as I am aware, Montreal-Est is neither.

I don't think there's any deep demographic reason. It looks unique when you consider only Montreal, but the PQ's municipal consolidation and the subsequent demerger process allowed by Charest were province-wide, and outside the English-speaking towns where ordinary people really were angry at the mergers, the results were basically chaotic, with low turnout, and even though most efforts failed, a random handful of French-speaking towns also demerged, of which Montreal-Est was just one. I assume that those places happened to have a strong local organization (maybe because local politicians wanted their old jobs back).

[Torie]

Yes, Columbus is hell when it comes to drawing lines respecting municipal boundaries, particularly in its southern and eastern reaches.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Doing maps for Colorado now, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Denver:

It's the whole appendage to take in the airport. There just isn't any way to get that to work right.

[Joe Republic]

Los Angeles is also an obvious one:

[afleitch]

Glasgow

[patrick1]

Glasgow

I think you forgot to read the last word.

[afleitch]

Glasgow

I think you forgot to read the last word.

You know what you say is lies

[patrick1]

Glasgow

I think you forgot to read the last word.

You know what you say is lies

Haha, just playing up on popular stereotype.  Glasgow is Paradise

[afleitch]

Glasgow

I think you forgot to read the last word.

You know what you say is lies

Haha, just playing up on popular stereotype.  Glasgow is Paradise

Well one half of it is

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Glasgow doesn't look all that nice but certainly better than most American cities like the ones listed earlier.

At least Minneapolis is a neat little rectangle.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Glasgow

I think you forgot to read the last word.

You know what you say is lies

Haha, just playing up on popular stereotype.  Glasgow is Paradise

Well one half of it is

The Blue and White half, right?

*flees*

[jimrtex]

Doing maps for Colorado now, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Denver:

It's the whole appendage to take in the airport. There just isn't any way to get that to work right.

Since Denver is also a county, its annexations also removed territory from neighboring counties, and also school districts.  Annexations in Colorado have to be approved by the land owners of the area being annexed, so once an area is developed, the residents would generally favor keeping their schools.  But developers might prefer to be in Denver since that would secure them water.  Many cities around Denver annexed territory to block Denver, and Denver tried to squeeze between them.

Now voters of the whole county from which territory is being annexed from must approve annexation from their county.   So when the new airport was built, Adams County voters had to approve the annexation.   If the annexation had failed, the airport might not have been built.  Even if their were some sort of regional organization, Denver would have resisted.   Adams County benefits since it is easier to commute from Adams County than Denver proper and there is also sales tax revenue and businesses located near the airport.

[muon2]

I'm not sure there's any good solution to make more aesthetically pleasing city boundaries. Cities are creatures of state statute and are given the ability to annex new land. Some states have county restrictions on cities, but others allow annexation across county lines. Some allow non-contiguous annexations as well.

There's a need for property owners to benefit from city services at the cost of city taxes if they so choose. Those owners will often seek the nearest city regardless of the shape of the boundaries it would create.