MOTW #85

I don't even remember where I dug this one up but it's the classic problem of what poor neighborhood to dump the nudey bars on. You can't wish them away so you have to put them somewhere. In Washington DC they are looking at a location by Gallaudet University (they may be deaf but they're not blind!) and also right near a playground though those two things would theoretically be in operation at different times. Since the map doesn't give you much surrounding detail all you need to know is it's a very short drive from Congress so your reps will have easy access. Here's the text from whatever web site I originally grabbed it:

D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, wants to help relocate several bars that permit nude dancing that were put out when the city decided to build the new Washington Nationals stadium in Southeast Washington.

But where Graham sees helping some former business owners, he said he also anticipates a possible "not in my backyard" style backlash from residents in the areas of Ward 5, into which the businesses plan to move.

Graham's Committee on Public Works and the Environment is scheduled to mark up and vote on a bill that would allow for the one-time relocation of the businesses.

The problem is that lighter commercial zones often act as a buffer between heavier commercial and residential areas, officials in Graham's office said.

The businesses are unable to relocate near the stadium because it was rezoned and other areas of the city that would allow them, including downtown, are too expensive.

MOTW #84

This is a map poem by Howard Horowitz called "Manhattan". It originally appeared in the Op-Art section of the New York Times. His art can be found here. Those of you over in Oregon might enjoy his other offering. Also, there's an Idaho poem so something for everyone!

MOTW #83

One of my pet peeves is when worthwhile, timely information gets put on the web and then is never updated. This example is cited as a "recent map" from a company that works with newspapers to put maps on their web pages. The map shows "Rummage Sales"* in the "Siouxland" for the weekend of April 14th - note that the date at the top is today. This is/was useful information and if they kept it up to date could be still.** If not take it off or the residents of Ascot/Broadmoor should be expecting visitors this weekend, sale or not.

*I'd like to see a map showing what regions of the country use what terms to describe yard/garage/tag/rummage sales

** I can think of several other ways they could improve this site but I've already gone on for too long here.

MOTW #82

Sorry - I'm a day late on this one but you can save it for next year and start planning now. This is a map of the prime viewing sites for the Washington DC Fireworks. If they use this same site every year then save it for future reference.

Yes I know its sideways!

MOTW #81

The Newton (Mass.) TAB did a sloppy map showing the most popular college locations for graduating Newton High School Students It makes for a somewhat interesting pattern and also allows me to rant about careless cartography. I don't expect a cartographer in Mass. to know that Northfield, MN is south of Minneapolis but when they show Boston, Worcester and Dartmouth, Mass all being in the western part of the state then it starts to bug me.

I clipped out the Northeast section of the map for clarity and we only school we only lost Arizona, Tulane and Miami. I had attached a list of all the location numbers so you could see how bad some were but I'm not sure that's worth doing on a blog page.

This paper has used my maps in the past but I don't know who's responsible for this one.

MOTW #80

Yes it's another toilet map. But this one's cool because it shows you how much use they get. It's also helpful to me as I go by Langone Field often on my bicycle and didn't know I had that option. All the fields should have these as I recently watched a softball game and we all had to take turns sneaking into the woods. The Aquarium toilet gets an awful lot of use considering how often it's out of service. This map is from the Boston Globe.

MOTW #79

Nikolas Schiller is a slightly eccentric map nut who has done a lot of interesting stuff including creating a series of "Quilt Projections". These are aerial photos that are mirrored to look like quilt patterns. The link below is just one of many-this one shows quilts for various state capitol buildings. Warning - these take a long time to download so go get a beverage or something while you wait.