Your jersey city

At the end of the show, this map found a home with the Division of Planning, Hudson County, Parks & Community Services. Stay tuned for more about its new life….

This is your map.

You live here, you go to school here, you work here. Jersey City is a big, interesting, diverse and ever-changing place.

Bring your class.

Using the prompts, pins and materials provided, you are invited to “pin” your story and memories to this map of this wonderful city. Over the course of this exhibition, please stop back often to see how this map develops. By the end of the exhibition, you will see the intersection of everyday life, memories and geography in this unique map of Jersey City.

Please post pictures of your pins and the map and follow the Your Jersey City map on Instagram at 

@MapsEverywhere #myJerseyCityNJ #MapsEverywhereNJCU     #njcubigmap

Come back to the gallery again to see how the map has changed. Take the little square cards about this map and share them with your friends.

Why are there few landmarks on this map? Landmarks are an important component of understanding a city. If a landmark can be seen from many vantage points, it can help with navigation. We all use landmarks that can be much less visible – a brightly colored house, or a unique storefront, a tree, a sign. Each person has their own set of landmarks, in addition to the well known ones. Your personal set of landmarks help you make sense of a place.

When creating this map, I felt I could not choose what the residents of Jersey City claim as landmarks. I’ve tried not to interject my point of view. I’ve deliberately left them off, hoping you could help me by adding a flag and a note or image of what you feel is important about the areas of the city you frequent.

Your landmarks can be commonly known, like a courthouse, or the Statue of Liberty, or could be very personal – perhaps where you buy coffee every morning, where your aunt lives or where you had your first kiss. Your landmarks could include a statue, a park, a train station.

The more we put on the map the better!

“When I try to visualize the whole city in my head, it’s too large to fully be seen. Some parts are sharp and precise, and some are hazy. There are blind spots and questions about how some neighborhoods connect. When I compare the plan of the city in my mind with a real street map, there are big parts that don’t seem to fit in as I pictured them. But despite my miscalculations and blind spots, the plan of the city in my head is not a collection of isolated streets but more like a system of streets, like characters connected in a story.”
— Jan Rothuizen, Amsterdam (see his work in the show)

Your Jersey City map created and designed by Donna David. The map is on painted cork, graphics are acrylic paint and color markers.

If you know anyone or any organization who would like to have this map after the exhibition is over, please contact donna_david (at) fitnyc.edu