How to make a custom map of interesting places in my neighborhood?
March 13, 2016 1:50 PM   Subscribe

I have a list of places, mostly in my neighborhood and some elsewhere in my city, currently in text form that I want to keep track of in map form. I am having trouble figuring out how to do this. Snowflakes inside.

-the places are a combination of places in my regular routine (grocery store, post office, hair salon, etc) and places I'm interested in visiting like new restaurants, parks, etc
-my purpose in having this map is to prompt me to remember to check out new places when I'm in the area anyway for other things
-it can be paper or digital but I would like it to be somewhat nice-looking
-the map does not need to be to scale and in fact would be more efficient if it wasn't--most stuff on the list is clustered around major intersections and I know how far away they are. I could fit more stuff on one page/screen if the boring residential areas were minimized
-I have already tried dropping pushpins on google maps and I did not like it visually and also did not find it was that helpful because everything just looks like pushpins. I like google maps when it's really zoomed in and you can see the outlines of the individual stores in a shopping center, for example, but I want to be able to delete the businesses I'm not interested in.
-currently I am using the not-for-tourists maps and drawing things in, which is ok, but doesn't help too much with the too-much-space devoted to residential areas thing
-essentially what I want is the equivalent of a pen and paper sketch map but easier to keep updated and on a larger scale

Does an app or software exist that can help? Google seems to have failed me. Thanks!
posted by ellebeejay to Grab Bag (4 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would use Local Wiki for this purpose, and if you don't find anything perfectly-fitted to your needs with a not-to-scale map, it might be worth a go. Local Wiki is sort of like Wikipedia but with map functionality and a regional focus. And commentary, comments, and original research are permitted.

You can make pages about whatever you want, soou would just make pages for the places in your regular routine/interests and as part of that process mark them on the (open street maps) map. It's to scale and you probably wouldn't want to delete things but there could TOTALLY be an "ellebeejay's favorite places" page. Here's an example from a very populated local wiki city.

Oh right! And there's a tag feature now, so you could tag and untag every page you wanted to keep track of as "ellebeejay's places of interest" and then you'd have your own bespoke map.
posted by aniola at 2:08 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


In Google Drive, you can now make a custom map and add points. You can add descriptions, different layers, colour-coding, etc.

It's awesome - I use it in my classroom a lot, and what you're describing would also work.
posted by guster4lovers at 3:04 PM on March 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


I've used Mapbox for similar usages, the GeoJSON Markers example feels like it fits your requirements, some coding required though!
posted by Static Vagabond at 7:47 PM on March 13, 2016


I use Yelp bookmarks for this, and it's super simple. You can easily add or remove businesses/parks/attractions and then view your bookmarks on a map or in a list sorted by distance from you.
posted by crone islander at 7:42 AM on March 14, 2016


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