San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle have each been the “it” city. With this atlas, we hope to make this term more distinct.

The Upper Left is an emerging term, a fuzzy concept still coming into view. We think the shared cultural identities of these three cities and their surrounding areas deserve a special designation. In this atlas, we place San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle in a more specific subsection of the Left Coast⁠-the Upper Left. However, we eventually decided to focus our efforts on San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, the major cities in the northern part of the United States West Coast-or what we call the Upper Left. We decided that Los Angeles did not fit with the others, but initially we planned to include both Oakland and Vancouver, BC. We were curious about how the big cities on the West Coast were alike and how they were different. Maybe another book about Portland? Or possibly one about other cities? We decided to do both. After spending years mapping and writing about one city, we resolved to compare cities. After finishing the book, people asked us if there would be a sequel. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.This book grew out of our previous title, Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas, in which we concentrated exclusively on the city where we live. In 150 infographic maps of Portland, Oregon, two leading geographers explore unexpected topics like city chickens, wild coyote encounters, food-truck trends, and coffee culture. Each map starts with the gathering of at least one data set about a given topic, then translating that to a visual format that blends traditional cartographic skills with modern graphic design. When mapmaking takes on nontraditional topics like patterns of graffiti, locations of strip clubs, or even which neighborhoods favor which house colors, finding your way around the city takes on a whole new meaning. Modern cartography tells the hidden stories of Portland in these fascinating and colorful infographic maps. The new cartography is about much more than just land! In 150 infographic maps of Portland, Oregon, two leading geographers explore unexpected topics like city chickens, wild coyote encounters, food-truck trends, and coffee culture.

Portlandness by David Banis