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P:CITY

A city is a human settlement of a notable size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agreed definition of the lower boundary for their size. In a more narrow sense, a city can be defined as a permanent and densely settled place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations, and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving the efficiency of goods and service distribution.

Historically, city dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization, more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for global sustainability. Present-day cities usually form the core of larger metropolitan areas and urban areas—creating numerous commuters traveling toward city centres for employment, entertainment, and education. However, in a world of intensifying globalization, all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions. This increased influence means that cities also have significant influences on global issues, such as sustainable development, climate change, and global health. Because of these major influences on global issues, the international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11. Due to the efficiency of transportation and the smaller land consumption, dense cities hold the potential to have a smaller ecological footprint per inhabitant than more sparsely populated areas. Therefore, compact cities are often referred to as a crucial element in fighting climate change. However, this concentration can also have significant negative consequences, such as forming urban heat islands, concentrating pollution, and stressing water supplies and other resources. (Full article...)

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Panorama of the city centre from the Mont des Arts/Kunstberg

The City of Brussels is the largest municipality and historical centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the Flemish Region (from which it is separate) and Belgium. The City of Brussels is also the administrative centre of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions in its European Quarter.

Besides the central historic town located within the Pentagon, the City of Brussels covers some of the city's immediate outskirts within the greater Brussels-Capital Region, namely the former municipalities of Haren, Laeken, and Neder-Over-Heembeek to the north, as well as the Avenue Louise/Louizalaan and the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos park to the south-east, where it borders municipalities in Flanders. (Full article...)

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... that the city council of Bandung in the Dutch East Indies initially met at the site of a former coffee-packing factory?
... that the Hotel Normandie supported the Leaders of the World?
... that during its fifteen-year existence, the New York City Tribune had its highest circulation during a newspaper strike?
... that Ask la Cour, who came from Denmark, only planned to perform with the New York City Ballet for a few years, but spent two decades there and became a principal dancer?
... that Central City College was established as an African American-led alternative to the historically black Atlanta Baptist College?
... that the 1919 Rockwood & Company shipping department fire in New York City led to a flood of chocolate and butter sufficient to "float a rowboat for two blocks along Flushing Avenue"?

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

View over central Skopje with the Vardar river

Skopje (/ˈskɒpjeɪ/ SKOP-yay, US also /ˈskoʊpjeɪ/ SKOHP-yay; Macedonian: Скопје [ˈskɔpjɛ] ^ⓘ; Albanian: Shkup, Albanian definite form: Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. Skopje lies in the Skopje Basin.

Scupi is attested for the first time in the second century AD as a city in Roman Dardania. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. In 1004, when it was seized by the Byzantine Empire, the city became a centre of a new province called Bulgaria. From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire and was its capital city from 1346 to 1371. (Full article...)

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Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also mean population growth in urban areas instead of rural ones. It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas.

Although the two concepts are sometimes used interchangeably, urbanization should be distinguished from urban growth. Urbanization refers to the proportion of the total national population living in areas classified as urban, whereas urban growth strictly refers to the absolute number of people living in those areas. It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized. This is predicted to generate artificial scarcities of land, lack of drinking water, playgrounds and so on for most urban dwellers. The predicted urban population growth is equivalent to approximately 3 billion urbanites by 2050, much of which will occur in Africa and Asia. Notably, the United Nations has also recently projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be by cities, with about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 10 years. In the long term, urbanization is expected to significantly impact the quality of life in negative ways. (Full article...)

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Image 1Glasgow slum in 1871 (from History of cities)
Image 2The "Great Colonnade" marks the cardo maximus of Apamea, Syria. (from History of cities)
Image 3Palmanova, Italy, constructed in 1593 according to the defensive ideal of the star fort, today retains its distinctive geometry. (from History of cities)
Image 4View of the Agora of Athens with the temple of Hephaestus to the left and the Stoa of Attalos to the right (from History of cities)
Image 5The Avenue of the Dead in Teotihuacan originates with the Pyramid of the Moon, forming the basis of the city grid. (from History of cities)
Image 6This woodcut shows Nuremberg as a prototype of a flourishing and independent city in the 15th century. (from History of cities)
Image 7Mohenjo-daro, a World Heritage Site that was part of the Indus Valley civilization (from History of cities)
Image 8The city of Arbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has a radial urban structure centred on an ancient fortress (from Urban structure)
Image 9New York City, one of the largest urban areas in the world (from Urban geography)
Image 10A poster from the EPA entitled "Soak Up the Rain with Green Infrastructure." The poster depicts various green infrastructure that can be effective in preventing floods. (from Urban geography)
Image 11Daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng (from History of cities)
Image 12The Round city of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq (from History of cities)
Image 13Aerial photograph shows the remains of the Sumerian city Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. (from History of cities)
Image 14Constantinople, the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th through the 12th century (from History of cities)
Image 15Gdańsk in the 17th century (from History of cities)
Image 16A map showing the world energy consumption per capita based on 2013 data from the World Bank. (from Urban geography)
Image 17Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley civilization of ancient India (from History of cities)
Image 18Excavated foundations of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. An Anatolian town dated to 7000 BCE. (from History of cities)
Image 19Cain founding the city of Enoch (from History of cities)

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