I’m glad you phrased it this way, because you’re proposing to do quite the opposite: map two boundaries for one political entity.
The crux of our issue here is the idea that this is a political science or public administration question. This notion that we are tagging governments and political entities is the reason why you removed Rhode Island counties from the administrative boundary scheme awhile back. It’s the same reason we had so much trouble with Maine townships. And, don’t get me started on Connecticut level 6 divisions or NYC community districts.
Well, City and County of San Francisco is one political entity. Not two.
What I hope we’re finding is that this dogged insistence that political administration is the thing we’re tagging with boundary=administrative is simply the wrong approach and not what people expect when they query for boundaries in the map.
What we are actually mapping, as Minh has so eloquently stated, is the naming of territory. And, if we can embrace the idea that we are mapping the primary, topological, hierarchical division of territory, then we can get past some of these stupid debates about whether or not the right kind of governmental entity is administering territory in the right kind of way.
If we can all admit that we’re a geography project, and what we’re doing here with these boundaries is mapping territory, then if people so desire, we can move along and do things like:
boundary=administrative+admin_level=6+name=San Francisco County+operator=City and County of San Franciscoboundary=administrative+admin_level=8+name=San Francisco+operator=City and County of San Francisco
Then, we can wholly embrace Maine’s townships, Vermont’s gores, Rhode Island’s counties, and both sides of consolidated city-counties everywhere – and not as edge cases where we hold our noses, but rather a full-throated mapping of territory, as it exists and as it is understood by the people on the ground.
However, if we insist that boundary=administrative is about accurately inventorying governmental structures, then I must insist that there is only a single one extant in San Francisco.