Special cases of distinct civil and postal addresses city names

[ChaireMobiliteKaligrafy]

contact:city is fine with me. Let’s go with that. Thanks!

[ezekielf (Zeke Farwell)]

@Minh_Nguyen

Are there multiple sources of truth, or none at all? As I tried to describe earlier, I lean toward a descriptivist approach, up to a point, since that’s how we cope with inconsistent names too.

I agree. Ideally our tagging scheme would allow for an arbitrary number of alternate address city names. Even if many addresses do have one definitive city name, I’ve seen too many counter examples where multiple different city names are in use and none of them can really be considered incorrect.

Some thoughts along these same lines from last year:

Postal vs 911 address city names

This is generally how I started off thinking about this issue as well. However, after mulling it over I think it may not be quite so simple. Take for example, Harwood Union High School. The address listed on the school’s website and the address found in the VT E911 database match except for the city/town name. Source Address Website 458 VT Route 100, Moretown, VT 05660 E911 Database 458 VT Route 100, Duxbury, VT 05660 As neither one is a post office box, these are both physical…

[andrepoiy]

And then there are cases where the “postal city” is dissected into two municipalities

For example, Thornhill, which is cut right down the middle by the City of Vaughan and Markham, with people from both sides referring to their area as “Thornhill”