NYC subway maps / The great debate of 2007

A graphic designer named Eddie Jabbour has proposed an alternative design for NYC subway maps. The New York Times wrote about it last week, and since then blogs have been blowing up over it. 37 signals evaluated it, and applauds the effort to increase usability at the expense of geographic accuracy: "Subway map readers want to know how to get from A to B a lot more than they want to know the exact curve of the tracks along the way. Sometimes truth is less important than knowledge."

If points A & B are always subway stations, I wholeheartedly approve. As seen in snippet form below, the redesign much more clearly presents information that is relevant on the subway.


Eddie Jabbour's proposed redesign trades geographical accuracy for readability

But a subway trip is always part of a bigger logistical process. You're not just trying to get from Atlantic Avenue Station to Astor Place Station. You're trying to get from an apartment on President Street to the place where your friend cooks near Washington Square Park. And often the optimal subway route is not available to you; the line you want to take is extremely delayed; another line is not running; another is express past 9pm; another only runs to this station on Sundays; etc; etc. The reality is that you need to be able to improvise when you're in the subway system, and a map that is not geographically accurate inhibits your ability to adjust to the realities of the system.

Which brings me to the London A-Z. London can get away with a representative subway map because it has a companion book that allows you to figure out stuff like that. So the Circle line isn't running? Trusting the Tube map to go to the next nearest station may be disastrous, but you can always find your destination in your trusty A-Z, scan for another station nearby, etc. Moreover, magazines and newspapers often place the A-Z grid location next to an event listing.

Removing geographical context from the NYC map may make it easier to scan, but at this point, I feel like it's perhaps prematurely reductive. On the other hand, a reduction of information on the subway map may simply underscore and highlight (and italicize and capitalize) the need for a NYC A-Z. Or perhaps the MTA itself just needs to be more predictable. Or maybe everything should stay the same so every traveler can have that special scary feeling of being stranded in Brooklyn at 2am on a weeknight.

UPDATE: My friend Jonathan Gabel, a New York resident for the last 13 years, had some interesting thoughts on the matter:

The current map is a total fabrication of geography anyway -- Manhattan is made fat and short, and Brooklyn and Queens lose all of their length. In fact, the L line through Williamsburg and Bushwick is actually more accurate in the changed map, as it makes a radical zig-zag through the area. For instance, the L train runs: Lorimer, Graham, Grand, Montrose. From Niki's house, 8 blocks north of the Graham stop, to meet our friends who's live 4 blocks East of the Montrose stop, we often walk to Manhattan Ave, one block West of the Lorimer stop because it is half way between our houses. Figure that one out.

I have never seen the London A-Z but I looked at one of the NFT (not for tourists) guides to New York and found it wasn't really helpful, specifically because it doesn't really help you find addresses. Even the addresses of things it is telling you about -- like restaurants. Say you want to find Snacky's in Williamsburg. It shows you a map of the general area, and listings of all the restaurants and other things by street address, next to the map of the area. The map is bullet-riddled with little icons to tell you where all bars/ restaurants/ laundromats/ clubs/ sweatshops/ motorcycle-repair-shops are -- but every bar/restaurant/laundromat/club/sweatshop/motorcyclerepairshop is only labeled with the sign for b/r/lc/ds/mrs and no number. So to find your Snacky's you have to look at 20 r's and try to figure out which one it is, and ignore 40 b's, 20 l's, 5 c's 50 s's that are covering all the names of the streets. It's like that interface you described for the New Yorker -- it takes all the pleasure out of cartography. I would like to see a guidebook that makes discovering one's way pleasurable.

Amen to pleasure.

NFL conundrums / Culpepper or Garcia? Jamarcus Russell or Brady Quinn?

Overheard on College Humor's weekly sports chat, Straight Cash, Homey:

Ethan: Who has the better NFL career: Russell or Quinn?
Amir: That's an impossible question. I couldn't even tell you whos having a better career: Culpepper or Garcia, and they've had like 15 seasons between them. I'll guess for you though: Russell. He's bigger, faster, and stronger. I'm really curious to see a 6'6" 260 pound quarterback will do in the NFL. Can you imagine him and Brandon Jacobs on the same team?

I'm kinda just doing this to try out Clipmarks [Verdict: Useful, but inserted a huge amount of HTML crap into the clipping], but hey, those College Humor guys are funny. And I'm skeptical about Jamarcus Russell, anyway. Even though he seems like a great guy, and he has a good QB presence, I'm just not sure that a guy his size without proven traditional QB skills is such a good bet with the #1 pick. Why not Calvin Johnson? The guy is a surefire superstar. But a perfect storm has been created: Russell is in the draft and the Raiders' have the #1 pick. Al Davis is a gambler, and he loves anything unconventional. I suspect that he'll not be able to resist.

