When Elan Ullendorff moved to South Philadelphia this summer he realized that he knew very little about the recent history of his new neighborhood. So he decided to change that. The result is Love Letters to Places I'll Never Meet, an interactive map which summons up the recent past of South Philadelphia by creating an interactive map of some now shuttered stores.
To create his love letter to the South Philly he will never know Elan acquired a list of local closed businesses. He then mapped these businesses using Google Maps listings and downloaded some of the most positive reviews of each business. The result is an interactive map of some of South Philadelphia's lost stores.
Due to the recent acceleration of online retail, the Covid pandemic and ever rising rents many of us now live in neighborhoods and towns with an ever diminishing number of actual physical stores. The evolution of our neighborhoods, as they adapt to the changes in consumer retail behavior, can have a permanent effect on the psychogeography of our home towns. Our sense of self is often rooted in a strong sense of place.
Perhaps there is a growing need for poignant historical maps like this. Not just maps of 'Places I'll Never Meet but also Love Letters to Places that I've Loved and Lost Forever.
Via: Wecurios
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