On 06/21/2013 08:07 PM, Serge Wroclawski wrote:
The map should reflect ground reality, so unless there are hamlets in these places, we should strive to fix them. By sharing our experiences, we can have a better sense of how others are doing that, and we can use that to inform our local decisions.
But let the locals make the decisions! Don't just go deleting hamlets based on the fact that they are unincorporated. A great many hamlets in New York State have a strong local identity. The locals can tell you their precise borders. They are signed. The post offices and railroad stations are named for them. If you ask a local what town he lives in, he'll reply with the name of the hamlet. A resident of Woodmere, New York - a well-defined hamlet with identifiable borders - will be puzzled or even offended if you say that he's a resident of Hempstead (the name of the containing township). And there was some rather heated political turmoil a few years ago when the town of Clifton Park posted large "Welcome to Clifton Park" signs at its borders. Eventually, they were forced to replace them with signs that read something like "WELCOME TO REXFORD - Town of Clifton Park" with the "Town of Clifton Park" in much smaller lettering. Because to the locals, Rexford is not Clifton Park - it just happens to be in the township of that name. Even within New York City, some of the hamlets very much keep their identity and their borders. In the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island, the names of the post offices are for the most part the names of the hamlets, and the locals, once again, identify with them. Even though Neponsit or Woodhaven or Astoria may have no separate political identity, mail is still addressed under those names, and the locals respond first with those names when asked where they live. (I'll say that I was born in Queens only when I'm not talking to a fellow native: if I am talking to a fellow New Yorker, I was born in Far Rockaway.) Of course, New York's local administration is complicated. School districts, fire districts, post office service areas, and the like frequently have borders that fail to follow the borders of the municipalities. -- 73 de ke9tv/2, Kevin _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