Earlier in the chat, they equated Trent Green and Rich Gannon and, in all seriousness, I don't know how you can compare the two. They were both referred to as slow, which, umm, is just patently untrue for Gannon, who made his name with his wiliness and speed. The dude had about one-third the arm strength of Joe Montana and still won an MVP. Green is slow, of course, though not as slow as, say, Dirk Nowitzki.

Information art / Typographic map of London

This amazing typographic map, cheekily called "London's Kerning," was designed by NB: Studio, a London graphic design concern. It's a pretty excellent demonstration of type's ability to communicate size, shape, relationship, the list goes on. I also love the homage (via typeface) to the London A-Z, an indispensable companion, interpreter and guide for any navigator of London. They're taking orders for them. [Thx, kottke].

Living all over / Google-mapping my life

So how come I just now learned that you can create your own Google Maps mark-up? As a lover of both maps and personal documents, the ability to customize an online map has the potential to have a Shabu-like effect on my life. The above map has all the places I've lived in the Bay Area. Check out the complete, interactive thingy here. It has essential, all-important commentary on each place. Maps I want to make: killer runs in SF; fun night-time wanderings in SF; literary locales of SF (from fiction and from real life); TV/movie locales of SF; (this guy already made a cool music-related history of SF); crazy work travel trips of the past few years; places I want to go; a burrito tour of the Mission; the list GOES ON.

Music / Lightning Bolt explodes 12 Galaxies

A few years ago, it would have been surprising to see a San Francisco indie crowd move its feet around in a dance-style motion at a live show. Last week, Lightning Bolt got people moving at 12 Galaxies; it wasn't exactly "dancing" but (from my vantage point in the balcony), it appeared kinetic -- lots of mass moving back and forth, a little crowd-surfing, a little flailing around. I took a lot of pictures from my perch above the drums.

Architecture / Teddy Cruz's urban acupuncture

Last night, I saw architect Teddy Cruz deliver a fast-paced, idea-rich presentation at the San Francisco Art Institute. In a little over an hour, he tore through a slide show covering his recent work on the social, cultural, political, and economic forces at work in communities along the US-Mexico border. The slide show itself was pretty impressive -- a blend of research photography, simple PowerPoint animation, and photo collages (like the ones shown in this post, courtesy of UCSD, where Cruz teaches) that looked somewhat like maps but also somewhat like actual photos of urban density.

I'd first heard of Cruz in the NYT Magazine feature from last spring, Shantytowns as a New Suburban Ideal. It details "Living Rooms at the Border," his proposed project to turn a lot in the border community of San Ysidro into a multi-use dwelling/community center/market. He discusses it in more detail in "Urban acupuncture", an article he wrote for Residential Architect Online:

Housing and density need to be seen not as an amount of units but as dwelling in relationship to the larger infrastructure of the city, which includes transportation, ecological networks, the politics and economics of land use, and particular cultural idiosyncrasies of place ... In a parcel where existing zoning allows only three units of housing, the project proposes (through negotiated density bonuses and by sharing kitchens) 12 affordable housing units, a community center resulting from the adaptive reuse of an existing 1927 church, offices for Casa Familiar in the church's new attic, and a garden underpinning the community's nonconforming micro-economies, such as street markets and kiosks. In a place where current regulation allows only one use, we propose five different uses that support each other.

Cruz discusses his architectural mission in this article at the American Institute of Architecture's site: Border Postcard: Chronicles from the Edge.

Kansas basketball / Post-Julian thoughts

Julian Wright is taking the opportunity of a lifetime, and who can blame him? He brought enthusiasm and energy to every game, contributed hugely in many of the big wins in the last couple of years (cf. these dunks during the Florida game and this epic 33-point performance at MU), and showed enough skill and potential to be very highly regarded by NBA scouts. Who wouldn't seize a chance to be financially secure, and to play in the NBA? The future is rarely certain in these situations, as these guys can attest. Best of luck to you, JuJu.

The KU-sports-related Internet is (predictably) thrashing around with the news, and the emotions range from hurt to happy, fatalistic to optimistic. And who can blame them, really? The last four years have been tough on Kansas basketball, so tough that the mention of certain names -- Roy, Micah, Padgett, Galindo, Giddens, CJ, etc -- can provoke pangs and spasms of hurt and guilt. I guess Julian gets added to the list now, though personally I think he's ready and I'm happy for him. Most of the commenters at the end of this story feel otherwise.

