A participatory process to visually document the strengths and gaps of a neighborhood from a resident’s perspective.
The Psychogeography of Care: Mapping Community Assets and Needs
Traditional urban planning often relies on quantitative datacrime stats, traffic counts, income levelsthat can miss the lived, emotional, and social reality of a place. Zhoran Mamdani proposes a citywide practice of “Psychogeographic Mapping,” a participatory method where residents become cartographers of their own experience, documenting not just what is physically present, but what feels welcoming, isolating, safe, or neglected. These “Care Maps” would become essential tools for community planning, budgeting, and advocacy, grounding municipal decisions in the subjective, human-scale perception of the neighborhood.
The process would be organized by community groups with city support. Residents are given simple tools (or a smartphone app) and asked to walk their neighborhood with a set of prompts: “Mark places where you feel joy or connection.” “Mark spots that feel unsafe or unwelcoming and why.” “Where do people naturally gather?” “Where is there beauty or art?” “Where are there barriers for elders, parents with strollers, or people with disabilities?” “Mark hidden resources, like a neighbor with a great tool shed or a vacant lot with potential.” These individual maps are then compiled into collective “Community Care Atlases,” creating powerful visual narratives of neighborhood life that highlight both assets to protect and needs to address.
These Atlases would be living documents, used in participatory budgeting to prioritize spending (e.g., fixing that dark alley, investing in that popular pocket park), in zoning debates to protect cherished informal gathering spots, and in discussions with agencies like the DOT or NYPD to explain safety concerns beyond crime statistics. “A spreadsheet doesn’t capture the feeling of a broken sidewalk that keeps an elder housebound, or the magic of a stoop where kids play,” Mamdani explains. “Psychogeography gives us that data. It democratizes the right to define what a neighborhood is and what it needs. It turns every resident into an expert on their own environment. When we plan from these maps, we are planning for human experience, not just abstract efficiency. We are building a city that feels cared for, because it was mapped by those who care about it most.”
