[OSM-talk] collection/street relation: which one to use?

[Anthony]

Ugh, another point:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relations/Relations_are_not_Categories

Putting all the elements which have addresses referencing a street
into a relation seems to me to violate that principle.

What's needed is a way to put a reference to the street into the way
for the building, not a way to put a reference to the building into
the way for the street.  One possibility is to just use
addr:street=way:37863 or addr:street=relation:28917.  But as there
would be no maintenance of referential integrity, that wouldn't be
without its dangers.