1. The City Daniela Hernandez Victoria Mendoza

2. Introduction A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.

3. Origin There is insufficient evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities. Some theorists, however, have speculated on what they consider appropriate pre-conditions, and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces.  Agricultural primacy: The advent of farming encouraged hunter- gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production.  Urban primacy: Theorist Jane Jacobs claims that city-formation preceded the birth of agriculture.

4. Geography City planning has seen many different schemes for how a city should look. The most commonly seen pattern is the grid, used for thousands of years in China, independently invented by Alexander the Great's city-planner Dinocrates of Rhodes and favoured by the Romans, while almost a rule in parts of pre-Columbian America. The Ancient Greeks often gave their colonies around the Mediterranean a grid plan. Other forms may include a radial structure, in which main roads converge on a central point.

5. Distinction: cities & towns the term may be use for: a town possesing a city status, for an urban locality exceeding an arbitrary population size, for a town dominating other towns with particular regional economic. For example : galician use the term in 3 ways ( aldea, vila, cidade) portuguese use( aldeia, vila, cidade)

6. History Benefits: reduced transport costs, exchange of ideas, sharing of natural resources, large local markets, running water and others. Cost can be include: higher rate of crime, higher mortality rates, higher cost of living, worse population, traffic and high commuting times. Times: ancient age, middle age, early time, industry age.