For the Love of Maps
categories: Self Promotion
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved maps. When I was a kid in Colorado, I used to study maps for hours on end. I’d take pretend trips over mountain passes or find great high mountain valleys to camp in. Maps are powerful because your imagination gets to fill in the detail: the map only tells you where things were not how they look. I think it is the equivalent of reading the book instead of seeing the movie. The book is always much better because you add the detail.
Looking at maps of the ocean was also pretty fun. I always wondered what the bottom of the ocean floor looked like where the colors on the map went to dark blue. Those images will always remain in the imagination though, because while we know what the surface of the moon and even Mars looks like, we haven’t see the vast majority of the bottom of our own oceans.
Landforms are different, though. I could plan a trip by daydreaming on a map for weeks, but finally I would go and see these places. Inevitably, they don’t turn out to be nearly as cool as they were on the map and in my mind. The water wasn’t as good, or cattle or dirt bikes had tracked the land. And usually the weather wasn’t as good; my mind apparently has this thing for 80 degree blue sky days.
In urban environments you’re usually even more disappointed. Map makers tend to use green a little liberally on maps marking every open space and park. While technically it is a park, it might just be a boulevard with a wide center median. And what you can’t tell is that next to it is a strip mall, flea market or abandoned drive-in theatre.
I’ve built a real estate website that uses mapping technology from mapquest to show homes displayed on maps. Partly it was my affinity towards maps that drove me (no pun intended) to this technique, but it was also just common sense. When you are looking for a house online, it is much easier to see them on a map because you can see how close they are to each other or to a workplace or school. This is particularly helpful for people from out of town who don’t know the area or even the names of the roads.
However, while the mapping solution is better for locating houses, the houses are still just icons on a colored grid. If you’ve never been there, you don’t know what the streetscape looks like. That is where you need a good set of eyes on the ground and a good realtor. By looking at a map alone, you’d never know that there is not a single stop light in about forty square miles of the new City of Milton or that the Target on Hwy 92 is a SUPER Target.
If you need the color commentary to fill in the empty places on the map, please feel free to contact me. Meanwhile, drive you mouse around North Fulton and view the homes online, instead of driving your car.
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