Douglas?

February 4, 2013 5:34 PM

Click that 'hood! is a simple game which tasks you to locate neighborhoods in one of six cities: Chicago, IL; Lexington, KY; Louisville, KY; Oakland, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Seattle, WA. An easy game gives you 20 neighborhoods: A hard game gives you the entire city.
posted by shakespeherian (42 comments total)

Just did my own city, and the map is a little off on some neighborhoods. Also there is a HUGE design flaw that I probably shouldn't type out here to spoil the whole game, but it does make it a bit pointless.
posted by dilettante at 5:42 PM on February 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

I would love to have one of these for Pittsburgh.
posted by Alison at 5:44 PM on February 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

Apparently according to them I live in "Ocean View". Seeing how there's a whole other neighborhood in this scheme between me and the ocean, this makes no sense. (I suppose maybe I can see the ocean from the top of the hill?)
posted by madcaptenor at 5:47 PM on February 4, 2013

This game will stimulate much debate about what neighbourhoods are called and which ones do and do not exist.

Also, needs more Toronto.
posted by GuyZero at 5:50 PM on February 4, 2013

I understand that they got the data from the Seattle city government, so it's not the developers' fault, but the data is wrong and that rather spoils the fun. "Adams"? "Mid-Beacon Hill"? "Mann"? These are not real place-names - and the last one is particularly bizarre since I supposedly live within its imaginary borders.
posted by Mars Saxman at 5:52 PM on February 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

Wow, I do not know my Oakland neighborhoods. :(
posted by psoas at 5:53 PM on February 4, 2013

Playing for Oakland and I gotta say I'm not convinced "Fairfax Business-Wentworth-Holland" is an actual neighborhood.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 5:54 PM on February 4, 2013

Wow, I do not know my Oakland neighborhoods. :(

For what it's worth, they have 131 neighborhoods in Oakland and only 37 in San Francisco, which has twice the population.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:54 PM on February 4, 2013

When I put the cursor over a neighbourhood, it tells me the name. Surely this is not meant to happen.
posted by hoyland at 5:58 PM on February 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

> Just did my own city, and the map is a little off on some neighborhoods. Also there is a HUGE design flaw that I probably shouldn't type out here to spoil the whole game, but it does make it a bit pointless.

If the game is ruined by a design flaw it's spoiled anyway.

VTMB is the exception to the rule. Its design flaw just spoiled a company, not the game.
posted by clarknova at 6:01 PM on February 4, 2013

HAHAHAHAHA As a former resident of Saint Louis (79 neighborhoods in the city, 91 municipalities in the county, and 9 unincorporated areas) I think this may be amateur hour.
posted by lineofsight at 6:03 PM on February 4, 2013

When I put the cursor over a neighbourhood, it tells me the name. Surely this is not meant to happen.

I believe the point is to beat your score by knowing where to find a given neighborhood rather than by poring through them all until you find the right one.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:11 PM on February 4, 2013

HAHAHAHAHA As a former resident of Saint Louis (79 neighborhoods in the city, 91 municipalities in the county, and 9 unincorporated areas) I think this may be amateur hour.

Wel­come to The Times’ neigh­bor­hood map of Los Angeles County. This re­gion­al view is your portal to in­di­vidu­al maps and stat­ist­ics for 158 cit­ies and un­in­cor­por­ated places and 114 neigh­bor­hoods with­in the city of Los Angeles.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:13 PM on February 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

This game is useless without crime statistics.
posted by Flashman at 6:20 PM on February 4, 2013

Playing for Oakland and I gotta say I'm not convinced "Fairfax Business-Wentworth-Holland" is an actual neighborhood.

Yeah, they got the data for Oakland from Zillow, and I don't really trust real estate agents to name things. Who calls Jack London "Old City- Produce and Waterfront"? No one, that's who. They also repeat the same typo that Yahoo has had on it's maps for years- my neighborhood, Lakeside, is called "Lakewide". (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

Many of the historic names used by people in the neighborhoods are not on it either: Jingletown, Ghost Town, the Twomps, Brooklyn.

