Using Zillow's Creative Commons Neighborhood Boundary Data For the U.S. 32
reifman writes "Zillow quietly released boundary data for more than 7,000 neighborhoods in the U.S. via the Creative Commons attribute-sharealike license but few people know how to integrate this data into their applications. This tutorial describes how to import the data and integrate it with Google Maps and HTML5 Geolocation."
You call this data (Score:2, Informative)
I downloaded the files for my state and it was all of about 154 features, almost all of which were in three HEAVILY urban areas. The states city/village boundaries (which are freely downloadable) consist of over 562 polygons alone. I am the GIS tech for part of our county and there are over 384 "neighborhoods" (subdivisions, trailer parks, condos, etc) in the area we maintain alone which doesn't even include the two major urban areas (Populations of ~20,000) in our county. I'm also having a bit of a time believing that someone who does any mapping is not familiar with SHP (shape/shapefile) files. They seem pretty ubiquitous in geography these days.
Re:What is a "neighborhood" (Score:5, Informative)
In older areas, a "neighborhood" is usually a self-identified group of houses in a given geographical area, that might or might not share a common construction history, but have banded together to promote their common interests. The neighborhood I live in [wikipedia.org] was constructed over some 25 years, with early 1940s houses in the south extending into the mid-to-late 1960s in the north, though there's now enough tear-down and rebuild that some places are brand new [zillow.com].
In contrast, for some older neighborhoods (usually in historical areas) and most newer neighborhoods, the term is mostly interchangeable with "subdivision": the area was planned and platted by a single developer, usually the houses were built at around the same time by a selected number of builders, and there's very often deed restrictions that set up a mandatory home owner's association, which has the ability to create and enforce rules over the appearance and use of properties in the area. Opinions about HOAs vary from loathing to appreciation, depending on the person. With common deed restrictions and a mandatory organization that owners must join, there's a pretty strict legal definition.
Part of my neighborhood - called Shoalmont Addition - was built at once, by a common set of builders, and have very limited deed restrictions (mostly illegal now, heh) but no HOA to enforce them. But the larger Allandale Neighborhood Association (an optional group with no enforcement powers of its own) claims the entire Shoalmont area, and residents of Shoalmont probably don't even know that's where they live. Legally, the ANA has enough clout that the city recognizes it and sends a representative to neighborhood meetings, and zoning correlates with neighborhood boundaries and wishes, but there's not really any legal definition when there's no deed restrictions or HOA involved. Indeed, a small area claimed by the Allandale Neighborhood Association in the south is also claimed by the Rosedale Neighborhood Association, and I think people in that area can join both.
Two definitions based on the evolving style of neighborhood construction. Hope that helps!