Talk:Boroughitis

This article should be deleted!
In over 20 years of experience at all levels of New Jersey government and student of New Jersey Governmental History I have never heard the term "Boroughitis". I suggest that the term was coined by a current politician who has a problem with the Borough form of government. If the contributor cannot offer a source for the term it should be eliminated from Wiki.--Lbguy2000 02:34, 6 July 2006 (UTC)


 * While it may not be a term from the actual period of the late 19th century, I very strongly remember hearing the term bandied about often in 1994, when many Bergen County boroughs were celebrating their centennials. So it's at least a decade old. You do hit on the term's somewhat negative usage, namely as criticism of what some see as NJ's excessive and porochial local governments. --oknazevad 05:08, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I did a Google search on "boroughitis" and found a few dozen references, almost all of which where from Wikipedia or its mirrors (including at least one that is translated into Italian). I am just about certain that I am the only person to have used it in any of the articles in Wikipedia, having created this article and (as far as I know) every article that references the term. In researching my research, I found, and article from the Genealogical Society of Bergen County, NJ that was most helpful in adding information regarding the creation of municipalities in Bergen County to the overwhelming majority of the 70 municipalities in the County. I have also used the "History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630-1923;" by "Westervelt, Frances A. (Frances Augusta), 1858-1942." as a source, though I am sure that the word "boroughitis" is not used. Westervelt, in her discussion of Glen Rock, New Jersey, she refers to 1894 as "that being the year the county went crazy on boroughs." (Vol. 1, p. 366). I will do further research on the origin of the term. Alansohn 01:36, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The earliest reference I've found is May 31, 1904 in The Record (Hackensack, NJ), p. 4 per newspapers.com "Ramseyites have an attack of boroughitis and the probability is they will cut loose from Hohokus township and borough."--Wehwalt (talk) 13:19, 1 June 2022 (UTC)


 * At the very least, this article seems like a good idea for dispelling any confusion between this concept and the medical condition of boroughitis, in which patients believe they are buroughs. – AndyFielding (talk) 07:55, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

How unique was this to NJ?
(Commenting here to avoid clogging the FAC with a side-track) How unique to NJ was this phenomenon? Looking at this from a European perspective (10,479 English Civil Parishes, 36,589 French Communes, 8100 Italian Comuni etc), this just looks like the normal way to run local government. Was this a setup inherited from colonial days which the other 12 colonies jettisoned, or was it created independently in NJ? ‑ iridescent 11:25, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
 * What's unique is the rapid subdivision of municipalities and the remaining jumble in Bergen County that resembles nothing else. Most northeastern states are completely divided into municipalities, but rarely this small. The legislature allowed municipal charters to be granted by referendum rather then keeping control itself. The closest parallel I've been able to find is the counties of southeastern Virginia all becoming cities such as Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, in the 1950s but the reasons were rather different.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:50, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
 * The ring of Allegheny County between Pittsburgh and the outer townships is another place with a similar municipal structure, but I'll have to do more research to find the genesis of those. Ab e g92 contribs 03:00, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
 * It could be. Large townships, once rural, that are faced with suburban development often break up. What happened in New Jersey is an extreme case, both because of speed and of the thoroughness of the breakups. I grew up in one of the 1894 boroughs and knew vaguely about why it had happened (they did not teach local history in the schools).--Wehwalt (talk) 12:57, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
 * One of the issues from this sort of thing, though, was New Jersey's home rule provisions which grant a lot of powers to local governments. When you create a lot of very small communities with a lot of responsibilities that can tax very generously to meet those responsibilities, you are asking for the kind of corruption that has plagued the state since ... as that one guy Christie's people got on tape saying in one of those small boroughs (not in Bergen County, though, IIRC): "Nobody sees, nobody hears, nobody listens." Daniel Case (talk) 20:54, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

