California has 482 cities. Very few of them are massive - like Los Angeles or San Jose - and only a handful have complex, giant bureaucracies like the City of Sacramento's. Some incorporated cities are really tiny, with population sizes that would fit into 1 or 2 apartment complexes here in our community. What all 482 of them have in common is local control. They all have Mayors and City Councils that can focus on local priorities. Typically, that means their residents have pretty good representation - AKA democracy - in that their number of elected officials per residents is conducive to listening behavior. This section of our blog is intended to provide snapshots of incorporated cities in California you can use to compare the rights and privileges provided to residents of California's cities with the rights and privileges we get here as residents of an unincorporated community.

These pages are a project for the unpaid interns who slave for the elves in our newsroom. The pages are presented county-by-county according to the whims of the interns. Please bear with us as we try to present data on all 482 cities.