OpenStreetMap

"Nodes" (incorrect use) on 43rd

Posted by PhoebeSM on 7 January 2024 in English.

I know that Nodes means something else in OSM but still trying to come up with a better term for what I have started considering nodes - namely areas that are a bit ambiguous in terms of what street they are ‘on’ because they are large enough to envelop or border a few different ones, and / or just very large parks, complexes, etc. that deserve their own dedicated exploration. One of these such not-nodes that we mapped today was St Luke’s Hospital / medical complex. We mainly walked around the outside and a few of the front entryways, mapping items like benches, trash cans, bicycle parking, art / memorial plaques, cameras, two mail drop boxes, one bus stop, and the chapel.

I was particularly interested to find a small sitting area with sculptures and memorial plaques which I hadn’t expected to see. I do have one annoyance with OSM, which I hope I can discover how to improve at some point: when I add a memorial plaque, I get a “fixme” telling me that it should be merged with a nearby building. Worse, some of the plaques that happened to be close enough to the building automatically merged with it. The problem is, these plaques were actually attached to freestanding sculptures in a courtyard / outdoor seating area and were not mounted on the building at all. One was free-standing next to a memorial tree that had been planted. I am not sure if there is a way to merge them with a sculpture, and for the ones that auto-attached to the building I could not figure out how to un-attach them.

Another node-like object that we looked at was a small cul-de-sac called Pearl street, that runs north-south for just a few blocks perpendicular to 43rd, near Sway coffee. We took the opportunity to return to Sway, this time driving instead of walking, and realized the parking (other than 5-minute spaces for folks getting takeout) was very limited. Pearl was mostly residential but had one church.

Next we will likely go to the H&R Block Art Space, in case it has anything of interest inside (e.g., photo booth, bulletin board) and then will continue on to the much longer eastern portion of 43rd past Gillham Park.

Location: Plaza-Westport, Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, 64112, United States

Discussion

Comment from GOwin on 9 January 2024 at 01:26

Hi there! I think you’re trying to describe a behavior of the editor you’re using, and not OpenStreetMap itself.

Plaques that “automatically” attach themselves to buildings is an unusual behavior, and so is the fixme. Do you mind saying what editor you’re using to make these changes in OSM?

In OSM, some place nodes are intended to be ambiguous, for example if place=neighbourhood boundaries are unknown, a user may opt to add them as a node, rather than a closed way/area.

Comment from PhoebeSM on 9 January 2024 at 01:45

Thanks for the pointers! I am using Every Door. I had thought it was one of the friendlier / easier ones but I’m open to alternatives if there is one that doesn’t do that. There’s also a very good chance it has to do with the way I’m inputting them - I didn’t see any likely looking options in the entry form though.

Comment from PhoebeSM on 9 January 2024 at 01:55

P. S. - Happily, I did figure out I can right click “Extract” in the OSM desktop editor to remove the plaque from the building. I also found someone reported the issue here: https://github.com/Zverik/every_door/issues/565

Comment from GOwin on 9 January 2024 at 02:24

EveryDoor is an excellent app, I use it myself, when I want to quickly edit POIs while on the go.

Luckily, I haven’t encountered this behavior you’ve experienced in EveryDoor. It’s a bummer to have to go back to your edits, and disconnect the plaque from the building, but definitely doable if you’re amenable to that.

Thank you for making a better map with OSM! :)

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