Screenshot of Map courtesy of HueArts NYC

HueArts NYC, a coalition of over 400 New York City arts groups founded, led, and serving Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color (POC), launched an interactive digital map and directory of the city’s POC-led arts and culture landscape. The map accompanies a report with key findings and recommendations for the city’s policymakers and arts donors to address the city’s cultural equity gap, including a call to create a $100 million fund to support POC-led arts groups.

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Created by the Olmsted and Vaux firm, this map shows the original plans for Prospect Park, as well as the historic reservoir at Grand Army Plaza (1871)

The Center for Brooklyn History, a collaboration between the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Public Library, launched a user-friendly online portal that contains the institution’s collection of nearly 1,500 maps of Brooklyn dating back to 1562. While researchers will no doubt appreciate the new accessibility to the unique maps, the tool is also a fun way for all residents of the borough to explore the evolution of their neighborhood over the last four centuries. From rare Revolutionary War maps and original plans for Prospect Park to a subway map detailing how to get to Ebbets Field, the maps span more than 450 years and include transit maps, cultural maps, survey charts, and more.

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Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

We all want to support the small businesses in our New York neighborhoods during this difficult time. But sometimes it’s hard to keep track of which stores and restaurants are currently open. A number of local websites and organizations have created easy-to-use search engines and interactive maps that provide information on open businesses.

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Photo by Enrique Alarcon on Unsplash

In a dense city like New York, social distancing is no easy task. Garbage piles, sidewalk sheds, and people make it hard to maintain six feet from others, the recommended distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. A new interactive map created by urban planner Meli Harvey shows the width of each sidewalk in the city, with the most narrow highlighted in red and the widest in blue. As expected, there’s a lot of red on the map.

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Photo via Carl Mikoy / Flickr cc

Despite recent progress–and a federal lawsuit–only 23 percent of New York City’s 493 subway and Staten Island Railway (SIR) stations are fully ADA-accessible, a statistic which puts the city dead last among the country’s 10 largest metro systems for accessibility of its transit stations. The MTA has made a commitment to funding accessibility in its much-discussed Capital Plan, but hundreds of stations are still without without plans for ADA access. On Friday Speaker Corey Johnson and the City Council released a report showing that the use of zoning tools to incentivize or require private development projects to address subway station access could speed up progress toward the goal of system-wide ADA access–and simultaneously cut public expense. The report, and an interactive map, show the current system, future plans and what the use of zoning tools could accomplish.

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New York City is the endlessly romantic backdrop for more literary love stories than we could possibly count. In honor of Valentine’s Day, the NYPL asked their book experts for their favorite tales of love and the city; then they put them on a map for our exploration–and reading–pleasure.

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As the dreaded L train shutdown of April 2019 looms ever nearer, the fine folks at Citymapper have created an addition to their interactive mapping app to show you what your commute will look like when the L is not an option. Use the SuperRouter to plan a trip between Brooklyn and Manhattan and see which of your alternative routes works best.

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While most New Yorkers know the city has been full of historical events and figures since its founding, it’s sometimes hard to remember where all these significant milestones took place. An interactive map called “Read the Plaque” features 17,000 plaques found across the world, with over 100 in New York City alone. As part of the radio project 99% Invisible, Read the Plaque imports plaques from around the world, with each featuring locations, descriptions, and pictures.

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The New York City greater metropolitan area is home to over a million service members, veterans and their families. To provide an idea of just how many veterans call the city home–and how diverse a community they are– the New York City Department of Veterans’ Services has compiled a set of maps using the most recently available data from the American Community Survey and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

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The 1904 map via Martayan Lan Gallery

New Yorkers have used maps to navigate the city’s subway system since the first year the system opened 114 years ago. And one of only two known examples of the Interborough Rapid Transit’s first guide is for sale for $12,000, the New York Times reported. That 1904 transit guide, along with many more historic maps of New York, can be found at the Martayan Lan Gallery, which is kicking of its  “New Amsterdam to Metropolis: Historic Maps of  New York City 1548-1964” exhibit on Nov. 9.

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