this question says they do but when i compare what i can find in the cartographic boundary files section of the census bureau's gis page, they don't look as good as certain shapefiles provided by the city government. am i missing something? or do i have to scrounge through each city's website to get this level of detail (assuming it's there at all)
comparison photos of new york city and reproducible R code below.
library(maptools)
tf <- tempfile() ; td <- tempdir()
# from http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/cbf/cbf_cousub.html
download.file( "http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2013/cb_2013_36_cousub_500k.zip" , tf )
z <- unzip( tf , exdir = td )
ny.shp <- readShapePoly( z[ grep( 'shp$' , z ) ] )
nyc.shp <- subset( ny.shp , as.numeric( as.character( COUNTYFP ) ) %in% c( 5 , 47 , 61 , 81 , 85 ) )
# shows some water.
plot( nyc.shp )
# from http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/districts_download_metadata.shtml
download.file( "http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/download/bytes/nybb_14c.zip" , tf )
z <- unzip( tf , exdir = td )
nyc.shp <- readShapePoly( z[ grep( 'shp$' , z ) ] )
# very awesome. does not show water.
plot( nyc.shp )