Us City Maps

Council responds to proposed lines, mixed reactions

Reaction to the county, state and federal redistricting shake-up is mixed among Martinez city leaders.

City Council member Mike Menesini said he was happy with the new county supervisorial map lines; in fact, he’s “seriously considering” running for the District 5 seat in November 2012.

The new district lines, expected to be officially adopted after a Board of Supervisors public hearing next Tuesday, “certainly are not perfect,” said Menesini. “But on the other hand they are so much better than we had before. One of the principles identified by an awful lot of people is that the districts should be comprised of communities of interest,” Menesini said in an interview Friday evening. “We share many of the concerns and aspirations of the waterfront cities that are now included in District 5.”

As for the proposed new federal congressional districts for California, which see half of Martinez being shifted north into Mark Thompson’s district, Menesini said the change offers “some exciting prospects.”

“I think it is extraordinarily interesting that we are now in the same senatorial districts as the Valley of the Moon,” he said. “We’ll see how it happens. It is certainly somewhat startling, I don’t think any of us expected it, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world for Martinez either.

Council member Lara DeLaney was cautiously optimistic this week about the county district changes, saying that she doesn’t feel “we share a ‘community of interest’ with Pittsburg and Hercules, it may be beneficial to have a Supervisor who represents communities on the water.”

DeLaney expressed concern that the federal congressional district alterations will decrease Martinez’s influence.  

“Whereas the present Congressional District that includes Martinez also includes Concord, Pittsburg and Richmond (as well as Vallejo, Fairfield and Vacaville), the new district picks up only Martinez and Hercules south of the Carquinez Straight and then heads north all the way to Lakeport. The area south of the Carquinez appears to be less than five percent of the new Congressional District’s territory. The major cities are Napa and Santa Rosa.”

DeLaney said she has yet to meet Thompson in person, but looks forward to the opportunity. 

“Although Congressman Miller retains only a small portion of Martinez south of Highway 4, it can’t hurt to have two Congressmen in Washington to appeal to,” said DeLaney.

Because You Asked – “Wear You Live” Adds Pittsburgh Maps | I Heart PGH

The maps that we use are called figuregrounds. This type of map is commonly used in the fields of city planning, design and architecture to study density and development patterns by depicting all of the buildings in a city as opposed to the streets, parcels or transit lines. Figureground mapping is almost 250 years old and was the first time a city was technically surveyed and portrayed in the 2D, google map view that we commonly use today.

As soon as I saw these t-shirts, totes, pillows and prints – I thought why not Pittsburgh.  I wanted to see how the rivers and the parks of Pittsburgh would show up on a figureground map.  So I emailed Matt, the brains behind the Wear You Live project.  Matt kindly replied to say he would see what he could do.  They were happy that the project had been so successful.  Well, it turns out I wasn’t the only one asking about Pittsburgh.  Matt emailed me on Friday to say that Pittsburgh was on the way.  From his email:

Lindsay has been writing about Pittsburgh for as long as she has been blogging - but fortunatly there are lots of great things about Pittsburgh to share. She likes pretzels from the Pretzel Shop on Carson St., used book stores, her rollerblades and she hopes to learn to skateboard someday soon.

Business Travel Atlas, United States, Canada, Mexico

U.S. Cities Playing Cards, Cards Feature Maps of Major U.S. Cities

The National geographic magazine

The Touring Musician, A Small-Business Approach to Booking Your Band on the Road

Good housekeeping