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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Spitzweg_city_1002.JPG]]
2[-[[caption-width-right:350:Image by Carl Spitzweg]]-]
3
4->''"There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them."''
5--> -- Tag line for the TV show of ''Film/TheNakedCity''
6
7The City: a bustling, dense urban area full of people, tall buildings, businesses, government offices and limited parking ([[RockStarParking except for our heroes]]).
8
9The extremes of wealth and poverty are wider here than in a {{Small Town|s}}. With the city's impoverished area on the WrongSideOfTheTracks, there's more criminals and you're more likely to be the victim of a crime. As a result, this is where most CrimeAndPunishmentSeries and PoliceProcedural shows are set. When a {{Sitcom}} is set here, it tends to feature a younger, hipper crowd than the usual DomCom. People are also more cynical in The City, and the DeadpanSnarker abounds. There is also public transportation, which is a good place to get PostRobberyTrauma. Combine with a bit of {{dystopia}}n political corruption and a RoguesGallery of unrepentant lawbreakers, and it's the perfect place for the {{Superhero}} to set up shop.
10
11In the land of television, The City is also full of big luxury apartments which even a twentysomething who's just starting out their careers [[FriendsRentControl can afford]].
12
13A few cities have their own special quirks (especially ''{{Series/CSI}}'''s Las Vegas). For the most part, The City will feature sprawling central business districts, vibrant ethnic neighborhoods, industrial zones, [[TheCityNarrows decaying, crime-ridden ghettos]] and {{Abandoned Area}}s.
14
15Note that the distinction between The City and {{Suburbia}} is not always clear-cut; many shows set in The City might deal more with the residential neighborhoods, making it feel like {{Suburbia}} with rowhouses (''Series/FullHouse'', ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', ''Series/FamilyMatters''). And sometimes the residential neighborhoods, while 100% within the city limits, will have detached single-family homes that aren't even rowhouses and look even more indistinguishable from the suburbs. The go-to city for this is Los Angeles due to its sprawling nature. At the other end of the spectrum, a show set officially in {{Suburbia}} may show an [[GeographicFlexibility assortment of local businesses, events, and institutions]] that you would typically only find in a city (''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''). However, these towns tend to be fictional; [[JustForFun/SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing Springfield in particular]] tends to go from largish city to suburb depending on the needs of the episode.
16
17The peculiar interplay of aspects of {{Suburbia}} and The City in the real-world city of Baltimore, Maryland (rural sensibilities + high population density = wacky crime) has made it a popular choice in recent years for CrimeAndPunishmentSeries (''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', ''Series/TheWire''). While not primarily a cop show, police work typically figures into the B-plots of ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'', which is set in a fictionalized version of the real-life Baltimore suburb of Arcadia. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Creator/DavidSimon is himself a Baltimore native who wrote a number of non-fiction works that many of those shows are directly based on.
18----
19!!City-related tropes include:
20[[index]]
21[[AC:General Tropes]]
22* AbsurdlyCoolCity
23* BoomTown: A newly established city with rare riches and high population growth.
24* CitadelCity
25* CityGuards: A militia which answers to municipal authorities, responsible for keeping order within the city or town and fighting off invaders.
26* CityInABottle: An extremely isolated settlement cut off from the outside world.
27* TheCityNarrows: An area of a city known for crime.
28* CityNoir: A city of looming buildings, gray skies, drizzling rain and grim detectives.
29* CityOfAdventure: Lots of exciting events frequently happen in this town, so it never gets too quiet and boring here.
30* CityOfCanals: A city cut through by a network of canals.
31* CityOfTheDamned: {{Hell}} is depicted as an urban environment, comparable to {{Wretched Hive}}s of the mortal world.
32* CityOfEverywhere
33* CityOfGold: A legendary town that's supposedly fabulously wealthy.
34* CityOfSpies: A city with a high concentration of active and retired secret agents.
35* CityOnTheWater: A city floating on the ocean.
36* CityPeopleEatSushi
37* CityPlanet: An entire planet which has a completely urbanized surface.
38* TheCityVsTheCountry: Urban vs rural life.
39** BigTownBoredom: Someone grows sick and tired of urban/metropolitan life, and wants to move out to some place that's less densely populated or more rural.
