After we published SEAchange last week — a crowdsourced mapping project for Seattle communities to share memories about business and property changes in the South End — three other local interactive projects came to our attention that we’d like to highlight.
Though inevitably the geography between mapping projects overlap, each covers its own figurative ground.
1. Ghosts of Seattle Past
Jaimee Garbacik, the author of “Gender & Sexuality For Beginners,” is curating a map and art project called Ghosts of Seattle Past.
The major distinction between SEAChange and Ghosts of Seattle past is “Ghosts'” “emphasis on places lost, not what is replacing them,” Garbacik wrote in an email, “and the call for submissions will ask people to send in essays, photos, and artwork about/featuring lost spaces to be curated into a living atlas … until it is finally edited and published.”
The official submission call will be announced on Aug. 1. The physical atlas in progress will be on view at the next Short Run Festival on Halloween at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. Attendees are encouraged to contribute to the atlas by tagging and writing in memories of locations on the maps.
2. Hey, Duwamish!
Hey, Duwamish! is a map project developed and maintained by “a community of residents and stakeholders who are monitoring the cleanup of toxic waste in Seattle’s Duwamish River,” according to their site. They have an engaging map where users — in English, Spanish or Vietnamese — can “add a report to the map” regarding developments along the river. So far, people have posted about anything from painting a fence on the Eighth Avenue bike trail to bird nests and zinc contamination.
The “Activity Stream” which pulls the latest reports in real time on the homepage, is an especially unique feature on this map.
3. Columbia City Source
Columbia City Source’s development and project map is another great crowdsourced map project, not only showing new developments in Columbia City, but in some cases the status of the construction.
Of all of these, this is also perhaps the closest to our SEAchange map project, requesting contributors to fill out a simple form. The site doesn’t ask for address, however, which means the administrator must add the site manually, so you may not be able to see your addition immediately. The upkeep, though, as the project site, implies, is done with expertise:
“This map is maintained primarily through the volunteer efforts of Scott A., a Columbia City neighbor with a keen knack for searching the DPD’s public permits, land-use proposals, and other public sources to find out what’s going in around the corner and how to find out more about it.”
Share a memory with us on SEAchange.
Any other maps we should be aware of? Please share your favorite maps projects in comments or contact me directly.
