Where are the Best Neighborhoods?

If you want to know the best neighborhoods in your town then you need Best Neighborhood. Enter your zipcode into Best Neighborhood and you can view the areas of your town colored to show the best areas for walkability, the cost of housing and employment rates. You can also view lots of local demographic and socio-economic information about your town's neighborhoods.

Best Neighborhood uses Mapbox maps to visualize a range of different data about U.S. towns and their neighborhoods. The local data you can view includes information on per capita income, rental prices and bike friendliness. Using the different data sets you can find the neighborhoods which best suit your preferred characteristics. For example if walking and cycling are important to you then you can use the walkability and bike friendliness maps to find the best neighborhoods for walking and cycling. Of course you might not be able to afford to live in those areas so you might want to compare those maps with the property value map.


OneDome is a UK real-estate website which has developed a number of online tools which can help you find the best neighborhoods in the UK. One of these tools is Explore & Score, an interactive map which rates neighborhoods in a number of different areas.

Enter a UK postcode into Explore & Score and you can find out how the area rates for transport, education, groceries, greenery, safety, quietness and lifestyle. Explore & Score gives each of these individual areas a rating out of 10 and also gives the postcode area an overall score out of 10. If you select an individual category from the map sidebar you can view related points of interest on the map. For example if you select 'Grocery' you can view the location of all nearby stores, the walking distance to each store and their opening hours. Select 'Transport' and you can view the location and walking times to the nearest stations.

Poland is Nowhere

Where is Poland? is a fantastic exploration of Poland under partition as seen by the Danish writer Georges Brandes in the late Nineteenth Century. The site uses the observations of Brandes to explore one of Poland's most turbulent periods of history.

When Georges Brandes arrived in Poland in 1885 the country was divided between the three imperial empires of Austria, Prussia and Russia. Where is Poland uses a number of vintage maps to show how the name of Poland is missing from the maps of Europe during this period. Poland in this era is very much an occupied country. This can be seen clearly in the 19th century map of Warsaw. When Brandes visited Warsaw the signs of Russian occupation could be seen everywhere, from Orthodox churches to Russian street names.



One result of the occupation of Poland and its accompanying suppression of Polish culture was the emigration of many Poles. Where is Poland includes a map showing the influence of emigre Polish writers, artists and musicians throughout Europe at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Other Poles didn't leave Poland by choice but were deported from the country. Another interactive map shows some of the Siberian locations where Polish people were sent by Russia.

I've obviously concentrated on the many interactive maps in Where is Poland? These maps play only a small part in what is a beautifully designed in-depth examination of Poland during occupation by the three imperial powers of Austria, Prussia and Russia.

Mapping Global Life Expectancy

Mapipedia's Average Life Expectancy by Country since 1800 is an interesting data visualization of life expectancy around the world from 1800 to 2018. The visualization shows how life expectancy has changed around the globe since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and also attempts to explain the reasons behind some of the most significant changes in life expectancy during this period of history.

Using the map timeline you can explore the average life expectancy in countries around the world by date. If you press play on this timeline you can watch an animation of the map, showing how life expectancy has changed in each country over time. As the timeline plays the visualization also identifies significant global historical events which may have had an impact on life expectancy in different countries across the world.

If you select a country on the map you can view a list of historical events that have probably effected the average life expectancy of the population in the chosen country. For example if you click on Russia the 'Description' column will include information about World War I, Spanish Flu, the Soviet Famine, World War II and Russian Alcohol Consumption (1990-2001).

Selecting a country on the map will also change the graph view to show the average life expectancy only of your chosen country from 1800-2018. This graph is interactive. You can therefore hover over dates showing significant falls in life expectancy to find out why these occurred. For example, using the example of Russia again, the graph shows a steep decline in life expectancy starting in 1940. If you hover over this data the 'Description' column provides information about the affect of World War II on life expectancy.

Racial Profiling in Police Stops

An analysis of 100 million police traffic stops has revealed that white people are more likely to be found with illegal items. Despite this fact black and Latino drivers are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white drivers.

The Stanford Open Policing Project has gathered data on around 100 million police traffic stops carried out from 2011-2017 across the United States. The data reveals that the police often use racial profiling when deciding which cars to stop. The data scientists at Stanford established a 'veil of darkness' test to explore whether the police are racially profiling drivers. The test looks at the time of day of police traffic stops to determine if black drivers are stopped more often during the hours of darkness rather than during the day. In other words it looked to see if black drivers were stopped more often when police officers could more easily see the race of car drivers. This test revealed that there is a 5 to 10% drop in the number of black drivers stopped by police after sunset, suggesting that the police are racially profiling drivers when using their powers to stop vehicles.

