Monday, February 15, 2016

San Francisco's Maps of Sin


Revaluate thought that it would be rather romantic to release the Hot Beds of San Francisco Love Map for Valentine's Day. The map plots the locations of reported incidents of prostitution, lewd sexual acts, and public indecent exposure in the city.

The map provides a basic heat-map view of these reported crimes. If you zoom in on the map then the individual reported incidents appear on the map and you can click on the individual map markers to read details about each case.

I'm not entirely sure how the map relates to Valentine's Day, however it does follow a long tradition of mapping prostitution in San Francisco. For example this 1885 Official Map of Chinatown in San Francisco shows all the buildings in China Town that are housing 'white prostitution' (buildings colored blue) and 'Chinese Prostitution' (buildings colored red). The map also handily marks all the local Chinese opium dens and Chinese gambling houses.

Judging by the Hot Beds of San Francisco Love Map the major areas of prostitution have moved a little further west since 1885. It also appears that San Francisco was a lot more fun before all those boring tech companies moved in.

Revaluate has also created a similar map for Chicago, called Hot Beds of Chicago Love Map.

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