I made a card.

SF mental map, ca. 2018

Last week, I did something virtually unheard of in 2020. However, thanks (?) to the Covid crisis, I was able to drive my car midday on the freeway downtown in order to park in front of a stationer's just off a normally very crowded Market Street. Usually, I'd take public transport for such a trip, but, even with the current precautions in place, I'm still somewhat nervous to do so. The particular shop I visited sells card stock suited for printer use & I wanted to make cards out of some old San Francisco mental maps.  Mental maps, for the uninitiated, show how one engages with or conceives of a specific geographical area. I recall learning about mental maps in a class on German culture some twenty years ago. We non-German students were asked to draw a mental map of Germany. Most of our maps showed a very Bavaria-centric country replete with images of beer mugs and pretzels. Our teacher, however, a woman who was part of Germany's counter-cultural generation, the 68ers, drew a map of a divided Germany with a focus on the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. 

With the help of my computer-savvy husband, I was able to reduce the map image via an app. called GIMP. I am fairly pleased with the 3" x 5" result and have already sent out a few cards to friends.