id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc
12588	Remove support for amenity=public_building and add tag to validator as deprecated	Math1985	team	"JOSM has since long supported the tag amenity=public_building. However, over the years, it has become more and more clear that there are a number of problems with this tag.

A discussion on this tag was held on the tagging mailing list, which resulted in a proposal and a vote: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Government_offices
The tag office=government (which already has JOSM support) was proposed (and accepted) as a better tagging scheme for government offices. At the same time, the tag amenity=public_building was formally marked as 'discouraged'.

Before this vote, the tag already had been marked as 'Don't use' on the wiki, apparently without discussion, since 2010 (see http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dpublic_building ).

The main reason for discouraging the tag was that it's meaning was not clear. It is used for a wide range of different things, such as government buildings, train stations, expo halls, art centres, municipal sport centres, and band stands, amongst others. Nearly all of these have more specific other tags.

The tag has limited software support. The editor iD does not support the tag, and neither does openstreetmap-carto.

I would propose to:
* Remove the preset for amenity=public_building.
* Add the tag to the list of deprecated tags of the validator, with office=government as suggested replacement. Not all objects currently tagged amenity=public_building are government buildings, but this is the best suggestion we can do.

This ticket supersedes https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/8978."	enhancement	closed	normal		Internal preset		duplicate