Talk:Free public transport in Massachusetts

Some content in initial article version adapted from the articles Michelle Wu and Kim Janey. SecretName101 (talk) 20:04, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Do not capitalize "city council"

MOS:INSTITUTIONS is quite clear about not capitalizing parts of an organization's name. See merriam-webster.com, which shows that "city council" is a common noun. Of course, "Boston City Council" is a proper name and gets capitalized. Preceding with "the", as in "the city council", makes it even more obvious that this is a common noun. Lots of cities have a city council; there is no need to capitalize just because a particular one is being mentioned. Chris the speller ^yack 17:47, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

@Chris the speller "THE City Council" is a proper noun, however. Not a common noun. The presence of "THE" is what you are ignoring here. SecretName101 (talk) 17:54, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

@Chris the speller The guideline tends to that, if the reference is to a specific city council and context makes it unnecessary to include the city name, you capitalize "City Council".

http://stylebook.fredericksburg.com/APtxt/Ccc.html (literally uses the Boston City Council as its example for this)

https://writingexplained.org/ap-style/ap-style-city-council

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/capital.html

SecretName101 (talk) 18:06, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

It appears that you do not understand what a common noun is. It also appears that you do not understand what MOS:INSTITUTIONS is saying; it is the opposite of what you claim: "Generic words for institutions, organizations, companies, etc., and rough descriptions of them (university, college, hospital, church, high school) do not take capitals". Capitalization is proper only for the full name. Also, Wikipedia has its own manual of style, which does not take a back seat to other manuals you can dig up elsewhere. Chris the speller ^yack 18:22, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

@Chris the speller I think you might misunderstand what you just cited “Also treat as a proper name a shorter but still specific form, consistently capitalized in reliable generalist sources”. If we had been saying just “the council”, then it’d be lower case. But “City Council” is a shortened proper name.

for instance, Department of Motor Vehicles would be capitalized even though it does not specify which state because if it is being as a shortened name for Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles. SecretName101 (talk) 20:14, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

Your source above from the University of Richmond says that "river" is not capitalized even when we know which river is being referred to: "We went fishing on the James River. Later, our family joined us at the river." We should treat "high school" and "city council" the same way: "Grubklompfer started attending Drudgemore High School in 1936. Two days before he was to graduate, he set fire to the high school." MOS:INSTITUTIONS speaks of "a shorter but still specific form": "high school" and "city council" can be a shorter form of a name, but are not specific forms, now just common nouns. Surely you do not think it is appropriate to use "the High School" throughout an article just because a particular high school is in mind. Chris the speller ^yack 16:20, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

I just searched washingtonpost.com for "the city council", and found these:

"D.C. Council pushes health officials on timing of covid case data – Tensions have risen between the city council and health department since early May, when the department stopped reporting cases to the CDC for nearly two weeks."

"Uvalde schools police chief resigns from city council post"

"Fairfax City Council votes to rename Confederate-themed streets – The city council voted to rename 14 streets, most of which are in the Civil War-themed Mosby Woods neighborhood."

""The hottest race in D.C. next year may be the city council elections"

So it appears that it is not "consistently capitalized in reliable generalist sources". Chris the speller ^yack 16:30, 16 April 2023 (UTC)