From Iceland — Wants To Change Kópavogur From A Town To A City

Wants To Change Kópavogur From A Town To A City

Published August 15, 2011

A member of Kópavogur town council believes the time has come for the municipality to go from being a town to a city.
Ómar Stefánsson, a Progressive town councilperson, has twice now proposed that Kópavogur’s official designation go from being kaupstaður (township) to borg (city), RÚV reports.
He discovered that simply changing the name of the place to Kópavogsborg would not be enough to grant the area more rights and privileges; that it would be simply symbolic.
The line between a town and a city is somewhat unclear in Iceland. The office of the mayor of Reykjavík was established in 1907, at a time when the city had about 10,000 inhabitants. Kópavogur today is home to about 30,000 people.
Ómar is convinced that Kópavogur has grown enough for it to be called a city, even if it has no discernible downtown (unless you count Hamraborg, a collection of about a dozen shops and some office space in the west end of town). The future of his proposal remains uncertain.

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