balsama / boston-neighborhood-finder

Determines what Boston neighborhood a lat long pair is in.

Boston Neighborhood Finder

Finds what Boston neighborhood a lat/long pair is in.

Usage

Make an HTTP POST to the provided index.php file. An instance of this runs on Heroku at https://boston-neighborhood-finder.herokuapp.com. A form to POST the data for you can be found here: https://boston-neighborhood-finder.herokuapp.com/lookup.html.

Example using Guzzle

// Somewhere in Hyde Park
$lat = 42.268489999908255;
$long = -71.10896000012053;

// This service is deployed to Heroku and can be found here:
$url = 'https://boston-neighborhood-finder.herokuapp.com';

$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client;
$request = $client->request('POST', $url, [
    'form_params' => [
        'lat'  => $lat,
        'long' => $long,
    ],
]);

$neighborhood = json_decode($request->getBody());

// $ print_r($neighborhood);
// stdClass Object
// (
//    [neighborhood] => Hyde Park
// )
 

Neighborhood boundaries

This uses the GeoJSON Boston Neighborhood dataset provided by the city here: https://data.boston.gov/dataset/boston-neighborhoods1 Don't debate the neighborhood boundaries with me.

The following neighborhoods are defined:

• Roslindale
• Jamaica Plain
• Mission Hill
• Longwood
• Bay Village
• Leather District
• Chinatown
• North End
• Roxbury
• South End
• Back Bay
• East Boston
• Charlestown
• West End
• Beacon Hill
• Downtown
• Fenway
• Brighton
• West Roxbury
• Hyde Park
• Mattapan
• Dorchester
• South Boston Waterfront
• South Boston
• Allston
• Harbor Islands

The app will return neighborhood unknown if it can't find a matching neighborhood.