Knowing that Gothamist likes all things New York, Urban Mapping sent us the Dynamap, a map geared towards tourists that layers three kinds of maps (street map, subway map, and neighborhood map) into one. The Urban Mapping technology compounds images that are then calibrated to a "specially designed polymer lens substrate" or imagine a sophisticated hologram. You tilt the map to see neighborhoods, then tilt it a little differently to see the streets. Tilt it again to see the actual subway lines (which is nicer than just seeing what subways are at which stops since some lines curve and careen).
The map covers Manhattan from Battery Park to 70th Street, which covers most of the usual tourist areas. On the back of the map, beside having locations of some places of interest and shopping destinations, there's a little guide to "Getting Around New York" that's helpful for even the native New Yorker, which things like "Little West 12th Street is not the same as West 12th Street" and "There are 3 Broadways and they are not the same" - all the stuff we had to learn by a lot of trial and error. As we do with any map of New York, we spent some time studying Manhattan (there are so many tiny streets, like Baruch Place off Houston and Staple Street in TriBeCa). Good times.
You can find the Dynamap at many NY stores, like Flight 001 or the MoMA Design Store, or purchase it here. It retails for $17.95, which is a little more expensive, but if your friends or family visit you in NY, it could be a good reference map to have around to give them as you send them to explore.
These photos don't really do the Dynamap justice, but they do give some sense of how the colors for the different maps (red for neighborhood, yellow streets, and blue for subway) change as you tilt the map.
