[Talk-us] Bay Area trailer parks: "hamlet" ? Also neighborhoods & cities

Scott Atwood scott.roy.atwood at gmail.com
Fri Nov 28 20:25:38 GMT 2008


On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 12:13 PM, Michal Migurski <mike at stamen.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> There are a large number of mobile home / trailer parks mapped in San
> Jose, Santa Clara, and other parts of the South Bay. They're tagged
> place=hamlet, and I'm wondering if there's a better way to identify
> them? Beej71, if you're on this list I think a lot of these came from
> you.
>
> Examples here:
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=37.3995&lon=-122.01521&zoom=15&layers=B000FTFT
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=37.37096&lon=-121.89402&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF
>
> "Hamlet" is supposed to be "defined by national/state/provincial
> government" yet these aren't really defined by anyone except their
> owners. I personally view them as generally equivalent to named
> apartment complexes, and therefore not a place. May I suggest that
> they be redrawn as landuse=residential areas, with names defined?
>
> On a related topic, I'm also wondering how to handle parts of cities
> that are "places" or neighborhoods yet not administratively distinct,
> e.g. "West Oakland" (Oakland), "The Mission" (SF), etc. Would
> place=neighborhood make sense here?
>
> This part of West Oakland with two named apartment complexes (all
> place=hamlet) illustrates what I mean:
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=37.8096&lon=-122.29504&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF


I think people (including me) have been using/misusing place=hamlet for
places like neighborboods which have variable official status because there
isn't really a good alternative.   I think there is a need for
place=neighborhood, or something like it.  Whatever we come up with ought to
be a solution that handles both the  traditional, informal notion of a
neighborhood, which tends to be relatively small and often has nebulous
borders, as well as more formal notions like the districts of Berlin, or the
arrondissements of Paris with official status and well defined borders.

-Scott


-- 
Scott Atwood

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.  ~H.G. Wells
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