Mid-Semester Project

Hi Erica! I love the concept of your project! I’ve used google maps for a few projects too and I think it is a very effective way of presenting data in a visual way. Your map clearly shows where medical-legal services are concentrated and where they are absent within Philly in a way that would be hard to describe using just words. Your accompanying document was excellent as well—it is thorough and addresses complexities relating to MLPs while using language that is very clear and readable.

I am curious to see how your addition of layers for the final project will change the distribution of the map points. I wonder if the three new layers will end up mirroring the medical-legal one, or if there will be noticeable differences. Some of the patterns shown by your current layer were surprising to me, especially the lack of MLPs present in South Philly. Did you come across any information on how different MLPs determined their locations? It would be interesting to know what factors typically go into selecting sites for MLPs.

Just some technical feedback too: I really like that you used symbols for different types of services and that the locations were color coded, but I couldn't quite figure out how the items in each color group were related to each other. Would it be possible to include a more in-depth key on the google doc that explains what the blue, green, purple, and yellow designations mean? I think that would be awesome, especially as the map will become more complex with new layers.

Thanks for sharing your work :)