#historical mapping

[urbangeographies]

THE END OF CHINATOWN?

Chinatowns have been home to vibrant communities of Asian immigrants since the mid-19th century in many U.S. cities. The rapid changes now underway in these cities, however, suggest the decline and possible future disappearance of this distinctive ethnic quarter, according to a new report (pdf). Land-use maps of Chinatowns in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia point to the pressures of gentrification, development, and large public projects like stadiums and convention centers. In addition, immigration has slowed and upward mobility takes many Chinese-Americans to outlying areas. If these trends continue, Chinatowns could eventually disappear, said Bethany Li, author of the report and staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group that advocates for the civil rights of Asian Americans. Li hopes for historical mapping to document Chinatown extensions and urban planning to preserve small businesses and affordable housing for immigrant families. 

[massurban]

The Atlantic Cities:

"The Ages of 1 Million New York Buildings, Mapped in Explosive Color

John Metcalfe. Sept 18, 2013

If you were to splash New York with some kind of luminescent ink that reveals the age of buildings, this is roughly what it would look like: vast green swaths of 20th-century development, freckled with verdant blue and purple structures slapped together in the 1800s:

This incredible view of one of America's oldest burgs – available for your time-wasting pleasure here – was conjured over two days by Brandon Liu, a 24-year-old computer programmer in San Francisco. Inspired by similar visualizations for Brooklyn and Portland, Liu took a bulging wad of newly accessible open data and used it to create an extremely detailed, color-coded cartography of 1,053,713 buildings. Mauve dates to the 1830s, medium blue the turn of the century, and yellow the mid-1990s. It's zoomable, so you can ratchet down to specific neighborhoods to root out some real geezers hiding among all the fresh-faced facades.

"I was consulting on a project about historical districts in the city, and already had all the NYC building footprint data," Liu says via email. "I heard through social media that NYC had released their PLUTO data set for free. In the past it's cost thousands of dollars to acquire this data. Building age was the most interesting aspect of the data set to me, and it was quite simple to combine building footprints with age."

Image: Images courtesy of Brandon Liu and Open Street Map.