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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

My understanding is that a city boundary in the US is a big deal.

I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time it made a lick of difference to me, having lived in the U. S. my entire life. “Don’t carry a handgun to Chicago”, okay, file that one away. “If you’re black”, and I’m not, “don’t stop for gas in Martinsville, IN”. Though that one might not still be true, I’d still stay away from Elwood, my Afro-American friend.

Other than that, with the caveat of being a white male, I can’t say I’ve ever had need to pay attention.

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Pocket knife laws vary pretty widely city to city. Things like legal blade length can vary up to 2"(2-4"). Fixed blades can get you in some really deep trouble unless you're "using it as part of your proffession" or "participating in hunting/fishing activities". Tons of other obscure things that can be selectively enforced at a city level.

I tend to carry one becuase it's a useful tool to have but have to be careful which one I take with me when going on a trip outisde town.

A good example is that the Las Vegas Strip is actually very carefully just outside Las Vegas, in order to avoid the control of the city.

If you search you can easily find examples of people being arrested for doing something inside a city, which (presumably) have been legal if they'd done it just outside of the city.

https://www.jcolaw.com/discharging-a-weapon-within-city-limi...

That’s my point: why do I care where the strip is legally located? Casinos have reason to care, I don’t.

And if you’re discharging a firearm, yeah, you better make for damned sure you’re allowed (what was my one example that wasn’t related to race?). Your linked example calls out towns I’ve lived near (lived in Gastonia), and the reason there’s a need for such lawyers is due to morons that think ownership of a firearm and a box of ammo is all they need to shoot in their suburban backyard. But that’s not city-specific, it’s a safe bet that if you’re within city limits anywhere in the U. S. you best assume discharging a firearm is illegal (it probably is) until proven otherwise.

> it’s a safe bet that if you’re within city limits anywhere in the U. S. you best assume discharging a firearm is illegal (it probably is) until proven otherwise.

That's an example of you having to care about which city you're in. You can't just rely on your knowledge of federal or state law there.

> "That's an example of you having to care about which city you're in."

Not really. If you're worried first and foremost about common sense, then you don't need to worry about the law. Common sense would preclude discharging a firearm in any urban or suburban area, unless you are inside a commercial firing range. It doesn't matter which city you're in, because you shouldn't be doing that in any city no matter what that particular city's laws are. Even if through some oversight that city neglected to create any laws concerning discharging firearms, common sense should still prevent you from doing it.

If you're on some deep rural farm and want to know whether it's legal or not to set up a private firing range, then you definitely need to consult your local law; there may be unintuitive laws about the distance you need to be from other property, roads, etc. But as far as shooting guns anywhere near a city is concerned, common sense should be enough to keep you on the safe side of the law.

> it’s a safe bet that if you’re within city limits

That’s my point - you need to know where the city limits are. In the UK I have no idea where the city limits are, and I suspect there possibly may not be any formal city limits at all.

Not really. The point is if you are with _a_ city. The particular one doesn't matter. While the UK is general more dense the US, surely you know if you are surrounded by neighbors in a suburb or a bunch of fields and sheep?

Of course none of these might apply to you, but they are a big deal for the people they impact.

1) marijuana enforcement can be a huge deal, getting let go vs going to prison

2) fireworks enforcement

3) zoning and permitting, is absolutely huge

4) taxes (sales, property, and even income)

5) "sanctuary cities" can have huge implications for illegal aliens

6) homeless policies

etc etc

Well, if we’re going to dig that deep, then I argue that parent’s point is invalid merely on the basis of European cities that restrict driving in downtown cores. IOW, if the argument is that UK/European cities do not have laws that differ from one municipality to the next, well, that’s demonstrably not true.

Where I live in California, the sales tax is different between cities.

Leading up to July 4, fireworks are not legal to sell in every city, so you can tell city boundaries by where the booths selling them are set up. Which city you're in is also important if you want to set them off legally.

Local laws and regulations also have much subtler effects that help shape which cities are desirable to live in, but those aren't going to be as obvious if you're just passing through.

   Where I live in California, the sales tax is different between cities.

What city?

Supplemental sales taxes vary by county in almost all circumstances. Generally, people can't really be sure what city they are in (if any) when away from home.

Street address "city" has no legal meaning except for the convenience of the Post Office. A Saratoga address might actually be in Los Gatos, or vice-versa, or outside all city limits. The atomic unit us the parcel; the parcel distinguishes the city (if any).

There are islands of unincorporated land all over San Jose.

I live in Redwood City, which in November passed a 0.5% city sales tax. It does look like you're currently right though. Going between cities only changed the sales tax because the cities I was going between were in different counties.

  Redwood City, which in November passed a 0.5% city sales tax

... which hasn't taken effect yet.

That's why I said they were currently right.

> Supplemental sales taxes vary by county in almost all circumstances.

There are lots of cities in CA with supplemental sales tax; for a partial list, see [0] and note the table under “Cities with highest combined sales tax rates by county”, every listed entry that isn't “countywide” results from either a city or sub-county special district (or both) having a local supplemental sales tax, and the listing only includes the cities with the highest such taxes in each county.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_and_use_taxes_in_Calif...

Have you ever lived or worked in a city? If so, you probably paid several thousand dollars in taxes.

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