[Talk-us] Ward boundaries in the US admin_level scheme

[Minh Nguyen]

Vào lúc 08:19 2021-01-14, Brian M. Sperlongano đã viết:
> I recently updated the documentation[1] for US admin_level for Rhode 
> Island.  In that table, it lists wards at admin_level=9 for Rhode Island 
> and several other states.  Based on that documentation, I added wards[2] 
> for the city of Newport.
> 
> In Rhode Island, these wards are used for electoral purposes in cities, 
> such that a member of the city council would represent a particular 
> ward.  In at least one town, the same concept is called a "district" or 
> "town council district".  And, in yet other towns, the entire town 
> elects the entire town council (i.e. "pick 5 from this list of 15 
> candidates"), and in those towns there are no such subdivisions.
> 
> Note that for cities with wards, there is no ward government.  It is 
> possible that there is some usage of the ward boundaries for providing 
> city services, but I have not explored this in any detail.
> 
> Is this concept of "ward" the same as what it means in other states?
> 
> When I lived in a RI city with wards, I was never aware of which ward I 
> lived in, there aren't signed or marked boundaries, and there are really 
> just a paper concept. I question whether wards actually belong in the 
> admin_level scheme or if they a different category of boundary such as 
> boundary=political.
> 
> 
> [1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States_admin_level 
> <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States_admin_level>
> [2] Example: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/11582238 
> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/11582238>

At one point, "ward" was added to various states on this wiki page at 
the same time. I don't know how much thorough research took place for 
each state before it got a "ward" entry. As always, if you have local 
knowledge of the legal and practical situation, that's helpful to factor in.

For Louisiana's part, New Orleans is the only city where ward 
administrative boundaries _wouldn't_ raise eyebrows. But it'd only be 
because it's so commonplace for New Orleaneans to use some of the wards 
as a point of reference; there's little if anything on the ground that 
refers to them, compared to the more granular neighborhood boundaries. 
There are also parts of the city where the neighborhood is more 
well-known than the ward number.

In other cities where I've lived, elections are the only 
"citizen-facing" evidence of ward boundaries, so mapping them would be 
like mapping state assembly districts.

-- 
minh at nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us