In New York, take a look at Nassau County (and to a lesser extent, the neighboring portions of Suffolk County). Its municipal map looks like someone fired a shotgun at it. This was because after the three towns in the county separated from the western portion that became Queens at the beginning of the 20th century, a lot of the land, particularly in the north, was either potato farms or the estates of a lot of Gilded Age rich. At the time it was easier to incorporate a village in the state than it is now: you needed only 50 residents to do it (nowadays it's 500). So a lot of these rich people got their estates together and they had enough household staff to make a village of themselves, with the added benefit (from their perspective) of being able to reorganize their security people into police departments. Daniel Case (talk) 20:50, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Abandoned edit because title so unacceptable
I have completed an edit of the entire article of spelling errors, gaps, and poor wording—but I could not complete it without being compelled to insert the following new section:


 * Etymology


 * As with so many recent malapropos neologisms, the term shows a significantly inappropriate application of a medical term to create a new word, rendering it humorously incongruent. The suffix, -itis indicates an inflammation of a body structure that indicates the presence of disease in that structure, such as laryngitis, appendicitis, tendinitis, and bronchitis.[reference to Merriam-Webster] Obviously, the intent was to name a phenomenon, the proliferation of boroughs, which might more appropriately have been called simply a proliferation, a "borough fever", or "borough boom", and to appear 'scientific'. Use of such corrupt or illogical terms that do not appear in a dictionary that even identifies slang, are antithetical to the mission of supposedly educational institutions seeking to document accurate information, scientific data, or historical facts -- and they contribute to a degeneration of the subject language, through reinforcement as discussed by authors such as William Russel in Verbotomy, Or, the Anatomy of Words: Shewing Their Component Parts... by William P. Russel or An Analysis of the Derivative Words in the English Language: Or, A Key to their precise analytic definitions, by prefixes and suffixes by Salem Town.

Imagining what type of reaction I expected from editors with a vested interest in retaining the existing title -- seeing that it had been chosen as a feature article -- I decided to refrain from boldness and to see what others had to say. That is unusual for me.

I have to say that I am impressed by the unexpected discussions above. If we can get the title changed I'll go ahead and post my full edit -- but I will not add to any article that is so inappropriately entitled and into which that title is woven. Frankly, I'm embarrassed by the ignorance advanced by featuring this article and profoundly disappointed that it could have qualified. Finding multiple uses of an absurd neologism doesn't justify its use and I'd leave the 'catchy' titles to the tabloids. Let's seek 'informative' titles for an encyclopedia.

I would propose the following introductory paragraph:


 * A proliferation of creating many small boroughs as municipalities became a political phenomenon in the American state of New Jersey during the 1890s, particularly in Bergen County. Attempts by the New Jersey Legislature to reform local government and the school systems led to the formation of dozens of low-population boroughs, communities small in area that still balkanize the state's political map. This occurred because of the development of commuter suburbs in northeastern New Jersey, residents of which wanted more government services than did the long-time rural population.

I would suggest the article be entitled, Balkanization of New Jersey townships during 1890s _ _ _ _ 83d40m (talk) 03:17, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Since the phenomenon is called by third-parties boroughitis, I don't think WP:NAME would support anything other than what we have now.--Wehwalt (talk) 04:51, 3 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Gosh! I have to admire anyone willing to pay such extreme attention to a single word—but I do hope you guys remember to get out now and then, too, 😉 – AndyFielding (talk) 12:34, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

Texas counties
Very interesting article. I wonder if an article can be created that explains how Texas got to 254 counties, specifically focusing on the obscene number of West Texas counties created in 1876. MightyArms (talk) 13:11, 27 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Not my field, though I would find it personally interesting to read. I grew up in one of the boroughs created in 1894, so I had an interest in expanding this article. Wehwalt (talk) 15:16, 27 September 2022 (UTC)
 * History of Texas (1865–1899) unfortunately doesn't say anything about this, but if you find something that would be the place to look.
 * I wonder if it was some predecessor of that law that allows you to register to vote somewhere in Texas even though you may not live there in any sense of the word, the property you claim as your address can be vacant and undeveloped land, as long as you intend to make it your domicile ... someday. The one that results in elections in Loving County sometimes having more voters than people the census says live there. Daniel Case (talk) 20:39, 27 September 2022 (UTC)