Or, to take your proposal a step further, super size Maryland all the way to Baltimore and Wilmington, fold the Eastern Shore south of the C & O Canal into Delaware and the Panhandle from Hancock and points east into West Virginia where they are more of a cultural fit anyway. Ditto for the Eastern Shore and Delaware south of the C&O Canal.
I agree 100% that a city can’t be a state.
If we can convince the DC statehood folks to expand their state not only to NoVA and SoMD but all the way to Baltimore, and MD to dissolve, with the Western Panhandle going to WV and the Easterrn Shore to DE, might as well form a bew State of Philadelphia with Philadelphia, Delco, Montco, Loser Bucks, Camden, NJ and Wilmington, DE, thus leaving the rest of DE and the rest of PA as safely Republican. But I don’t think we’d ever be able to accomplish all that, while an argument that a State of Dougkass would need toi include the Washington suburbs to thrive (heck, to survive, unless they put in a commuter tax) might convince the DC statehood folks to shane MD and VA to fork over their suburbs for the formation of the new state (and Republicans in those states would only be to happy to comply, as might Democrats from those suburban counties, which combined are a majority in MD and VA).