Back in 2009, native New Yorker Becky Cooper walked Manhattan from top to bottom. Along the way, she handed out blank maps of the borough, along with stamped envelopes bearing her address. Her request to recipients: Fill in the map with your experience of Manhattan. Tons of people obliged; weeks later, Cooper was inundated with personalized maps.
She’s compiled the best ones for her book,В
Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New
Yorkers, which comes out in April.В This weekend, the
NY Times ran an awesome gallery of a few of the maps. It included entries from New Yorker staff writer Patricia Marx (who themed her map around her lost gloves) and the head of the New York Public Library’s map division (whose map pointed out directions to key places in her life). The one below especially amused me—it’s funny how territorial New Yorkers can be, whether intentionally or unintentionally!
If you were given one of those blank maps, how would you have filled it out? (I think I would have highlighted 30 spots, each representing a significant place for each year or my life, numbered accordingly.)
(Image via NY Times )
That idea of being territorial must be universal…when I think of my hometown, London, there are areas I have never ever been to, nor do I have much interest/business being in. How funny how we are all essentially creatures of habit.
It really is! …and it’s nice to know it’s other city-dwellers, too, and not just us NYers!
Love this! Mine would map my favorite eats by neighborhood.
That’s an awesome idea, Melissa–and a map I’d definitely want to see!