Chinatown San Francisco

Blog Note: This week is San Francisco week. A few years ago I did New Jersey week. Why? Because I had a lot of New Jersey stuff. Same reason now. Also Wednesday (415) is San Francisco day. There will be some bonus map posts here and additional content on Twitter.

This map grabbed my attention when I saw it at the Leventhal Map Center's America Transformed exhibition.

Chinatown is one of the oldest continually inhabited ethnic enclaves in America. The 1929 map is cool and also a bit disorienting. A map of a US city labeled in another language and script gives a new perspective.The map is also flipped with west at the top.

Chinese people came to California during the gold rush and worked on the railroads. They suffered significant discrimination but found safety in their own ethnic enclaves. Despite racist policies, the government was unable to remove them from the neighborhood.

I like the little arrow-bubble above which I'm told by a Chinese coworker merely says "San Francisco Chinatown". I also like the little trolleys. Here is a nice illustration of the ferry building,

and here are some ferry lines from a regional map in the corner of the page. This map is oriented with north at the top unlike the main map.

I assume this text is showing the property owners.

Here is the north arrow with the sun rising in the east.