Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 September 18

= September 18 =

United States mayors by party affiliation
Is there any map like like this showing the parties of mayors instead of governors? -- 177.32.61.128 (talk) 18:42, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * In most US cities, the office of mayor is officially non-partisan, even if a given mayor is a known member of a party. Also, there are nearly 20,000 cities, towns and villages in the US, so gathering all of that data would be a challenge. Cullen328 (talk) 18:47, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I see. Gathering this data for any office isn't a problem in Brazil, since our elections happen on the same day nationwide under a more centralized system. I hadn't considered the that office of mayor was non-partisan in the US, since there's a list with the mayors of the 50 largest cities. -- 177.32.61.128 (talk) 19:48, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * It depends on the jurisdiction. According to mayor of Los Angeles, "Under the Constitution of California, all judicial, school, county and city offices are nonpartisan."  However, that is not so for New York City, as you can glean from 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.  I believe Cullen328 is a Californian, which could have colored his perception of what is true in "most US cities"; on the other hand it could also be that he's actually studied the question and knows that to be true (I certainly don't know that it's false). --Trovatore (talk) 20:03, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * It is far easier to verify the party affiliations of 50 big city mayors than a vastly larger number of mayors of much smaller cities. Note that three of those mayors are not a member of a party. Plus, each of the 50 US states sets its own election laws and the powers of cities and their mayors varies widely. A few states do not register voters by party affiliation, and it is an unofficial matter. Some cities have "strong mayors" with an extensive staff and executive power over every city department. Others have "weak mayors" who play a mostly ceremonial role, and the real day-to-day power is in the hands of an appointed civil servant called a city manager. In some small cities, the mayor is not elected by the voters, but is rather a member of the city council selected by that body to chair their meetings. Cullen328 (talk) 20:13, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * , according to the National League of Cities, three quarters of US mayors are elected in non-partisan races. Cullen328 (talk) 20:18, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Good find! --Trovatore (talk) 20:23, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * In smaller American cities and towns, the mayor is often a part-time job, with the mayor typically holding a "real" job during the normal workday. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:39, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Correct. They usually get a stipend plus reimbursement of expenses, but nowhere near enough to live on. I lived for decades in a city of about 20,000 people. The long time, very popular mayor was also a registered nurse. Cullen328 (talk) 20:51, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Meanwhile in Brazil, even the mayors and council members of the tiniest towns get enough money to live like kings, apart from receiving all kinds of benefits and being able to hire family members and friends... 177.32.61.128 (talk) 18:11, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
 * . -- Jayron 32 18:13, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Serra da Saudade
 * Population: about 800 people
 * Mayor Alaor's paycheck in July: 12939.58 BRL (doesn't include any of the special benefits)
 * Marcelo's (the mayor's son) paycheck for working in the city hall in July: 12950.29 BRL
 * 90% of Brazilians make less than 3500 BRL a month.
 * 177.32.61.128 (talk) 17:56, 20 September 2022 (UTC)


 * I seriously doubt that such a map has ever been created… Just too many too many towns and cities, and too many variations on how mayors are elected/appointed. Blueboar (talk) 18:19, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Also note that for large cities, it is common for White mayors to be pretend-Democrats. Whatever it takes to get the vote. 67.165.185.178 (talk) 11:51, 23 September 2022 (UTC).
 * Grifters come in all shades, and from all parties. Blueboar (talk) 12:32, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Have there ever been independent NATO three-letter country codes?
According to List of NATO country codes, tha NATO used two-letter country codes before adopting the ISO country codes. So I assume that there have never been independent three-letter country codes, as there are the IOC country codes or the UNDP country codes? That basically means that in the tables comparing country codes a specific field for NATO has become obsolete and now is a purely redundant information to the ISO codes only. Right? --KnightMove (talk) 09:18, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * The fact that something has become obsolete does not mean that information about its meaning is redundant. The English word true-penny is obsolete, but fortunately we can look up what Shakespeare meant when he lets Hamlet say: "Ha, ha, boy&thinsp;! say'st thou so&thinsp;? art thou there, true-penny&thinsp;?" A reader might encounter the code "RQ" in an old NATO document and wish to know which geographical entity it referred to. --Lambiam 18:12, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I did not mean "obsolete means redundant". But when the NATO three-letter code just is the ISO three letter code, and has never been anything else, what's the use of listing it separately? This is also a potential source of errors. Tanzania was wrongly claimed to have a distinct NATO three letter code TZN for 14 years (instead of ISO-3166 TZA) before I corrected it. If you don't know that the NATO code is the ISO code by definition, you can't realize the mistake immediately. If you do know it, well... what's the point in having a distinct NATO field? --KnightMove (talk) 20:04, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I misunderstood; I thought you meant the digrams were redundant, but you mean the trigrams. The NATO code set is not identical to that of ISO 3166-1 alpha-3. Unless the list we give is incomplete, the NATO code set lacks the ISO trigrams ALA, BES, BLM, CUW, GGY, IMN, JEY, MAF, MYT and SXM. It has additional continent trigrams ABB, EEE, FFF, NNN, SRR and UUU, a trigram for NATO countries NTT, trigrams for fictional entities XXB, XXE, XXG, XXI, XXL, XXM, XXN, XXP, XXR, XXS, XXW and XXY, and moreover ACI, ANT, CSI, HQI, JNM, JQA, PFI and SCG, the latter formerly an ISO alpha-3 code but now removed. I am not sure of the status of FYR and YUG. In any case, the respective codes are independently maintained and may independently be updated, the only relative certainty being that trigrams in the intersection of the two code sets will have the same meaning in both. --Lambiam 11:04, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Ok, thanks. I see now that there is the potential to add "NATO-only countries" to the overview, and then the field in its own right still makes sense. --KnightMove (talk) 14:30, 21 September 2022 (UTC)