Map of the Day: City Hall's New York City Map
Via The Daily Politics, the City of New York has created its own Google-type map with all sorts of information overlaid to show you the nearest services.
For instance, you can map an address and then find out the nearest post office, school, subway station or WiFi hotspot. You can also define boundaries as boroughs, zip codes - or landmark districts, business improvement districts, city council districts, or community boards. There's also regular map and aerial map views. As with many city projects, conceptually, it's brilliant, but executionally, it's a little funky - panning across the map is difficult. But, with little touches like showing where subways entrances are, there are certain charms.
The Daily Politics' Ben Smith writes, "The next step, one would think, would be to give citizens a way to get into the map, or make their own maps." Well, all the data that's listed is public - if that data were more accessible, say on Google Maps, citizens (and/or enterprising businesses) would be able to hack a map for their own uses.
Map of New York City from the City of New York.
Top map is aerial view of Wi-Fi hotspots near Union Square; lower map shows parks near the Municipal Building
