Distance Maps

On Sunday I downloaded the outline of every building in the densely built, densely populated city that I live in, and plotted each one on a map:



Then I did some bulk-maths to work out which buildings are the furthest from their nearest neighbor. Here are the ten most isolated buildings in the city:



JFK Airport it turns out is the place to go if you’re after four walls and a roof, with maximum distance to nearby buildings. Five out of the top 10 are here:



No better place to get away from your coughing neighbors than the end of a pier by the runway:



In a lot of ways, Rhode Island—my previous home—would probably be a better place to ride out the pandemic:



Maybe in this rest-area just south of Wyoming, RI:





In this clearing:



Or of course, on an island:





Being packed into a huge city is not wonderful, but realistically staying put is the best thing for this moment. For now, sitting in my closet-office and crawling around the Northeast with my mapping software will have to do.

If restrictions don’t lift soon, I will ask my employer for a computer upgrade. With a little more processing power I’ll be able to load the entire country onto my laptop at once.