Portal:Cities

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P:CITY

A city is a human settlement of a substantial 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 narrower sense, a city can be defined as a permanent and densely populated 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 some significant harmful effects, such as forming urban heat islands, concentrating pollution, and stressing water supplies and other resources. (Full article...)

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Skyline of downtown Toronto and the CN Tower

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. As of 2024, the census metropolitan area had an estimated population of 7,106,379. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Indigenous peoples have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by American troops. York was renamed and incorporated in 1834 as the city of Toronto. It was designated as the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation. The city proper has since expanded past its original limits through both annexation and amalgamation to its current area of 630.2 km² (243.3 sq mi). (Full article...)

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... that Hurricane Henri, a minimal category 1 hurricane, set a rainfall record in New York City's Central Park?
... that in the 1980s, New York City's St. Regis Hotel was said to have hosted every U.S. president since its opening?
... that in 1917 more than 8,000 African Americans protested lynchings by marching down New York City's Fifth Avenue in silence, accompanied only by the sound of muffled drums?
... that graffiti artist Al Diaz cuts up New York metro signs and reconfigures the letters into his own text?
... that the book A City on Mars covers sex in space, raising children in low gravity, space law, and space cannibalism?
... that New York City's Lexington Hotel banned tipping when it opened?

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Virginia Beach Oceanfront

Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic and the 42nd-most populous city in the U.S. with a population of 459,470 at the 2020 census. Virginia Beach is a principal city in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.

Virginia Beach is a resort city with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists who eventually settled in Jamestown; modern Virginia Beach was established in 1906. It is home to several state parks, protected beaches, and military bases. Virginia Wesleyan University, Regent University, Christian Broadcasting Network, the U.S. headquarters of Stihl, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment are based in Virginia Beach. It also hosts the annual East Coast Surfing Championships and Neptune Festival. (Full article...)

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The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC or with that by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.

The largest cities of the Bronze Age Near East housed several tens of thousands of people. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age, with some 30,000 inhabitants, was the largest city of the time by far. Ebla is estimated to have had a population of 40,000 inhabitants in the Intermediate Bronze age. Ur in the Middle Bronze Age is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants; Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had a population of some 50,000–60,000. Niniveh had some 20,000–30,000, reaching 100,000 only in the Iron Age (around 700 BC). (Full article...)

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Image 1A 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 2Aerial photograph shows the remains of the Sumerian city Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. (from History of cities)
Image 3New York City, one of the largest urban areas in the world (from Urban geography)
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 5Constantinople, the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th through the 12th century (from History of cities)
Image 6Excavated foundations of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. An Anatolian town dated to 7000 BCE. (from History of cities)
Image 7Glasgow slum in 1871 (from History of cities)
Image 8The Round city of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq (from History of cities)
Image 9The "Great Colonnade" marks the cardo maximus of Apamea, Syria. (from History of cities)
Image 10Cain founding the city of Enoch (from History of cities)
Image 11Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization of ancient India (from History of cities)
Image 12Palmanova, Italy, constructed in 1593 according to the defensive ideal of the star fort, today retains its distinctive geometry. (from History of cities)
Image 13Gdańsk in the 17th century (from History of cities)
Image 14The 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 15This woodcut shows Nuremberg as a prototype of a flourishing and independent city in the 15th century. (from History of cities)
Image 16Mohenjo-daro, a World Heritage Site that was part of the Indus Valley Civilization (from History of cities)
Image 17Daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng (from History of cities)
Image 18A map showing the world energy consumption per capita based on 2013 data from the World Bank. (from Urban geography)
Image 19The city of Arbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has a radial urban structure centred on an ancient fortress (from Urban structure)

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v t e Cities
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Urban planning	History of urban planning Theories of urban planning Technical aspects of urban planning Urban planners Zoning Mixed-use development Urban design Grid plan Concentric zone model Sector model Multiple nuclei model Linear city Land use Smart city
Urban population	World's largest cities throughout history Most densely populated cities Most populous national capitals Most populous satellite cities
Urbanism	Urban warfare Urban studies Urban morphology Urban culture Urban sociology Anti-urbanism Urban exploration Urban homesteading Unitary urbanism
Environment	Climate change Green urbanism Sustainable city Sustainable urbanism Sustainable Development Goal 11 Urban heat island Urban ecology

v t e World's largest cities
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Metropolitan area	Americas (North South West Indies) Europe (European Union Nordic) Asia Africa Middle East
Urban area/agglomeration	Asia Africa Europe European Union Nordic North America Oceania Transborder
Historical	World Europe
Related articles	Arcology Ecumenopolis Global city Megacity Megalopolis Conurbation Satellite city population Primate city Secondary city