You can view interactive maps showing where drivers were stopped by the police from 2011-2017 on the Stanford Open Policing Project website. These maps provide an overview of police stops in a number of cities across the United States. On each of the maps the race of the car drivers are shown using colored dots. Each map is also accompanied by a local racial dot map which shows you where people live in the city. Each map also includes an option to view one day's data on police stops animated over the course of one day. If you use this feature you can carry out your own 'veil of darkness' test to see if black drivers are stopped more frequently during the hours of daylight than after sunset.

As the name of the project implies the data on police stops from the Stanford Open Policing Project is available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. The data can be downloaded in both CSV and RDS formats. Shapefiles are also available for a few select locations.

Mapping Housing Affordability in D.C.

Low and middle-income families are being priced out of the housing market in Washington D.C. according to the D.C. Policy Center. Their report into housing in the District, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, includes a number of interactive maps which illustrate the pressures on the housing market.

In each of these interactive maps D.C.'s building footprints are colored by a number of different variables. The first map in the report colors individual buildings by housing unit type to show the distribution of single family homes, coops, condos and apartments. The map shows how restrictive land use practices that favor single-family units in the District have led to the dominance of single-family homes. The prevalence of low-rise, low-density buildings has in turn contributed to the lack of affordable housing in the city.


The second map in the report looks at the ownership of homes in the District. This map shows that home-ownership is prevalent in the north of the city. A third map shows the value of property in the city. This map colors building footprints by the estimated value per square foot. The most expensive property is in the northwest of the city. Property values as a whole increase as you mover from east to west in the District.

Later in the reports a series of static maps are used to illustrate where affordable housing may be available for different family types in Washington D.C..

Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

The Crown Jewels have been stolen! Can you help recover them? The International thief Carmen Sandiego and her crew of V.I.L.E. operatives have broken into the Tower of London and escaped with the Queen's favorite jewels. You will need all your geographical expertise to follow the clues, track down Carmen Sandiego and her gang of thieves, recover the jewels and return them to London.

Google Earth has a treat for all fans of Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego! Today Google has released an interactive game which requires you to search and find Carmen Sandiego somewhere on Google Earth. So, are your ready to play Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

Using Google Earth you will need to travel the world and interview witnesses about the location of Carmen Sandiego. Each witness will give you clues as to the location where you need to travel next. When you've worked out each clue to Carmen Sandiego's location you just need to jump into your plane and you will be automatically flown there. Your task will involve a lot of travel, but as you work you can enjoy some fabulous 3D scenes of the wonders of the world in Google Earth.

The Record Shops of the World

Record Shops are an endangered species. It didn't always used to be this way. Once upon a time record shops were everywhere and the streets of the world were filled with the glorious sounds of phonographic music and the pitter-patter of dancing feet.

Take Paris as an example. In days of yore on nearly every rue and avenue, in every arrondissement of the capital you could find a disquaire or magasin de disques. Or you could at least find one nearby. You can see this for yourself on Disquaires de Paris, an interactive map of Paris' record shops of the 20th Century.

The Disquaires de Paris interactive map shows the locations of the many dealers and vendors of phonographic records in Paris from the end of the 19th century up to the modern day. You can filter the record shops shown on the map by date using the provided timeline control. At the moment the map only shows record shops up to the 1960's. If you select a disquaire on the map you can view the shop's address and, where available, view the artwork used by the store on record sleeves.


Of course record shops haven't completely disappeared from the face of the Earth. There are even a few left in Paris. You can find your nearest surviving record shop on recordstores.love, an interactive map of record shops around the world. Using the map you can search for record shops by location or use the record shops near me option to find the closest stores to your current location.

Vinylhub is a similar project map which is attempting to map all the remaining record shops around the world. Alongside the interactive map of record shops Vinylhub also maintains an Events section which lists record related events and special events being held in record shops across the globe.

The History of Maps

Forma Urbis Romae (203-211) - a plan of a Pompeii amphitheater

In Instead of Writing a Thousand Words Lapham's Quarterly takes a detailed look at the history if maps around the world. Using the Esri Story Map format Lapham's Quarterly explores how geographical space has been visualized throughout history, from the earliest known maps painted on the walls of caves right up to maps created in the modern digital age.

