As far as I can tell from the USPS point of view the name is an attribute of a ZIP Code. When you change ZIP Codes the list of valid names also changes.
Form my experience the rate of change of valid names for a single ZIP Code is very low, less than 0.5% per year. On the other hand newly added addresses may change ZIP Codes, as published in the USPS AIS ZIP+4 product, several times in their first year. The problem with boundaries is not so much wholesale ZIP Code renumbering but the refinement of the boundary through growth. As new things pop up they seem to get allocated to a ZIP Code that has sufficient capacity to serve them, not necessarily the ZIP Code of their neighbors. Likewise commercial and residential mailboxes often get served by different mail carriers (the people actually doing the delivery). Sometimes those carriers are associated with different ZIP Codes. It is possible and known that one building can have one ZIP Code for its commercial addresses and another ZIP Code for its residential addresses. Looking back at the 32830 vs 32836 issue the USPS reports both with an "Actual City name" of Orlando FL while 32836 also has an "Acceptable City name" of Lake Buena Vista FL (The USPS use of Actual in this way does cause a different confusion, in that neither are within the municipal limits of Orlando) try it yourself http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp The USPostal data from geonames.org may help you associate a valid names with point locations. C. On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Nathan Edgars II <[email protected]>wrote: > On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Richard Welty <[email protected]> > wrote: > > i guess it's like any other admin boundary, it's subject to change. > > who is going to maintain it, or will it be allowed to slowly > > deteriorate and become obsolete? if the rate of change is low, > > maybe that's not an issue. > > How frequently does a piece of land change postal place name (not zip > code)? Does this usually happen only with a new community? > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us > -- Carl Anderson, GISP [email protected] [email protected]
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