Category: Mapping

  • Smellscapes

      If one travels a lot, you start to realize that places have certain unique smells. Whether it be suffocating smog in New Delhi or blissful Jasmine in Florence, places often leave particular olfactory memories. Working in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in the late 1990’s, we were beset with a confusing melange of the pancakey delightful smell…

  • Community Organizing Tools

      Hello, Monday! I thought it might be nice to start this week with an optimistic look at citizen involvement in planning, so here are a couple things to check out… For those of you who want in-depth information on making your communities better, MAS has an upcoming Livable Neighborhoods Training day on September 22 at Pratt Institute…

  • What Makes Paris Look Like Paris?

    Recently on this blog we have talked about the cognitive mapping of a city, exploring how individuals see and record their own neighborhoods. As I write this I can’t help but recall Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the City.  He analyzed the organization of cities and subsequently pointed out the way we navigate through these spaces.…

  • Harvard Graduates Mapping Public Toilets in Mumbai Slums.

    In a recent NY Times, article, Mapping Toilets in a Mumbai Slums Yields Unexpected Results (India Talk – July22, 2012), Samuel Lowenberg reported about a class of Harvard graduates in public health, mapping public toilets in a Mumbai slum called Cheetah camp. I suspect this isn’t exactly what our young overachievers had in mind when they selected…

  • Shootings Mapped

      Due to the recent shooting in Colorado, it seemed appropriate to look at an older post from the Atlantic on the Geography of Gun Deaths by Richard Florida. These emotional moments are often points when people rally for policy changes, and I thought it might be interesting to look at the discussion surrounding data…

  • Spatiality

      I occasionally become fascinated by people (artists, scientists, and other smart folk) who seem to consistently and persistently create good things, and then I think, “Wow they do awesome stuff, but how can I acknowledge them and thank them for their work? Hey, I contribute to a blog! Oh, look! The dog is being…