Counter-mapping Narratives of Suburban Commercial Landscapes And Identity - Nohely Alvarez
Channel: OpenStreetMap US
Date: 2022-05-05

Langley Park is an unincorporated inner suburb in Maryland, located a mile away from the Washington, D.C. border. Since the 1950s it has been recognized for its transient community - one of a planned suburb for returning GIs, and now as one of the largest Latinx immigrant communities in the D.C. metropolitan area. Today, it faces lingering threats of gentrification and displacement due to underinvestment, aging infrastructure, transit development, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these transient changes, the lived experiences of the multicultural residents and small businesses have been underreported. In this session, I will demonstrate how I have used OSM to map 'under-mapped' spaces of businesses by capturing symbols, cultural expressions, and social and spatial elements. This research will expand how we can understand places of ethnic landscapes and identify tools to better serve them in the face of commercial gentrification and will be a chapter in my dissertation.

This talk was presented at State of the Map US 2022. To learn more about State of the Map US 2022, visit https://2022.stateofthemap.us/

Learn more about OpenStreetMap US at https://www.openstreetmap.us/