New York Cruise Island

These four maps are not real. I was led to the website http://www.radicalcartography.net from the original website we were tasked with and found it very interesting. The maps on it are attempting to look at cartography in a very modern manner. I choose these four maps from it because the cartographer Bill Rankin has taken a novel idea of what if Manhattan island could sail off like a cruise ship and visit other cities around the country and i think it provides a rather accurate comparison. There are vast differences between the manner of construction of the cities from east to west coast. The older more industrial east coast cities are extremely tight knit and compact whereas the west coast cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles are much larger and sprawling in nature. Not only does this reflect the type of industry traditionally driving the cities but also seems to run parallel with peoples perceptions of the nature of its residents i.e. that Californian people are very easy going and laid back whereas people from New York are seen as up tight demanding and pushy. The sprawling metropolis's of the west are indicative of the surrounding land and how readily available it was for expansion. New York has had to build up rather than out due to the constraints of the topography and the greater population in the surrounding region with many other cities competing for space and resources. Overall though these maps are fictional i think they provide a good basis of comparison between East and West coast cities.