Mapping Your Neighborhood

In maps (as in life) boundaries often appear to be fluid entities. This seems especially true when considering local neighborhood boundaries, where it can be very difficult to find even two people who agree on the borders of their local neighborhoods.

The Neighborhoods Mapping Project wants you to forget about what Google & Apple maps tell you about your local communities and instead map your own local neighborhoods. The result is a crowd-sourced map of Portland, Seattle and Vancouver neighborhoods.

No names or boundaries are included in the initial map view of each city. Local citizens can therefore map their own ideas about their local neighborhoods. To start adding neighborhoods to the map just click on the 'start mapping' button. You can then use the drawing tools to draw around a neighborhood on the map. When you have finished your neighborhood boundary you can name the area and give it a description.

Once you've finished drawing your neighborhoods on the map (or if you just want to see what other people have mapped) you can select the 'view maps' option. Do this and the crowd-sourced neighborhoods will be outlined on the map. Click on an area on the map and you can read what others have called the neighborhood and how they define the area.

If you don't live in Portland, Seattle or Vancouver you can always start your own crowd-sourced neighborhood map by forking the project on GitHub.