OpenStreetMap

Hey DoctorSpeck, trying to understand why you removed some relations and added other relations that point to the same shapes? For example, relation 206660 was deleted and 1633328 added to replace it.

Hi Omri,
The short answer is that 206660 and 1633328 were duplicate relations as they both described the same thing-- the Independent City of Fredericksburg (more on this later) and I did not create a new relation (1633328) It was already existing.

The long version is that Virginia has a weird way of dealing with "Cities" in the law. For all legal purposes they are a combined County and City (admin_level=6) in OSM boundary terms. In many places in the state they had been mapped as duplicated relations, one for admin_level=6 which is normally for county, and one for admin_level=8 which is for incorporated towns & cities. Duplicating them is incorrect in terms of OSM. -- One feature per item. The more correct practice is to map Independent cities as a boundary relation with boundary=administrative, admin_level=6, place=city and optionally border_type=city. Also if a city lies totally within the bounds of a surrounding county its borders should be added to the county's relation with role of inner.

If you have further questions regarding this changeset or others feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Thanks, I appreciate the answer!