These officials are collectively responsible for overseeing city government, either directly or through their appointees. The City Charter defines authority. New Yorkers elect the mayor, county presidents, city council members, public defender and comptroller. The City Charter defines the authority of each official or body, including community boards, and the relationships between them.
Cross-Bronx, which is currently a major source of noise and air pollution, was built to divide working-class neighborhoods, mostly black and Latino, NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams today began a historic community-driven study to reimagine the highway that crosses the Bronx, including examining the feasibility of covering sections of the highway. Built largely in the 1950s and 1960s, the Bronx Junction divides the county and directly crosses working-class neighborhoods that are mostly black and Latino, harming local communities and economies and, at the same time, generating significant noise and air pollution that, in turn, has elevated rates of asthma and other unfair health outcomes for local residents. Formally signed last week by participating agencies, the grant to fund the “Reimagining the Cross-Bronx Expressway” study marks an unprecedented partnership at all levels of government to help repair damage to Bronx neighborhoods. The study will identify strategies to cover sections of the highway and create new open public spaces with connections for pedestrians and bicycles, reconnect communities north and south of the current highway, reduce vehicle emissions and address inequitable public health outcomes in adjacent communities, improve safety on local streets and along the corridor with a focus on ramps to enter and exit the road, and more sustainably manage cargo and other vehicle traffic.
A vestige of the Robert Moses era, the Cross-Bronx bulldozed the district with an excavator and destroyed the homes of approximately 40,000 residents. With an average of 300 diesel trucks using the road every hour and tens of thousands of cars a day traveling in each direction, the 220,000 New Yorkers who live close to the road are regularly exposed to high levels of noise and air pollution, as well as to excessive heat. Communities near the road have high rates of respiratory diseases, such as asthma and other chronic diseases. Rates of diabetes and hypertension exceed municipal rates by up to 100 and 50 percent, respectively, and each year there are approximately 100 emergency department visits for asthma and about 25 premature deaths due to traffic-related fine particles (PM2).
The New York State Constitution establishes democratically elected legislative bodies for counties, cities, towns, and villages. These legislative bodies have the power to enact local laws as necessary to provide services to their citizens and fulfill their various obligations. The county is the main administrative division of New York. There are sixty-two counties in the state.
Five of the counties are districts of New York City and have no functioning county governments. While originally created as subdivisions of the state intended to carry out state functions, counties are now considered municipal corporations with the fiscal power and capacity to provide a variety of local government services. These services generally include law enforcement and public safety, social and health services (such as Medicaid), and education (community schools and for people with special needs). Every county outside of New York City has a county seat, which is the location of the county government.
Nineteen counties operate under county statutes, while 38 operate under the general provisions of County Law. While all counties have some freedom to govern themselves, charter counties are granted greater powers of autonomy. Charter counties are Albany, Broome, Chautauqua, Chemung, Dutchess, Erie, Herkimer, Monroe, Nassau, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, Tompkins, Ulster, and Westchester. New York City has a unique system of divisions, some of which hold governmental power, see Exclusive New York City Divisions.
Cities can contain several villages and communities. If the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a post office in a village, it will often use the name of that village, as will the local fire department or elementary school. Businesses can also use the name of a village as part of their name. The United States Census Bureau, with the consideration of the city, will designate a census-designated place (CDP) that may use the name of one or more villages, although the boundaries may differ from those used by the zip code, the local fire department, etc.
Even though villages are not cities or towns, many of them are mentioned in the formal addresses of residents who reside within the boundaries. Based on the zip code, the United States Postal Service (USPS) identifies the correct location for mail delivery. About 15% of villages cross other municipal boundaries. More than 70 towns are located in two or more cities.
Seven towns are in two counties. The town of Saranac Lake is located in three cities and two counties. Five cities are adjacent to their only village and have an adjoining form of government between city and village. The districts were originally intended to retain some of the local government in the consolidated city.
Each county individually elects a county president and used to elect two general members of the city council, in addition to those chosen based on the population of each county. Borough presidents once wielded considerable power as members of the New York City Board of Estimation, but now the position is primarily ceremonial and consultative. Districts function as counties for certain purposes, but they have no county government. However, the five New York City district attorneys are still elected by county (for example, the Brooklyn district attorney is called Kings County District Attorney).
There are fifty-nine community districts in New York City, each represented by a designated advisory group called a community board. Each board is made up of fifty unpaid members appointed by the Borough President. Half of the members are nominated by City Council members who represent the area. The power of community boards is very limited.
They serve as advisors on land use and zoning, budget, and various community concerns. Boards can recommend measures by the city government, but they cannot demand them. Each one is identified by the name of the municipality and a number (p. e.g.
In New York, special purpose government units provide specialized services only to those who live in the district and are empowered to pay taxes to district residents for services that are provided in common. Special districts often cross the lines of towns, villages and villages, and sometimes cities or counties. Public benefit corporations in New York operate as quasi-private corporations, usually with boards appointed by elected officials. They are a form of government bureaucracy in a sense, but unlike government agencies, public benefit corporations are exempt from some regulations.
Of particular importance, they can contract their own debts, allowing them to circumvent legal limits on state debt. This allows them to make potentially risky capital and infrastructure investments without putting much of New York's credit at stake. However, it also allows them to avoid many of the oversight and reporting regulations that apply to state government. Public benefit corporations obtain New York statutes and are generally designed to perform a specific and limited function in the public interest.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority manages public transportation in the New York metropolitan area (this includes New York's public subway and bus systems, as well as the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Railroad, and the Triborough Bridges and Tunnels Authority). The New York State Highway Authority originally only maintained the New York State Highway from New York City to the Pennsylvania border southwest of Buffalo, but it now maintains the free Interstate 287 corridor. Many regions also have authorities to manage their local public transportation, such as the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority, which manages public transportation in Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, and Oneida Counties; and the Capital District Transportation Authority for the Capital District area around Albany, Schenectady, Troy, and Saratoga Springs. Library districts are often coextensive with the same school district, but they raise taxes separately and serve all residents of the library district.
They often form cooperative partnerships with other library districts to share services, purchases, and loans between libraries. Other special districts may include emergency rescue squads (also known as consolidated health districts), sanitation, police, water, sewer, park, and parking. Some cities operate in the form of a municipal administrator government, creating an executive branch in the municipal government, as allowed by legislation enacted in 1976. A joint fire district can also be formed when a village fire department that has fire protection districts in surrounding cities separates from the village government to obtain greater self-government. New York is made up of five boroughs (Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island) and is home to 8.4 million people who speak more than 200 languages, come from every corner of the world and, together, are the heart and soul of the most dynamic city in the world.
The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local services in the U.S. UU. Starting to plan, which could result in covering the Cross Bronx to connect communities to affordable housing, parks and backwater infrastructure, serves as a roadmap for how the government can address past harms and, at the same time, put racial, economic and climate justice first. The governmental structure in all of them, except in New York, is that of an elected or appointed board of education.
Whether a municipality is defined as a municipality, city, town, or village is not determined by population or land area, but rather by the form of government selected by residents and approved by the New York State Legislature. The Department of Transportation funds New York City to help reimagine the highway that crosses the Bronx and bring this project closer to the finish line, said U. While there is no definite process for how and when a village becomes a city, the Legislature requires clear evidence, usually in the form of locally drafted statutes, that the community in question seeks to incorporate as a city. This RAISE grant will help to finally bring this project to life and make a lasting impact in the Bronx for decades.
New York also has several corporate entities that provide local services and have their own administrative structures (governments), such as school and fire districts. .