So, yeah, fun, but it could have used some fact-checking. And spell checking.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:23 PM on February 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

unusable in iOS.
posted by mwhybark at 6:27 PM on February 4, 2013

Come to think of it, I've never heard anyone call Lower Rockridge "Shafter", either. I am, however, amused that Piedmont is now a neighborhood of Oakland.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:28 PM on February 4, 2013

This game will stimulate much debate about what neighbourhoods are called and which ones do and do not exist.

Interesting. All of South Lawndale is labeled as Little Village, but Pilsen is labeled as the Lower West Side. You'd think they'd have either Little Village and Pilsen OR South Lawndale and the Lower West Side.

After playing this a few times, I realize I have 100% accuracy when it comes to neighborhoods I've actually lived in, ~90% accuracy for places friends have lived or I go to often, ~75% accuracy for places I've been, and about 0% accuracy for Grand Crossing.
posted by phunniemee at 6:41 PM on February 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

I moved to Chicago a year ago and I still only know around a dozen of the 90 neighborhoods. Humbling.
posted by naju at 6:48 PM on February 4, 2013

If LA is a Portal to Hell (courtesy drjimmy11) does that make mid-sized midwestern cities with excess municipalities Hellmouths?
posted by lineofsight at 6:51 PM on February 4, 2013

Wel­come to The Times’ neigh­bor­hood map of Los Angeles County. This re­gion­al view is your portal to in­di­vidu­al maps and stat­ist­ics for 158 cit­ies and un­in­cor­por­ated places and 114 neigh­bor­hoods with­in the city of Los Angeles.

It's amazing how perfectly their contracting company wrote this to work with no browsers on no operating systems. Does this only work on the Blackberry, or what?

Tried in OSX (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), Windows (Chrome, Firefox, IE7, IE8, IE9), ios 5 (Safari, Chrome), ios 6 (Chrome).

Way to go, LA Times.
posted by phoebus at 6:52 PM on February 4, 2013

I believe the point is to beat your score by knowing where to find a given neighborhood rather than by poring through them all until you find the right one.

Well, sure, but if I hit North Center not knowing what it is while aiming for Logan Square, I'm going to get North Center right a hell of a lot faster than if I would have done otherwise.
posted by hoyland at 6:56 PM on February 4, 2013

Missing so many San Francisco neighborhoods. Dumb.
posted by rtha at 7:04 PM on February 4, 2013

Also they left out like a sixth of the city.
posted by aubilenon at 7:20 PM on February 4, 2013

If LA is a Portal to Hell (courtesy drjimmy11) does that make mid-sized midwestern cities with excess municipalities Hellmouths?

Which city on this list are you identifying as a mid-sized midwestern city? Because there is only one midwestern city, and it is the largest midwestern city, which makes it definitively not mid-sized.
posted by deathpanels at 8:16 PM on February 4, 2013

I am born and bred in Seattle proper and this thing is just plain wrong. I wanted to like it. I've not ever heard of many of the neighborhoods.

Also, it doesn't work for shit on iPad or, if it is working, the lack of feedback is as-designed and is horrid. It is hard to tell if it is working correctly or not.

Sorry. I wanted to like it.
posted by bz at 8:29 PM on February 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

"West of Twin Peaks" is not a neighborhood, foolios. Oceanview is, although I agree its name makes little sense.
posted by smirkette at 10:39 PM on February 4, 2013

I used to live in Fremont, and never, ever heard anyone call "Ballard" "Adams".
posted by maxwelton at 11:04 PM on February 4, 2013

I've lived in four of these cities! I already feel like a winner.

(which is good, because I absolutely suck at this game)
posted by iamkimiam at 11:13 PM on February 4, 2013

Nice idea, but poorly executed in the case of Chicago. It appears the map was done by someone who has lived, perhaps briefly, on the north side and only ventured west of Damen and south of North to check out the trendy restaurants west of the loop. It's based on quasi-official community area boundaries drawn about 100 years, with a bit of detail about a few north and near west side neighborhoods.
posted by she's not there at 2:31 AM on February 5, 2013

I moved to Chicago a year ago and I still only know around a dozen of the 90 neighborhoods. Humbling.