40*** SmallTownBoredom: People who find the rural village or suburban town they came from to be too bland and boring, tend to see larger cities as more exciting and desirable places to live in.
41** CityMouse: Someone from the city tries to adjust to life in the country.
42*** CitySlicker: Similar to the City Mouse, but specific to TheWildWest.
43*** CountryMouse: Someone from the country tries to adjust to life in the city.
44* CityWithNoName
45* CitywideEvacuation
46* DevelopingNationsLackCities: Poor countries are stereotyped as being completely rural and lacking any large urbanized cities.
47* DomedHometown: A settlement built under a protective dome.
48* {{Egopolis}}: Naming a city after yourself.
49* FakeTown
50* FriendlyLocalChinatown: Typical depictions of American Chinese, or other Asian, immigrant neighborhoods.
51* {{Gayborhood}}: An urban neighborhood filled with {{UsefulNotes/LGBT}} people.
52* GhostTown: A former human settlement (city, town, or village) which is now abandoned.
53** GhostCity: A formerly big city that is now a deserted shell of its former glory.
54** UrbanRuins: A former city reduced to rubble, with every building showing signs of severe decay.
55* GraffitiTown
56* TheGreatFire: When the entire city burns down.
57* TheGreatWall: Many older cities had big perimeter walls built for defense against invading armies.
58** WallsOfTyranny: The city walls aren't just for keeping intruders out; they're also designed for keeping ''residents'' trapped inside.
59* HeelFaceTown
60* HiddenElfVillage: A settlement carefully hidden from the rest of the world.
61** VanishingVillage
62* HiveCity: A city that consists of stacked and interconnected buildings, resembling an insect hive.
63* HolyCity: A city that is sacred to a particular religion.
64* HoodFilm
65* HubCity: The most relevant and in some cases only settlement in a game.
66* LandOfOneCity: City-states are sovereign countries with very little territory, consisting of only a capital city and some surrounding land.
67* LayeredMetropolis: A big city with many overlapping bridges, roads, streets, and structures.
68* ManOfTheCity: A character makes it their life mission to protect a city.
69* MayorPain: A city has an evil or incompetent mayor.
70* MegaCity: A ''huge'' city.
71* MerchantCity: This town is a major trading hub.
72* MetropolisLevel: A [[VideoGameSettings video game level]] set in some sort of urban environment.
73* MobileCity: An entire city that moves around.
74* NeonCity: Neon lights illuminate their streets at night.
75* NewNeoCity: When a city is destroyed and rebuilt, it gets a "New" or "Neo" prefix in front of its name.
76* PeskyPigeons: These birds are considered to be iconic urban wildlife.
77* PleaseSelectNewCityName
78* RedLightDistrict: An area of a city known for being filled with brothels and strip clubs, inhabited by prostitutes and other sex workers.
79* {{Scienceville}}: A settlement known for its scientists, inventors, engineers and professional thinkers.
80* ShiningCity: A heavily idealized, perfect city.
81* SimulatedUrbanCombatArea
82* SkyscraperCity: A city with a ludicrously high skyline.
83* SoiledCityOnAHill: A WretchedHive city is destroyed.
84* {{Suburbia}}: Smaller cities and towns, usually located near a bigger city, or at least part of a metropolitan area.
85** StepfordSuburbia: Creepy cookie-cutter suburban towns which are not what they appear to be at first glance.
86* SuddenlySignificantCity
87* SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld: A specific city with a noticeably dense population of superheroes (and usually also of supervillains).
88* SupernaturalHotspotTown: A city or town that attracts supernatural creatures.
89* SuburbanGothic: Creepy suburbs.
90* TakeOverTheCity: The BigBad's evil goals extend no further than the town they live in, rather than something more grand and ambitious like [[TakeOverTheWorld the whole world]].
91* UndergroundCity: A populated city located beneath the ground's surface.
92** UnderCity: A formerly-surface-level city which was somehow buried underneath the earth.
93* UnderwaterCity: A populated city located beneath the sea's surface.
94** SunkenCity: A formerly-surface-level city was which was somehow swallowed up by the ocean.
95*** UnderwaterRuins: A [[GhostCity former]] [[GhostTown settlement]] which was buried at sea long ago.
96* UrbanFantasy: Fantasy stories that take place in a modern city.