The Story Map starts with the Çatalhöyük Wall Painting from 6200 BC. Many people believe that this wall painting in Turkey shows a bird's eye view of a city and is therefore the world's oldest known map. Lapham's Quarterly then takes us on a guided tour through the history of cartography. It reports on the Babylonian Imago Mundi from 700-500 BC which is "considered the oldest known world map". Carrying on through history this Story Map explores maps from ancient Rome, China, Japan and the Arab & Islamic world.

Instead of Writing a Thousand Words features information about some of the world's most famous historic vintage maps, including the Hereford Mappa Mundi and Isidore of Seville’s T & O map. It even takes a look at astrological maps, transport maps and discusses the merits of different map projections.

If you are interested in the history of World Maps then you might like my own Mappae Mundi collection of historical world maps. My map allows you to take a closer look at maps of the world from ancient Greece up to 2015. My map doesn't include much information about the individual maps shown but it does allow you to zoom in and pan around each of the featured maps of the world.

Mapping Changes in Global Light Pollution

Radiance Light Trends allows you to view how nighttime light emissions have changed worldwide since 1992. This interactive map uses data collected from satellites to show the current light emissions around the world during non-daylight hours. The map also allows you to examine how light pollution has changed over time.

Radiance Light Trends allows you to select any area in the world to see the levels of local light pollution as recorded over time. For example, if you select an area around Pyongyang in North Korea, you can view a summed radiance graph for the city, which shows how there seems to have been a gradual improvement in the city's night-time electricity supply since 2012. Although the summed radiance graph for Pyongyang also reveals that between 2014 and 2017 there was a distinct decrease in light radiance.


The global changes in light pollution over time can be more easily observed on the Urban Radiance map. The Urban Radiance map compares historical night-time satellite views of the Earth to analyse urban development across the world. By comparing recent nighttime satellite imagery with historical nighttime satellite views of the same locations Urban Radiance is able to show how countries have changed in terms of urbanization, electrification and population density.

Urban Radiance has compiled time-based nighttime satellite composites of Asia, the Middle East, North America, North Africa, Europe and the whole World. On each map the nighttime light view uses orange to show the newest light pollution while older light pollution is shown in blue. In this way it is easy to pick out areas on the map where light pollution has grown over time.

On each composite map Urban Radiance has picked out significant areas which have seen a growth in light pollution. For example in North America Urban Radiance highlights how the growth of shale gas fields in the Dakota and South Texas regions has led to more light pollution. Below each map graphs show the total growth (or fall) in radiance in each country shown on the map.


NASA's Black Marble map has also been recording nighttime light levels around the world for a number of years.  The so called 'Black Marble' map of the Earth is made up of the best cloud-free satellite images of each land mass captured by satellites around the world.

Digital Geography has created an interactive map which allows you to directly compare NASA's Black Marble map of 2012 with the more recent 2016 Black Marble map. The Black Marble: 2012 vs 2016 interactive map allows you to swipe between the two NASA maps and compare the changing scale of natural lighting around the world. For example, if you open the map using the link above you can clearly see the effect that the Syrian war has had on electricity supply in the country.

John Nelson has also compared NASA's 2012 and 2016 Black Marble maps to see where in the world lights have been going on and off. His Lights On & Lights Out map highlights the locations around the world where there have been significant changes in electric lighting since 2012.

Nelson points out in the text accompanying the map that there are many reasons why places might show an increase or decrease in electric lighting. The increase in India is due to the "massive electrification of northern India in recent years". Elsewhere reductions in night lighting may be due (among other reasons) to attempts to reduce light pollution.

The Dot Map of Britain

GIS for Thought has released an interactive dot map showing every single person in Great Britain as a single dot. The Every Person in Great Britain Mapped map uses the latest Scotland and England & Wales census data to show the number of people living in every postcode area.

The map has roughly 62 million dots - one dot for every single person living in Scotland, England & Wales. If you can't find yourself on the map don't worry. The data randomizes the dots by postcode area, with a dot placed in a random building for each person in every postcode.

You can view the dot map layer on its own without any background map layers. You can also choose to view the dots overlaid on a geographical map. Even when viewing the dot map layer on its own, without the map and map label layers, you can clearly make out many locations. Obviously urban areas, with high population densities, like towns and cities, are clearly revealed on the map. However the absence of dots in other areas reveals features such as the UK's National Parks. You can even make out much smaller urban parks if you zoom right in on individual towns and cities.

Also See

The Racial Dot Map of the USA
The Racial Dot of Brazil
The Racial Dot Map of South Africa
The Racial Dot Map of Estonia
The Racial Dot Map of Australia