Urban Discoveries Baltimore

In the annals of government-established holidays, Baltimore Green Map Day (June 5, as of this year) may never inspire tears of civic gratitude, but it does mark the debut of a compelling tool for living in our fair city. This month the Baltimore Green Map celebrated its official launch, coincidentally enough, on Baltimore Green Map Day – part of the international launch of the Open Green Map social mapping platform.

Eight years in the making, the Baltimore Green Map site is the brainchild of mapmaker Janet Felsten, who was apparently tired of people identifying Baltimore via interactive murder maps of the kind recently mentioned on this blog.

In addition to locating farmers markets, parks, and public libraries instead of murders, murders, and murders, the Baltimore Green Map allows users to do more than simple click and scroll. The site encourages regular visitors to contribute to the mapping process – because actual human experience is crucial to how green something actually is in practice. There are more than 300 green locations currently tagged on the map, and theyíve been divided into three color-coded subsets: Sustainable Living, Nature, and Culture and Society. I counted three yellow, two green, and seven blue tags in my neighborhood, and more are being added all the time.

How does your block fare on the Baltimore Green Map?

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