97* UrbanSegregation: All the neighborhoods in this city are blatantly separated by socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity, or other demographic lines.
98** FantasticGhetto: [[FantasticRacism Fantastic segregation]] applied to urban neighborhoods.
99* UrbanWarfare: Military combat fought in city streets, with local civilian residents caught in the middle.
100** CapitalOffensive: An invading army launches an attack on a capital city.
101* WatchingTroyBurn: Watching the destruction of your beloved home city or a similar place.
102* WelcomeToTheBigCity: Someone from a small country town gets introduced to the metropolitan life.
103* WretchedHive: A CrapsackWorld in the form of a city or town. Corruption, crime, and poverty are a major element of life here.
104** CaughtInTheBadPartOfTown: Someone finds themselves stuck in a part of the city with a high crime rate (and they're not from that area).
105** GangsterLand: A city ruled by various ruthless criminal groups fighting each other for money and power.
106** InnerCitySchool: Schools in poor urban neighborhoods, often offering very low-quality education.
107** OutlawTown: A city inhabited (and ruled by) all sorts of thieving criminals.
108** UrbanHellscape: This neighborhood is just as ugly and miserable as it looks to be.
109** ViceCity: An entire city full of crime and corruption from top to bottom.
110** WrongSideOfTheTracks: The impoverished ghetto, shantytown, or slum neighborhoods of the city.
111----
112[[AC:Specific Cities]]
113%%
114%%
115%%Only add links to specific cities on this list if they have two or more relevant tropes related to them. Otherwise, see the link to UsefulNotes/MajorWorldCities below.
116%%
117%%
118* '''UsefulNotes/MajorWorldCities''': A list of notable cities from the real world, including many which aren't listed on this page.
119* AthensAndSparta: When two cities, so different in constitution and character, are at war with each other (spoilers: the militaristic polis will win, but the artistic polis will eventually rise in the end).
120* FreestateAmsterdam
121* {{UsefulNotes/London}}: The capital and largest city of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom.
122** BritainIsOnlyLondon: Works set in Britain will have the characters only travel in London (as opposed to the rest of country).
123** VictorianLondon: London in Victorian times (1837 to 1901).
124* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles: The second most populous city in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, and the largest in the state of {{UsefulNotes/California}}.
125** DownLADrain: A ChaseScene in Los Angeles' storm drain system.
126** HellishLA: Los Angeles depicted as a WretchedHive.
127** ItCameFromBeverlyHills
128** TheShowGoesHollywood: Traveling to Hollywood or Los Angeles in general, particularly where all those big entertainment companies are based.
129** ValleyGirl: The San Fernando Valley is the origin of this stereotype.
130* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity: The most populous city in the United States, situated on the coast of UsefulNotes/NewYorkState.
131** BigApplesauce: New York is a CityOfAdventure where all kinds of interesting or unusual things happen.
132** TheBigRottenApple: NYC is depicted as being a WretchedHive full of poverty, crime, and corruption. A very common portrayal in works from the 1970s to 1990s.
133** BrooklynRage
134** NewYorkIsOnlyManhattan: Manhattan is the most well-known of NYC's five boroughs outside of NYC, so it gets the most attention in fiction.
135*** FultonStreetFolly
136* OnlyInMiami: Works set in {{UsefulNotes/Florida}} are overwhelmingly centered in and around {{UsefulNotes/Miami}}, its second-largest (but most well-known) city.
137* {{UsefulNotes/Paris}}: The capital and largest city of {{UsefulNotes/France}}.
138** EiffelTowerEffect: Major cities are often identified by their most famous landmarks; for example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
139** GayParee: The city of Paris often gets very romanticized portrayals in media.
140* SpaceBrasilia
141* {{UsefulNotes/Tokyo}}: The capital and largest city of {{UsefulNotes/Japan}}, centered at the heart of one of the most populous metro areas in the world.
142** ThirtySecondsOverTokyo
143** TheTokyoFireball: A city (like Tokyo) is destroyed but then rebuilds itself. Rinse and repeat.
144** TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse
145** TokyoTower
146* VivaLasVegas: The characters go on a trip to UsefulNotes/LasVegas, Nevada to engage in some vice-ridden fun.
147[[/index]]

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