Hoodmaps San Diego: This crowdsourced map stereotypes cities

SAN DIEGO — Figuring out the “local scene” in a city can take time. Bustling metros like San Diego are sure to have touristy areas, college areas, areas that feel more low-key, and more.

So how do you figure out which spots are “happening” for the crowd you are looking for?

Well, a developer from Amsterdam — Pieter Levels — created a crowdsource map that invites users to collectively categorize areas within a city based on the type of crowd that they believe tends to dominate it.

As explained in a blog post by Levels outlining the creation of Hoodmaps, he said, “The problem is that every time I travel to a new place it’s hard to figure out which parts of the city to go. I very often end up in the tourist center.”

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Levels said he wanted to create a way to “get a quick overview of what a city is about.” He posed the questions: What are the cool “hip” areas? Where’s the wealthier areas? What areas are more suburban?

More specifically, Hoodmaps navigates cities based on “hipsters, tourists, rich, normies, suits and uni areas.” Let’s break down the meaning of these terms, some of which are considered slang.

— Hipsters: According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, A hipster is “a person who follows the latest trends and fashions in clothing and lifestyle, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.”

— Tourists: “One that makes a tour for pleasure or culture,” Merriam-Webster noted. This one is easy — San Diegans know when the tourist season is at its peak.

— Normies: As explained by Merriam-Webster, “the term normie has emerged as both a noun and an adjective referring to one whose tastes, lifestyle, habits, and attitude are mainstream and far from the cutting edge, or a person who is otherwise not notable or remarkable.”

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— Suits: This term, according to Merriam-Webster, is slang for “a business executive.” Urban Dictionary described it as “slang for a businessman or any authority figure that wears a suit, e.g. manager, boss, supervisor.”

— Uni: Short for university, Hoodmaps uses this abbreviation to identify college areas. It’s safe to say these spots are dominated by those attending school.

Different colors on the map represent each respective category, with a key seen at the bottom of the map. Levels explained the platform would average users’ responses to categorize specific areas.

For example, if five people label an area “touristy” but eight others note that it’s “hipster,” the area will show up as “hipster” on the Hoodmap.

Since the categories are limited and the platform is openly crowd-sourced, it leaves a lot of room for what Bloomberg described as “contributors’ biases.” The categorization based on personal opinions can be considered “negative stereotyping.”

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This is especially true for Hoodmaps tagging tool, which lets users vote on adding words and phrases in certain areas of a city’s map. The partiality is strong when it comes to this aspect of the platform, with some people finding it more offensive than informative.

Other tags though, can be useful for finding certain areas of interest.

For example, the San Diego Hooodmap displays “Beer Alley” over a community filled with breweries and bars in University City. Another example, the words “Instagram pic heaven” are hovered about the Liberty Station area.

Whether you’re looking for spots with a certain crowd, or if you’re just curious about how people stereotype San Diego — Hoodmaps is a “hold back nothing” kind of platform.

Curious? Check out San Diego’s Hoodmaps here, but be warned — there is some prominent stereotyping across the map.

There are also several other cities with their own Hoodmaps. From San Francisco to Cincinnati, you can see what people are saying about specific areas by searching city names at the top of the platform’s page.

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