There are some in isolated old parts of Philadelphia. For example, in the outer edges of the city there once were free standing villages with very old houses (before development surrounded them). Those old houses and streets are not connected to the sewer system.
It wouldn't surprise me if similar old places even in New York City (particularly in Staten Island but also in outlying parts of the Bronx and Queens) would be likewise.
Our suburban water and sewer rates are FAR higher than what Philadel- phia charges its people. I don't know why. In the city water and sewer is provided by the water department of the city government and it is supposed to run at a break even point without subsidy or profit. Suburban water is provided by private companies that make a good deal of money, sewage is shared by several municipalities and also costs a function.
In the outer suburbs, there are quite a few older houses that use wells and septic tanks and are extremely expensive none the less.
In our area sewer bills are based on water consumption and sewage costs more than water. Both bills have a high minimum charges -- single people living alone rarely use more than that minimum and probably would pay less on a more usage based rate schedule.
This issue can get surprisingly complicated. I think my own area is being grossly overcharged -- if the "big evil city" with all its urban problems can charge so much less the suburban facilities shouldn't be that much more.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Usually, the places which have the water, i.e. Chicago and Lake Michigan, charge less for their own people to use it, while blackmailing the folks with no immediate access to the water (such as the north and western suburbs of Chicago). As an example, Oak Park, Illinois and Harwood Heights, Illinois have to buy their water from City of Chicago _or_ get permission from City of Chicago to extend water pipes from the lake all the way through town out to themselves. That would involve not only much excavation of streets but a lot of politics as well. If those suburbs even tried to get instant access to Lake Michigan, I am sure they would regret it by the time in several years it got out of court. So, they figure its simply cheaper in the long run to purchase the community's water from City of Chicago. Although city does discount the price a little for the bulk purchase, they do not discount it _that much_ and since politics means so much, the suburbs have to add their own 'markup' to the price they charge to resell the water to their citizens.But, speaking of politics, some of the little suburban towns have something Chicago wants as well: Consider Ohare Airport for example: The original Mayor Daley (King Daley I) long ago decided it just would not do to have Ohare 'belong to' or be geographically situated in Park Ridge or that other little town along Mannheim Road where Ohare physically sits, called Rosemont, IL. It had to be part of Chicago, by God, that's how Daley the First in his greed phrased it. But in order to annex the airport into the city itself, state law got in the way. State law requires that in order for one place to annex another place, the two places have to touch at least a little somewhere. For instance Chicago _could_ legally annex Oak Park since they have border lines in common, just as the city many years ago annexed Austin, Illinois on the west side, and Pullman, Illinois on the south side. In the case of Ohare Airport however, none of it _touches_ or has a border in common with Chicago. It touches Rosemont, Schiller Park, and Park Ridge, but not Chicago.
So King Daley I had a solution for that also: we will take a tiny little five foot wide length of land on the north side of Irving Park Road (where Chicago touches Schiller Park) and stretch that all the way west then through the Forest Preserve (don't worry about those commissioners, they are my puppets also) and we will keep on extending that little strip of land through Rosemont until it reaches the eastern edge of Ohare, where then we 'balloon it out' to take in all of Ohare. So by that gerrymandering Chicago is able to annex Orchard Field (which they would begin calling 'Ohare' Field; FYI that is why the FAA designation for Ohare is 'ORD', from the Orchard Field days). Corrupted mayor and officials of Schiller Park and Rosemont all line up with hands out; what's in it for us if we give away our little towns to you, oh King Daley? How about if we give you _free water_ from now on, the King replied. You won't have to continue to pay outrageous prices to buy water from Chicago, and you won't have to engage in a lengthy and expensive lawsuit to excavate _our streets_ in order to get water out to _your little rinky dink town was Daley's proposition. And it was, as 'they' say, sold to the highest bidder.
That is why over a two or three block stretch of what logically is Rosemont/Schiller Park in that area (as per the design of the street lamps and street marker signs) instead you see _true_ Chicago street lamps and street signs. Just for those few blocks way out west. And where there was one other little nasty, two separate streets in town with the same name (Michigan Avenue to be precise), they took the less well known one in Schiller Park and for that two block stretch (where it intersects with Irving) changed the name to some- thing else, which escapes me at this minute. And just because Rosemont and Schiller Park get their water for free from City of Chicago does not mean they in turn pass along that largesse to their own citizens for free. You didn't think that, did you? But that is how 'Chicago-Ohare International Airport' got that name instead of 'Rosemont-Orchard Field Airport'. Everyone else in the western/southern suburbs of Chicago pay dearly for their water. Going north, however, the Evanston Water Works does a wee bit better for the suburbs west of it; they still pay through the nose also, but not as much or as badly as the towns dependent on the City of Chicago. (Except of course for Schiller Park and Rosemont.) PAT]