77 Examples of City Services

John Spacey, October 24, 2021

City services are services offered by a local government such as a city, town, village, county or similar entity. As cities are where people live, they are in the best position to offer services that are of value to people such as education, transportation and sanitation. Many city services are non-voluntary because they are viewed as improving the community as a whole. For example, local building codes and inspections that reduce risks such as fire risks. In some cases, cities may seek to control many aspects of local life such that their services could begin to feel paternalistic, oppressive or burdensome. The following are common examples of city services.

Adult Education Programs	Afterschool Programs
Air Quality Monitoring	Airports
Ambulance	Animal Welfare
Beaches	Bicycle Infrastructure
Blue Space	Building Permits & Inspection
Canals	Child Protection Services
City Jails	Commercial Licenses
Community Programs	Concessions
Construction Regulations	Culture Programs
Disability Access	Disaster Resilience
Energy Resilience	Enforcement of Local Ordinances
Environmental Protection	Environmental Remediation
Festivals & Events	Financial Support Programs (e.g. childcare subsidies)
Fire Department	Fire Safety & Inspection Services
Fitness Programs	Garbage Collection
Green Space	Healthcare
Heritage Preservation	Immigration Support Services
Job Training	Legal Assistance
Libraries	Licensing of Controlled Establishments (e.g. Nightclubs)
Local Business Standards	Municipal Courts
Museums	Noise Pollution Controls
Nutrition Programs (e.g. Free School Lunches)	Ocean Rescue Services
Parking Services	Parks
Performance Theaters	Pest Control
Play Streets	Police
Preschool & Daycare	Professional Licenses
Public Housing	Public Lighting & Light Pollution Controls
Public Registration (e.g. of births)	Public Square
Public Waterfront	Recreation Facilities
Recycling	Sanitation
Schools	Sewer Services
Social Services	Sports Facilities
Sports Leagues	Streets
Technology Infrastructure (e.g. Public Wifi)	Tenant Protection
Tourism Promotion	Train Stations
Transportation	Transportation Infrastructure
Transportation Safety	Urban Planning
Visitor Services (Tourism)	Voting & Civic Engagement
Water Services

Blue space is any public space that has water such as a river, canal, stream, waterfront, fountain or pond.

Concessions are commercial rights sold by a city. For example, the shops at an airport that have access to a captive market.

Play streets are streets that are designed to be safe for multiple uses such as play, recreation, exercise, personal reflection and traffic.

There is often overlap between local, national and regional services. Likewise, there are often different levels of local government such as counties and cities.

77 Examples of City Services

Cities

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