Humbling's on the far southwest side, near Beverly. Don't get it confused with Humboldt Park on the west side.

(I keed, I keed)

Seriously. One of the issues is that Chicago has 77 official "community areas." It also as a number of unofficial neighborhoods. Lakeview is an official CRA, east of North Center and Roscoe Village, source of Uptown and Ravenswood, north of DePaul and Lincoln Park. In Lakeview, you have neighborhoods like Wrigleyville, Boystown/North Halsted, and Lake View East.

This map seems to mix that up. It has Edgewater, and Andersonville in Edgewater, but it doesn't have Lakewood Balmoral. Rodgers Park doesn't have Loyola, Logan Square has Bucktown, but not Palmer Square or Kosciuszko Park. It actually combines Sauganash and Forest Glen, rather than having Forest Glen as a separate neighborhood.

I do like that they correctly left the hole in the NW side where Norridge, IL and Harwood Heights, IL, are.

and about 0% accuracy for Grand Crossing.

Greater Grand Crossing is neither. ;-)

BTW, this is the Grand Crossing that gave Greater Grand Crossing the name. The best thing is there's a name for when railroads start crossing each other's tracks and get into an argument about it, it is called a frog war.

Usually, the CRA/Neighborhood that everyone forgets is Beverly. Well, not me, I forget almost all the south side ones.
posted by eriko at 2:31 AM on February 5, 2013

It looks like this was built by a team in Louisville, Kentucky, which may explain why it's less than accurate in other cities.
Unfortunately, even though I lived in Louisville for the first 17 years of my life, I can't tell if this is accurate or not, because there are so many weird neighborhoods there. I am shamed.
posted by 235w103 at 6:06 AM on February 5, 2013

I live in Louisville.
It's accurate, though I've never heard of a few of those neighborhoods.

Also, my name is Douglas... so this whole thing was kinda creeepy.
posted by DigDoug at 7:22 AM on February 5, 2013

I used to live in Fremont, and never, ever heard anyone call "Ballard" "Adams".

I have. It's the part of Ballard that wasn't part of Old Ballard, the part annexed in 1907. Also where Adams Elementary school is.

What people call a neighborhood and what a neighborhood actually is are two very different things. When they reinstituted neighborhood boundaries for high schools Crown Hill parents were LIVID because they lived in Ballard but their kids wouldn't go to Ballard HS! And then someone pointed out they lived in Crown Hill, but THIS CANNOT BE THEY HAD NEVER HEARD OF CROWN HILL EXCEPT FOR EVERY SIGN SAYING THEY WERE IN CROWN HILL AND THE CROWN HILL SAFEWAY AND THE PLACES BRANDED THE CROWN HILL SUCH AND SUCH.

Even I do this -- the Seattle neighborhood map says I'm in Northgate, but I say I'm in Maple Leaf (which, luckily, the neighborhood council also agrees with.)

Even then, most Seattleites, even natives, couldn't tell you where Maple Leaf is, never mind it's one of the oldest neighborhoods in the north end.
posted by dw at 7:38 AM on February 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Now, Maple Leaf I know. I used to live in Broadview, fairly near the northern border of Greenwood and not too terribly far from Crown Hill.

I've never heard of Adams.
posted by bz at 7:45 AM on February 5, 2013

dw, I used to live right at the border of Maple Leaf and Ravenna/Roosevelt. I used to say I lived in Ravenna, but realistically probably lived in Maple Leaf, though I was just south of Lake City Way and 80th.

Still have never heard anyone say "I live in Adams" when talking about the area west of Fremont...I've heard plenty of people say "I live in Maple Leaf" or "I live in Ballard."
posted by maxwelton at 11:51 AM on February 5, 2013

Another native Seattlite checking in to say this map is bullshit. "North College Park"?? Sorry, that's called Northgate; Magnolia is only one neighborhood bordered by water and Interbay, and don't even get me started on "Pike-Market". Grrrr...

I do know where Maple Leaf is though, because I work there and every morning I see the sign proclaiming it was neighborhood of the year in 1986. They're pretty proud of that.
posted by bizwank at 4:27 PM on February 5, 2013

'"Adams"? "Mid-Beacon Hill"? "Mann"? These are not real place-names - and the last one is particularly bizarre since I supposedly live within its imaginary borders.'


