Why Nominatim searches show points and not polygons?

[jazzzchan]

• Find neighborhoods only return polygon not points.
  • eg: East Village is returning as a point, Beijing is returning both point and polygon

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[vr00n]

When I search for Beijing in Nominatim, i get 2 results

1. Beijing (city) and represented as an OSM node: http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/25248662

2. Beijing (State) and represented as an OSM relation: http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/912940

This is important to understand as it involves the Open Street Map Data Model and is explained in detail here:

• https://www.mapbox.com/mapping/osm-data-model/
• http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Elements

@jazzzchan @ywnch @nnhoucheng please ensure you all read these links and lets discuss on next call (OPS, add to agenda for Jan-6 meeting)

[vr00n]

In the case for East Village, there is only an OSM node and no OSM relation. http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search.php?q=east+village+new+york&polygon_geojson=1&viewbox=

....that is because no one has actually created an OSM relation entry for NYC neighborhoods! (great future project!) and that is why you do not get a polygon.

However, someone has created an OSM relation entry for Manhattan Community Board 3.

So in OSMnx, if you enter "Manhattan Community Board 3", you will get a polygon (please test this @jazzzchan ).

[jazzzchan]

a relationship needs to be created in order for OSMnx to plot the graph.