Answer Man: Cities and villages: what’s the difference?

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Jason Freeman is the Answer Man.

Updated: February 28, 2012 8:03AM

I live in the city of Oak Forest, I grew up in the village of Tinley Park. I love both places, but something has always bugged me about them.

Sure, Tinley Park is bigger in terms of overall square miles, and it boasts a much larger population. But what makes it a village and Oak Forest a city?

To find the answer, I called Larry Frang, executive director for the Illinois Municipal League in Springfield.

According to Frang, cities typically are governed by alderman and are divided into wards, whereas villages elect trustees and have no distinct districts.

“The people that were organizing the town had to have a vote, and they just picked whether they’d be one or the other,” Frang said.

Beginning in 1818, Illinois municipalities could register with the state as either a city, village or town.

In 1870, legislators wrote a state statute that made municipalities chose to be either a city or a village, and the designation “town” went the way of the dinosaur (except for those settlements that made themselves towns before the new statue went into effect).

“From 1870 to 1920, generally speaking, cities had extra powers,” Frang said. “But, over time, the powers have sort of equalized.”

“Today, they’re almost interchangeable,” he said.