Portal:Cities

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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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Historic centre of Pisa on the Arno

Pisa (/ˈpiːzə/ PEE-zə; Italian: [ˈpiːza] ^ⓘ or [ˈpiːsa]) is a city and comune (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics.

The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. (Full article...)

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... that actress Agnes Mapes had to improvise a complex choreographed dance from basic poses for the 1907 play The Holy City?
... that the city council of Bandung in the Dutch East Indies initially met at the site of a former coffee-packing factory?
... that in the 1909 election to the city council of Surabaya, less than 1 percent of the population was enrolled to vote?
... that floods across New York City in September 2023 allowed a sea lion to escape her enclosure at the Central Park Zoo?
... that in November 2022, Leicester City Council used the Food Act 1984 in combination with a royal charter of 1199 to levy a charge on the organisers of two Christmas light switching-on events?
... that the African Union has set up a space agency in a Space City?

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

Hillsboro (/ˈhɪlzbəroʊ/ ^ⓘ HILZ-burr-oh) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, such as Intel, locally known as the Silicon Forest. The population was 106,447 at the 2020 census, making Hillsboro the fifth-most populous city in Oregon.

Settlers founded a community here in 1842, later named after David Hill, an Oregon politician. Transportation by riverboat on the Tualatin River was part of Hillsboro's settler economy. A railroad reached the area in the early 1870s and an interurban electric railway about four decades later. These railways, as well as highways, aided the slow growth of the city to about 2,000 people by 1910 and about 5,000 by 1950, before the arrival of high-tech companies in the 1980s. (Full article...)

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Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities after the area's two largest cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

Minneapolis sits mostly on the west side of the Mississippi River on lake-covered terrain. Although most of the city is residential neighborhoods, it has a business-dominated downtown area with some historic industrial areas, the Mill District and the North Loop area. Saint Paul, which sits mostly on the east side of the river, has a smaller business district, many tree-lined neighborhoods, and a large collection of late-Victorian architecture. Both cities, and the surrounding smaller cities, feature lakes, hills, and creeks. (Full article...)

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

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Environment	Climate change Green urbanism Sustainable city Sustainable urbanism Sustainable Development Goal 11 Urban heat island Urban ecology

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Historical	World Europe
Related articles	Arcology Ecumenopolis Global city Megacity Megalopolis Conurbation Satellite city population Primate city Secondary city