Everything about Urban Autonomy totally explained
Urban secession is a city's
secession from its surrounding region, to form a new political unit. This new unit is usually a
subdivision of the same
country as its surroundings, but in some cases, full
sovereignty may be attained, often referred to as
city-states. It is an extreme form of urban autonomy, which can be expressed in less formal terms or with ordinary legislation such as a
City Charter.
History
Urban autonomy has a long history back to the prehistoric
urbanization and the original Mediterranean
city-states of classical times, for example
Ancient Athens,
Ancient Rome. In medieval times such measures as the
Magdeburg rights established special status for cities and their residents in commercial relations. In general it receded as European cities were incorporated into
nation-states especially in the
17th century to
20th century, eventually losing many special rights.
Theory of urban secession
Modern theorists of local civic economies, including
Robert J. Oakerson and
Jane Jacobs, argue that cities reflect a clash of values, especially of tolerances versus preferences, with views of the city varying from a pure community to that of a pure marketplace. Suburbanites have a strong tendency to view the city as a marketplace since they don't participate in its street life voluntarily, nor do they consider the city to be a safe and comfortable place to live in. By contrast, those who choose downtown living tend to see it as more of a community, but must pay careful attention to their tolerances (for
smog,
noise pollution,
crime,
taxation, etc.).
Ethics and thus politics of these interest groups vastly differ.
Secession (the setup of entirely new legislative and executive entities) is advocated by certain urban theorists, notably
Jane Jacobs, as the only way to deal politically with these vast differences in culture between modern cities and even their nearest suburbs and essential watersheds. As she says: "Cities that wish to thrive in the next century must separate politically from their surrounding regions." She rejects the lesser "Charter" and less formal solutions, arguing the full structure of real regional government is necessary, and applied to the urban area alone. In particular she rejects the idea that suburban regions should have any say over the rules in the city: they've left it, and aren't part of it. Jacobs herself lived in an urban neighborhood (
The Annex, Toronto) which would have been obliterated in the 1970s by a highway project to serve the suburbs, the
Spadina Expressway, had she and her allies not stopped it. Jacobs likewise stopped the development of the
Cross-Manhattan Expressway in the
1960s, opposing
Robert Moses. These freeways are examples of the clash of urban community versus suburban market interests. In these two cases, 'community' won, but the deciding factor in both was most likely Jacobs herself.
Advocates of highway development and suburban participation in urban government theorize that cities which protect themselves from the suburbs, forcing them to become self-sufficient small towns, cutting off the freeways, forcing
commuters into subways, etc., are committing suicide by forcing business out into the suburbs. Advocates respond that cities depend more on their
quality of life to attract migrants and professionals, and that
telecommuting makes it possible for workers in the city to live anywhere, coming into town less frequently, without the rush.
Examples
City-states
Examples of formally seceded urban regions with full sovereignty include
Singapore (from
Malaysia),
Monaco (from
France) and the
Vatican City (from
Italy).
Asia
In both
South Korea and
North Korea,
special cities are independent from their surrounding provinces and city-states under direct governance from the central government. Examples are
Seoul,
Busan,
Daegu,
Incheon,
Gwangju,
Daejeon and
Ulsan in South Korea and
Pyongyang and
Rason in North Korea. In South Korea, the main criterion for granting secession from the province is population reaching one million.
Europe
In
Germany there are three cities—
Berlin,
Bremen, and
Hamburg—that are
Bundesländer in themselves (thus, they're city-states within a federal system). The city of
Vienna is a
federal state within the Republic of
Austria. The
Brussels capital region, a densely built-up area consisting of 19 communes including the capital city
Brussels, became one of
Belgium's three
regions after the country was turned into a federation in 1970.
North America
There are no city-states in North America. Some would apply that classification to
Washington, D.C. in America or
Distrito Federal in Mexico - but these are federal government districts, not ordinary municipalities. As such, they're subject to the direct authority, respectively, of the U.S. and Mexican federal governments. The residents of Washington, DC, for example, didn't have the right to elect their own
mayor and
city council until
1972, when the
United States Congress extended home rule to the city. But the actions of the mayor and city council must still be approved, at least retroactively, by the Congress; and no legislation passed by the Government of the District of Columbia can take effect until and unless the U.S. Congress approves it.
Canada
Urban secession is one of many possible solutions pondered by some Canadian cities as they contemplate their problems. It is one that's considered politically useful because of the strong
secessionist movement in Quebec, as well as the weaker secessionist movements in
Newfoundland (formerly independent),
Alberta and
British Columbia.
However, urban secession movements, for example, the
Province of Toronto are more than bargaining tactics. There is a robust theory of why a city should be at least partially independent of surrounding regions, going back to
Classical Rome, 17th-century
London, 18th-century
Amsterdam and other centers of commercial activity. Comparisons focused on the modern nation-state and its relationships to the more traditional
feudal city-state government.
In Quebec, with a secessionist movement and linguistic dichotomy, the
division of a newly independent Quebec has been a strong undercurrent, with some having a
Province of Montreal remaining in Canada, sometimes containing only the
West Island and the
West Shore of Montreal.
For many decades, the urban communities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have been configured separately from their respective provinces, for purposes of apportioning Members of Parliament after the national censuses conducted every five years.
United States
In the
United States, cities are municipal corporations with such autonomy as the government of the state confers upon them (general law city) or which the state permits the city to confer upon itself (charter city). In most states, cities (most of which are charter cities) are located within one or more counties but they're not answerable to county government (which is simply an administrative organ of state government); nor to township government (which is simply an administrative division of the county). In the Commonwealth of
Virginia, however, all cities are "independent cities" - which means they relate and report to the commonwealth (state) government as if they were a county unto themselves; outside of Virginia,
Baltimore, Maryland and
St. Louis, Missouri are also independent cities and de facto counties.
Certain cities are
metropolitan municipalities - they've consolidated city and county governments, making them simultaneously municipal corporations subject to the sovereignty of the state, and administrative divisions which exercise the sovereignty of the state. Well-known metropolitan municipalities in the United States include
San Francisco,
Denver,
Philadelphia,
Louisville, Kentucky, and
New York City. New York, in particular, is co-extensive with five counties.
Further Information
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