There totally is a Mid-Beacon Hill. Beacon Hill is more than 5 miles long. It's too big to be a single neighborhood. It contains North Beacon Hill, South Beacon Hill, Mid-Beacon Hill, Lockmore, and Holly Park (or NewHolly) at the very least. (I live there and edit the neighborhood blog.) I am familiar with both Adams and Mann, but they are old-fashioned names.

Maple Leaf isn't obscure at all. There's even a sign on Roosevelt welcoming you to that neighborhood. But it always confused me a bit because Maple Leaf Elementary School used to be just up the hill from Nathan Hale High School, around NE 100th and 30th NE (rough guess -- it's been many years since they tore it down). Nowhere near Maple Leaf neighborhood.
posted by litlnemo at 12:02 AM on February 6, 2013

And now that I've played the game... yeah, some of the names are older and not used much these days, but it doesn't seem that strange to me. As a Seattle history and map geek, I've seen every one of those names. The only ones I had trouble finding are in areas I don't know very well anyway like much of West Seattle. But I had heard of every neighborhood it showed me.

West Seattle, Magnolia, Ballard, Beacon Hill, etc. -- they are all districts, but I wouldn't call them neighborhoods, unless you want to call them "meta-neighborhoods" or something like that. (Ballard was once its own city!) A neighborhood is smaller than that. Urban neighborhoods can be pretty small. You might think of yourself as being from Magnolia or something, but people in certain parts of Magnolia live differently and probably think of themselves as different from people in other parts of Magnolia. Same over here on Beacon Hill -- North Beacon is demographically different from Mid- and South Beacon, and its housing stock is substantially different, too. (Most of North Beacon is made up of early 20th century bungalows. Mid-Beacon is a couple of decades newer, with many homes from the immediate post WWII period. South Beacon, which was farmland relatively recently, has a lot of homes from the mid-late 20th century -- a lot of split levels and such.) The south tip of the hill is as far away from me on North Beacon as Montlake. Of course it's a different neighborhood.

There was a time when a lot of these small neighborhoods had their own grocery stores, movie theaters, drugstores, hardware stores, etc. Losing that contributed a lot to losing the identity of our neighborhoods.
posted by litlnemo at 12:20 AM on February 6, 2013

"North College Park"?? Sorry, that's called Northgate

No, it's not, because I used to live in North College Park. That said, we called it Licton Springs (the original name of the area).

But it always confused me a bit because Maple Leaf Elementary School used to be just up the hill from Nathan Hale High School, around NE 100th and 30th NE

That's because Maple Leaf Elementary was in the Lake City school district. Even more confusing, I guess, is that the original elementary school in Maple Leaf (on the site of the original school in Maple Leaf) is Olympic View. Not to be confused with Olympic Hills, the school that covers the area Maple Leaf Elementary used to cover....

Because the neighborhoods north of 85th weren't annexed into Seattle until 1952, there's a lot of fuzziness about the borders. Maple Leaf's council defines the neighborhood as I-5, Lake City Way, Northgate, and the I-5/Lake City Way conjunction (minus the land west of 8th and north of 105th and minus Victory Heights). But some maps cut out a NW section for Northgate. And other maps include Victory Heights. And the section west of 5th has only been part of Maple Leaf since I-5 was built.

So you have to take the weird neighborhoods with a grain of salt. There is an Adams, and there's a school named Adams, but it's fallen away with the cache Ballard brings. The Northgate on the map does not line up with the Northgate on the ground because no one wants to say they live in Northgate.
posted by dw at 8:14 AM on February 7, 2013

Finally got around to playing this. Was excited because I've lived in both Chicago and Louisville so thought I'd do well. Did do fairly well but my guessing patterns just made me feel racist. Blaming it on city segregation rather than treating it like insight into my soul.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:21 PM on February 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maple Leaf School seems to have been opened by the Maple Leaf District, then became part of the Shoreline SD, then Seattle in 1953.
posted by litlnemo at 6:48 PM on February 7, 2013