Urban secession

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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.

1 History
2 Theory of urban secession
3 Examples
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Urban autonomy has a long history back to the prehistoric urbanization and the original Mediterranean city-states of classical times, e.g. 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.

[edit] 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 do not 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 have 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.

[edit] Examples

[edit] City-states

Examples of formally seceded urban regions with full sovereignty include Singapore (from Malaysia), Monaco (from France) and the Vatican City (from Italy).

[edit] 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.

[edit] Europe

In Germany there are three cities - Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen - that are Bundesländer in themselves (thus, they are city-states within a federal system). Similarly, in Spain the city of Madrid comprises its own autonomous community, Madrid (autonomous community).

[edit] North America

The nation-states of North America are either federal nation-states (e.g., Canada, United States, Mexico), quasi-federal (e.g., Denmark - the autonomous province of Kalaallit Nunaat or Greenland is in North America), or unitary states (the nation-states of Central America and the Caribbean, including France and the Netherlands, which have colonial or territorial entities in North America; likewise United Kingdom, but Britain is quasi-federal).

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 are subject to the direct authority, respectively, of the U.S. and Mexican federal governments. The residents of Washington, DC, for example, did not have the right to elect their own mayor and city council until 1972, when 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.

[edit] Canada

Urban secession is one of many possible solutions pondered by some Canadian cities as they contemplate their problems. It is one that is 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, e.g. 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.

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.

[edit] 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 are 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.

Certain cities are metropolitan municipalities - they have 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, and New York City. New York, in particular, is co-extensive with five counties.