[OSM-talk] Q: Is OSM interested in neighborhood and regional boundaries for L.A.?

[John Smith]

On 16 June 2010 19:17, Tom Hughes <tom at compton.nu> wrote:
> Does that matter if the boundaries are essentially guesswork inventions
> anyway?

If we used that logic we would only ever map from very hi-res very
high accurate aerial imagery then because anything less is mostly
guess work...

> It sounds like these aren't any sort of officially defined areas, but more
> the kind of fluid local names for approximate areas.

Actually it's worst than that, at least here, because when you are
near a suburb border different databases can place you in different
suburbs.

I think most databases are generated from extrapolations, but the
original boundaries would have been drawn up on paper, and some times
they do shift but older suburbs tend to be pretty static. Also suburb
boundaries here sometimes have signs up on major roads when you move
between them. That said, suburbs are somewhat different in Australia
to similarly named places in the US, there is more of them and they
cover smaller areas.