Copenhagen Municipality
Copenhagen Municipality, also known in English as the Municipality of Copenhagen, located in the Capital Region of Denmark, is the largest of the four municipalities that constitute the City of Copenhagen, the other three being Dragør, Frederiksberg, and Tårnby. The Municipality of Copenhagen constitutes the historical city center and the majority of its landmarks. It is the most populous in the country with a population of 633,449 inhabitants, and covers in area,. Copenhagen Municipality is located at the Zealand and Amager islands and totally surrounds Frederiksberg Municipality on all sides. The strait of Øresund lies to the east. The city of Copenhagen has grown far beyond the municipal boundaries from 1901, when Frederiksberg Municipality was made an enclave within Copenhagen Municipality.
The municipal seat of government is the Copenhagen City Hall. The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen is Frank Jensen, since 2010. The relationship between Copenhagen Municipality and the wider city of Copenhagen is one of an administrative unit within a significantly larger city, cf. the City of London or the City of Brussels.
In the Middle Ages, Copenhagen was defined as the area enclosed within the city walls. The city centre lies in the area originally defined by the old ramparts, which are still referred to as the Fortification Ring and kept as a partial green band around it. In 1856 the ramparts were pulled down allowing for growth and expansion. In 1901 the city expanded to include Amager and Valby, while Frederiksberg became an enclave within the municipality. The Finger Plan in the second half of the 20th century led to expansion outside the municipal boundary along the commuter lines of the S-train and the Lokaltog :da:Privatbane|rail lines going i.e. to Helsingør and Stevns Municipality along the Øresund. The Copenhagen-Ringsted Line makes Køge one of the railway hubs of Eastern Denmark. Road and rail construction is planned to relieve traffic congestion because the narrow 9-9.5 mile isthmus between Roskilde Fjord and Køge Bugt forms a bottleneck.
Copenhagen Municipality was one of the three last Danish municipalities not belonging to a county, the others being Frederiksberg Municipality and Bornholm. On 1 January 2007, the municipality lost its county privileges and became part of the Capital Region of Denmark.
Geography
Copenhagen Municipality is a political division covering the central city and certain additional areas. It encloses Frederiksberg Municipality and stretches east to the waterfront. Neighboring municipalities are Gentofte, Gladsaxe and Herlev to the north, Rødovre and Hvidovre to the west, and Tårnby to the south.The City Hall Square is the old centre of the city, from which an old shopping street leads northeast to Kongens Nytorv, which was laid out in the seventeenth century. Christiansborg Palace, which houses the Danish parliament, is located on the islet of Slotsholmen.
Districts
The municipality is divided into ten administrative, statistical and tax districts.:The suffix -bro in the names Østerbro, Nørrebro, Vesterbro and Amagerbro should not be confused with the Danish word for bridge, which is also bro. The term is thought to be an abbreviation or short form of the Danish word brolagt meaning "paved", referring to the roads paved with cobblestones leading to the city's former gates.
Demography
Historic population. The two figures for 1 February 1901 are before and after the municipality annexed some nearby parishes. The apparent decline since the mid-1900s are due to the figures not including the suburban and urban areas - notably Frederiksberg - outside Copenhagen municipality. With the exception of 2005, which saw a decrease of more than 1,000 people, the population of the municipality has been increasing since 1992 after having decreased from 1950 to 1992.Note. The two population numbers given for 1901 are the municipality's population before annexation and following annexation of neighboring municipalities, which in the process made Frederiksberg municipality an enclave within the municipality of Copenhagen. Politics and governmentCopenhagen Municipality is distinct from the wider Copenhagen urban area. The seat of Copenhagen's municipal council is the Copenhagen City Hall. The council is chaired by the Lord Mayor—currently Frank Jensen—who oversees the civic duties of the fifty-five representatives of the council. The council usually meets every other week at 17:30 on a Thursday.They discuss a range of issues including labour and employment, business growth, economics, international cooperation and IT, urban planning, housing and construction, and young, old, and disabled peoples' issues, healthcare, and traffic, with a central focus on making the city sustainable and meeting environmental and health targets. All members of the council are elected every four years. In the municipal elections in November 2013, the Social Democrats remained in first place with 27.8% of the vote, while the Red-Green Alliance was in second place with 19.5%. The Social Democrats have claimed the office of mayor for the past 110 years. The municipal government is divided into seven administrative departments: Employment and Integration, Culture and Leisure, Health and Care, Finance, Child and Youth, Social Services, and Technical and Environmental Administration. It has six political committees and a finance committee. The annual budget for the city is proposed in August and finalized in October and the annual report is published in May of every year. The accounting firm Deloitte is responsible for auditing the City of Copenhagen's accounts. Lord mayors since 1938All lord mayors of Copenhagen have belonged to the Social Democratic party.
Environmental PolicyIn 2009 the Copenhagen Municipal Council decided that Copenhagen will become the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2025.In 2012 the European Commission announced that Copenhagen will be the 2014 European Green Capital. |