Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,713 |
15 Facts About Cities
2.
Cities serve as administrative, commercial, religious, and cultural hubs for their larger surrounding areas.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,714 |
3.
Cities, characterized by population density, symbolic function, and urban planning, have existed for thousands of years.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,715 |
4.
Cities played a crucial role in the establishment of political power over an area, and ancient leaders such as Alexander the Great founded and created them with zeal.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,716 |
5.
Cities were founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories, and were bound to several laws regarding administration, finances and urbanism.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,717 |
6.
Cities typically provide municipal services such as education, through school systems; policing, through police departments; and firefighting, through fire departments; as well as the city's basic infrastructure.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,718 |
7.
Cities are typically hubs for education and the arts, supporting universities, museums, temples, and other cultural institutions.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,719 |
8.
Cities go to considerable lengths in competing to host the Olympic Games, which bring global attention and tourism.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,720 |
9.
Cities are one of the greatest contributors and likely best opportunities for addressing climate change.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,721 |
10.
Cities are one of the most vulnerable parts of the human society to the effects of climate change, and likely one of the most important solutions for reducing the environmental impact of humans.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,722 |
11.
Cities generate considerable ecological footprints, locally and at longer distances, due to concentrated populations and technological activities.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,723 |
12.
Cities increasingly participate in world political activities independently of their enclosing nation-states.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,724 |
14.
Cities participate in global governance by various means including membership in global networks which transmit norms and regulations.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,726 |
15.
Cities can be perceived in terms of extremes or opposites: at once liberating and oppressive, wealthy and poor, organized and chaotic.
| FactSnippet No. 2,507,727 |