L.A. Times Revises Neighborhood Maps Based on Reader Input

The Los Angeles Times‘ ambitious Mapping LA project, which classifies 30,000 city blocks by neighborhood and soft launched in February, has made 100 changes based on 1,500 comments from readers.

“In some cases, the first public draft of our map contained obvious mistakes,” say Times data analyst Doug Smith, who commented in today’s edition of the paper. “In many cases, readers strongly disagreed with each other. Some thought a boundary was too far to the east; others said it was too fast west. Some of those disputes could be resolved with census data.”

As an example, Smith cites a debate about the boundary for Koreatown. “Our block-by-block map of the percentage of Asian residents convinced us that Wilton (Avenue) was where to draw the line.”

By taking on the mapping project, adds Smith, the paper did something that the city government is “seldom eager” to do, nor The Thomas Guide, which is used by Realtors and others. But enough is enough. The paper won’t revisit boundaries until results from the 2010 census are in.