Bad Maps

A Bad Maps Success Story

By Eric Richardson — September 26, 2007

New and Old Maps When I first posted the Market Loft maps last October and started the Bad Maps series, it wasn't with any particular goal in mind. I didn't set out to try and get the mistakes changed, because doing that would involve phone calls and not just posting about it here on the site.

That's why I was more than bit surprised and pleased to get an email from the CRA yesterday saying that they had fixed the Main / Spring mislabel I posted about a few weeks back. Turns out the mistake was in the base map for the Center City plan area, and CRA has pushed a new map up onto their site (though it's an embedded PDF that I have to open in Safari).

Pictured is a comparison of old and new, with the corrected map at left showing Spring street in its proper alignment. Well done, CRA.

Now maybe someday Public Works will fix the huge Downtown maps they keep putting up in the street furniture kiosks.

Bad Maps: CRA Edition

By Eric Richardson — September 06, 2007

This morning I was glancing through this CRA report (PDF) on purchasing SRO hotels (lead story in this week's Downtown News gives the backstory on that). It was all pretty boring and repetitive until I came to page 8 of the 9 page PDF. There the CRA provided a map showing the locations of the hotels to be purchased. The first dot that drew my eye was #2,...

Bad Maps: Metro Edition

By Eric Richardson — August 02, 2007

Back in April it was a City map that got the "Bad Maps" nod, so this time it's only fair to recognize the efforts of Metro, the county transit agency. The map pictured sits on the sidewalk at 7th and Hope, outside the 7th/Metro subway station. The Aon building, depicted in the map section on the right, was what first drew my attention to this particular piece...

Fresh Fare Takes a "Fresh" Approach to Downtown Streets

By Eric Richardson — July 18, 2007
5 Comments

I promise you that come Saturday, all this Fresh Fare content will be over. Right now, though, they just keep providing such great stuff. Most Downtowners probably got their third Fresh Fare mailer yesterday, one which this time eschews the glossy postcard for an envelope of flyers and savings. Printed in two places is a little map showing you the location...

City of LA Gets Into the Bad Map Game

By Eric Richardson — April 30, 2007
8 Comments

It's surprising how many bad maps are out there. Every so often I run across a map of Downtown that's particularly egregious, and I just have to take the time to point it out here. Today's map has a little twist in that it's actually produced by the City of LA. These massive Downtown districts maps have shown up on a handful of advertising kiosks over the...

Worst. Maps. Ever.

By Eric Richardson — April 01, 2007
5 Comments

Kathy and I went to the Arclight yesterday and had a few minutes to kill between dinner and our movie. We stopped by the bookstore and I started browsing the Los Angeles selections. When I picked up the Architecture Tours L.A. Guidebook: Downtown I knew I had to buy it. While the content is a fairly generic look at Downtown's architecture, the maps inside the...

More Bad Maps: Top 10 Los Angeles

By Eric Richardson — January 08, 2007
1 Comment

I really enjoyed the laugh we all got back in October from the bad map Market Lofts uses. A couple weeks later I pointed out the "creative license" in several other maps of Downtown. But don't worry, this license isn't limited to just those maps used by developments. Actual books can fall prey as well. This map comes from Top 10 Los Angeles, a travel guide...

Selling Downtown's Amenities

By Eric Richardson — November 09, 2006
8 Comments

A couple weeks back we had a good laugh at the implausibly incorrect map Market Lofts uses to sell people on Downtown. Since then I've taken a look at some other loft and condo sites with maps and it's surprising how hard it is to find one that actually has everything in the right place. The lesson seems to be that if you're a developer, don't try showing...

Dear Market Lofts

By Eric Richardson — October 24, 2006
18 Comments

We haven't met, but you're getting built in my neighborhood. I was walking by your sales office today and then checked out your website. As someone who knows a thing or two, I've got some advice I really think you need to hear. First off, you keep using this tagline "Walk to a 1000 places." I keep reading it "Walk to a one thousand places." If you want to...