Julian's departure is complicated, of course, by the fact that he pledged to stay following the loss to UCLA. This CBS reporter was really peeved that Julian reconsidered his prospects after the season ended, which seems kinda silly to me. Did it really take Julian's change of heart to communicate to him that big-time college sports are bittersweet, unpredictable, and perpetually compromised by the twin prospects of major, life-changing injuries and major, life-changing paydays?

Whatever happens, I think that Julian will eventually have a good NBA career. Ryan Greene of kusports.com compares Julian to Shawn Marion, and I see the resemblance as well. That said, he would be way better off with established, veteran-heavy teams like Phoenix (who wouldn't?) or Chicago, where he'd be able to learn and adjust out of the spotlight. Career-endangering teams like Memphis, Atlanta or (once again) Sacramento will give him too much responsibility too soon, though he may be able to survive that either way. Long term, he's a Western Conference player who will come off the bench, get his 12 and 8, continue do all the little stuff that makes him great (deflecting passes, setting other guys up, keeping offensive rebounds alive), and be a good team guy to boot.

The bright sides
Looking forward to next November, here are three scenarios that reflect my thinking on the remaining possibilities for early entries and (yikes, not again!) transfers.

• Without Wright: Actually may be better. Like Drew Gooden's early exit, I actually think there's quite a significant bright side here. Julian's athletic ability and talent require that he play a major role in the offense, which results in fewer opportunities for the talents of other players -- Mario's drives and shots, Sherron's shot and drive, Rush's entire offensive arsenal, Shady's sweet moves inside 12 feet. When Gooden left, Collison's McHale-like low-post presence and Hinrich's Stockton-like ability to make the right decision on every fast break ended up providing a system more stable than the one focused on Gooden's always athletic, sometimes erratic presence. Without Julian at the 4, Shady starts and gets more time. This means that the line-up gets bulkier without losing that much in the way of speed. They'll miss Julian's explosiveness and shot-blocking, but they gain Shady's sweet touch and better ability to (more dependably) make plays while posting up. If Rush is still around (not likely, so see the bullet point below), I tend to think that this line-up may even be more dangerous than if Wright had stuck around.



• Without Wright and Rush: Lots of re-jiggering, lots of uncertainty. Losing Rush is a much bigger deal than losing Wright, obviously. He's the team's best on-the-ball defender; he became the go-to scorer during the games in San Jose, and he can stroke it. Unfortunately for him, he's not the explosive athlete that Julian is, and scouts are not evaluating his draftability in the crystal-ballish terms of upside and potential. His capacity is known, apparently, and therefore it has limits in the eyes of scouts. Does this mean he can't become, say, a Bruce Bowen type of player? Heck no. In fact, I think he'd fit in really well with the type of team who would draft him in the 20's or so. And this is probably what will happen, so it all works out for the best, for him. If money and academics (which are a major hassle for him) were not issues, he's in a great position to thrive next season. He fits into Self's system really well; he really began to shine at the end of the season; another season would really give him a chance to refine his dribble-drive and his outside shot. But this is not an ideal world, and barring the entry of the entire UNC team or an injury that prevents him from competing in the pre-draft camps, I suspect he's gone. Good luck to him.
  So. How do the Hawks replace Brandon? Who becomes the stopper? Who takes over the offense at the end of games? Who attracts the other team's defenders whenever he's on the floor? I'm not really sure about any of this. A couple of things are certain, though: This will be a seasoned, capable team. They've been through a lot, beaten Kevin Durant twice, won two Big 12 tournaments, etc. Moreover, they'll be without a superstar like Brandon and Julian, and this -- weirdly -- might make them much more like Self's Illinois teams -- gritty, hungry, scrappy and dangerous in the tournament.
  



• Without Wright, Rush, and Collins: !@$#%$#@*&. Almost too painful to consider. How many times did I text the words "Thank God for Sherron" during the Big 12 season? How many times did he single-handedly change the pace and momentum of a game with a vicious drive to the basket? He's not ready to jump to the League, but rumor has it that he wants to be closer to home. But would he really want to sit out a year, play for a school in a mid-major conference, give up a chance to play in a Final Four, give up a chance to play on national television for 15-20 or 20-25 games next year? I really hope not. Man, that would hurt.