[Talk-us] Parks, again

OSM Volunteer stevea steveaOSM at softworkers.com
Thu Jan 4 01:40:40 UTC 2018


On Jan 3, 2018, at 5:24 PM, Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:
> I think the National Park term causes a lot of problems.   As I see it,
> there are two kinds of places:
> 
>  1) a natural area with some accomodation for human use, which is mostly
>  natural except for a few bits.
> 
>  2) a semi-natural area which has grass and trees (instead of
>  concrete), but is fairly manicured.  In this way it is more like a
>  maintained garden than wilderness..
> 
> Both of these exist at various scales.

I hear you.  I'm listening.  This is all true.  There are also 3), 4) and many, many others.  Yes.

Our definition of "park" (both as humans and in OSM) is quite elastic, let's face it.

As you say "feel like Type 2" I think is where it fuzzies in my mind.  Parks go to 3, 4, even 11 and beyond.  Parks have a wide range of "experiences" besides 1 and 2.

> A "conservation area" in my town might be only 100 acres.  You are in
> the forest, with just a cleared trail and blazes.  But at the entrance,
> there is a dirt parking lot and a sign with a map.  This is a type 1
> area with a very small (enough for 10 cars) part that almost feels a
> little type 2 (except the parking lot is barely usable), but it's so
> small we just call it type 1.

Again, I hear this, this is true, I nod my head in agreement.  There is what we experience in the real world and yes, that maps directly onto a tag in OSM.  Park is that.  States use it.  Nations use it.  "Come camp here for the night or a week" places which are commercial use it.  It is elastic in the real world and many use it, as we call myriad of them by using the name park in our speech as a noun.  It is a wide and flexible concept in human thinking, directly applied to all kinds of places around the world.  By billions of us.  Frequently.

> Whether anybody (administrator of thing or not) uses the work Park is
> not relevant at all.

Mmm, no.  We (humanity, including administrators and the people) mean something as we use the word "park" together in wide harmony.  That is (at least partly!) why we tag with the word "park."

Yes, there are "local parks with benches and grass in our city."  Yes, there are "national parks."  We're only up to two, right there.  Then you get to their various scales.  There are many more than two.

SteveA
California


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