Naughty Neighbors on Google Maps

The people of Philadelphia really do make for poor neighbors. At least that seems to be the only conclusion that can be drawn from councilman Bobby Henon's Google Map of properties cited for rental violations, L&I violations, or delinquent on property taxes.

The Bad Neighbor Map is councilman Bobby Henon's map of violations in the 6th district. It would probably have been easier to have mapped the properties without violations. The 6th district is obviously inhabited by some very, very naughty people.

Street View Takes to the Skies

If you have some Friday night plans you might want to wait until tomorrow before you visit this website. I started writing this post over two hours ago now but I keep getting distracted by more and more beautiful 360 degree panoramas.

Last week we learnt that Google has plans to take underwater Street View images of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. My guess is that at some point in the future Google will also start capturing aerial panoramic imagery and add them to Google Maps.

Luckily we don't actually have to wait for Google to invent the flying Street View car, as AirPano.ru already has a great collection of panoramic images of some of the world's most favourite landmarks and destinations.

Each of the panoramic images uses Google Maps to show the location of the image and to show the current field of view. A Google Map of all the available panoramas provides a useful way for finding aerial panoramas of your favourite locations.

Recycling Google Maps Directions - Chicago

Recycle City Chicago helps citizens of the windy city find the closet recycling drop-off center from their location.

The application was the winner of the Green Opportunities Award in the Apps for Metro Chicago competition and it easy to see why. If users enter their address into the Google Map they can get turn by turn driving directions to their nearest recycling center.

If you click on a recycling center's marker on the map you can view the opening hours and the materials that can be recycled at the center.

The Calgary Skywalks on Google Maps

The Calgary Plus 15 or +15 Skyway network is an extensive pedestrian skywalk system in Calgary. The system has a total of over 9.9 miles of skywalks and 59 bridges.

The Calgary Plus 15 Map shows the network of skywalks and bridges on a Google Map. Users can click on any part of the network and get the opening hours of that section.

The Calgary Plus 15 Map is also available as a free iPhone map.


The Calgary +15 Map is another Google Map of the skywalk system. This map also allows you to click on any section of the network and view that section's opening hours.

How Good is Your Congressman's Vocab?

Words with Reps: Map of Vocabulary on the House Floor is a map to display the breadth of vocabulary of each of the nation’s 435 voting Representatives based on their speeches in the House.

The map shows each Representative's 'SQPD Ranking', measuring their usage of 3,393 different words that might be found on the SAT. The Congressional Record, the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, was used for the textual analysis of each Representative's vocabulary.

So how does your Representative rank?

Not a Google Map

Very, very rarely an on-line map that doesn't use the Google Maps API is so beautiful that I have to write about it on Google Maps Mania.

This wonderful Flash built map from Envisioning Development falls into that category. The map allows users to select New York City neighborhoods and view a bar chart of the number of families in each income group displayed at the bottom of the map.


I liked this map visualisation so much that last year I tried to create something similar using the Google Maps API. My U.S. Population Map is nowhere near as accomplished as the Envisioning Development map but I think it does point towards how a similar interface could be built using the Google Maps API.

The Cartography of Safe Sex

The Where Did You Wear It map from Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest is designed to promote safe sex. Users of the map are asked to check-in and report where they last used a condom. Reported check-ins (adjusted for anonymity) are then added to the map.

The map will hopefully prove useful in promoting the issue of safe sex but I'm guessing it could also prove useful to Planned Parenthood in targeting their support.

Users are asked to give a few details such as age, sex, the nature of the sexual encounter and the reasons why they used a condom. This data coupled with the location data could prove useful to Planned Parenthood in targeting their sexual health campaigns.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny