Besides its stars and moguls and wafer thin celebs, Los Angeles is home to the largest population of homeless people in the United States. Map maker Cartifact presents this record of itinerant souls in the Central City East area, a region otherwise known as "Skid Row." Culled from the past seven months of L.A.P.D. data, the online atlas reveals the constant movement of humans sleeping on the streets. It also bears a striking resemblance to color enhanced satellite imagery of a storm—if the tempest jumped and settled, expanded and contracted, and suddenly ebbed back to where it started. Cartifact says, "Before a problem can be solved it must be understood." Let's hope that maps like this allow us all to understand this kind of human disaster better.
