Stephen Kennedy

Thanks Anne, so excited to keep working on it!

Yeah! You should throw your hat in to tackle a city!

Books are already available from other cartographers for Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and the Great Lakes — Chicago and Boston also coming soon. Check them out!

#30daymapchallenge | Day 30 Makeover | Madison in 50 Maps!

After four years of making maps of our incredible city, I’m very excited to share that I’m writing a book! As part of the @beltpublishing.bsky.social “50 Maps” series, I’ll be the author of the forthcoming Madison edition.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 29 Raster | Algal Bloom

Raster isn’t my particular area of cartographic expertise… but here’s a stylization of Sentinel 2 imagery capturing a particularly gnarly algal bloom in May 2023. This particular event led to beach closures quite early in the summer season.

Beautiful!

It takes a LOT of ink, but the result is an almost silky matte finish that is even cooler to see in person. It’s been quite the popular print all summer and so far into holiday gifting season!

#30daymapchallenge | Day 28 Black | Road America 🏁

The Road America racetrack stylized like the ubiquitous black + white license plates we all know.

Part of last year’s series, I got many requests to make this one a print, pushing me to figure out full bleed printing with solid black background.

A few examples: Shorewood Hills incorporated in 1927 to maintain its village character; Monona became a city in 1969 after decades of resisting annexation; and Fitchburg incorporated in 1983 specifically to prevent being absorbed by Madison.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 27 Boundaries | Not Madison

Wisconsin was divided in the early–mid 1800s using the Public Land Survey System, carving the territory into 6mi square townships. As Madison grew, many nearby areas chose to incorporate to avoid annexation & keep control over local decisions.

A framed map of Madison, Wisconsin focuses on the city’s bike network in shades of blue and orange. Solid blue lines mark bike trails and paths, dashed blue lines show bike-friendly streets, and orange segments highlight busier corridors with shared lane markings. Major lakes—Mendota, Monona, Wingra, and Waubesa—appear in light blue, with parks and green spaces shaded in green. The isthmus and downtown have a dense web of bike routes, with additional paths extending west toward the UW–Madison campus and east and south into surrounding neighborhoods. A legend in the upper left explains the symbology. The frame is a light wood, set against a pale blue wall. The bottom center text reads “LATLONG.SHOP” and notes the map was created for the 2025 #30DayMapChallenge, Day 26: Transportation.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 26 Transport | Bike Map of Madison 🚲

Probably my most elaborate map to date, I launched my “Bike Map of Madison” as a print earlier this summer during @madisonbikes Bike Week. Now recently updated with the new @crono_madison location! ⭐

#30daymapchallenge | Day 25 Hexagons | Youth & Senior Population

Admittedly not my best hex grid bivariate choropleth… I think the color selection isn’t quite right. But here we are! Comparing the distribution of Madisonians under 18 and 65+ across the city based on the 2023 ACS 5-year estimates.

I extracted these groupings from a very extensive study by Burr Angle, Dolores Kester, and Ann Waidelich titled “The Origins of Some Madison, Wisconsin, Street Names.”

Spread across the city are other clusters: a full suite of World War II airmen near the airport; a large patchwork named for Wisconsin counties on the West Side; a grouping of Native American words and names in Nakoma; and even a set of streets named from Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”

#30daymapchallenge | Day 24 Places and Their Names | Street Name Origins

While many streets are named for locals, several clusters hide bigger stories. Much of downtown is Doty’s tribute to signers of the US Constitution. In the Vilas neighborhood, a band of streets honors a few US Presidents.

Oscar Mayer, founded in Chicago, acquired a small Madison plant closer to WI livestock farmers in 1919 to cut transport costs. Their influence was swift: the company built 50 affordable worker homes + funded a streetcar extension. The plant became 5th largest by 1920, + was made company HQ in 1957.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 23 Process | Process(ed) Meats! 🌭

Ok, a bit of a stretch for this prompt, sorry for being a ham… Crafted a stylization of the (now shuttered) Oscar Mayer meatpacking plant as detailed in a 1942 Sanborn Map of the area.

Used Natural Earth data for built up areas (depicted as shallow water), toponyms, smaller lakes (flipped to islets), and high elevation points (inverted to depths).

Available as a 13x19 archival pigment print @latlong.shop (and tonight again at @saucedmarket @garverfeedmill!).

#30daymapchallenge | Day 22 Data: Natural Earth | The Great Islands

Earlier this summer I finished this print version of my map from last year depicting our Great Lakes as islands. Been trying to learn more about lighting techniques in Blender—I think this was a big leap forward from 2024 version!

First time using the curved callout lines option for labels in QGIS — I thought they added a playful feeling of movement/bouncing to the pickleball icons that was fitting for the topic!

#30daymapchallenge | Day 21 Icons | Pickleball Courts Across Madison

Earlier this summer I created this map for Madison Magazine cover story “The ultimate local guide to the game of pickleball” in their August issue. Over 100 courts and counting in the Madison area!

latlong.shop/products/pic...

A beige-and-blue map of Wisconsin titled “Land of Lakes & Rivers” highlights major lakes and river systems across the state. Lake Superior dominates the top of the image in bright blue, labeled as the largest freshwater lake by surface area. Lake Michigan appears along the eastern edge with a note calling it the most “all-American” of the Great Lakes. Scattered across northern Wisconsin, clusters of small lakes are labeled with superlatives such as “largest natural lake contained wholly in Wisconsin,” “deepest natural lake,” and “largest chain of lakes.” Central text marks the Upper and Lower Wisconsin River, including the state’s longest free-flowing stretch. Individual lakes—including Chippewa Flowage, Green Lake, Lake Mendota, Lake Geneva, Wazee Lake, Lac Courte Oreilles, Yellow Lake, Bass Lake, and High Lake—are annotated with brief facts or rankings. The base map shows terrain shading and hydrology in blue against a tan background, giving the state a textured, natural look.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 20 Water | Land of Lakes & Rivers

The most superfluous waterbodies across Wisconsin! This print has been one of the best sellers all summer market season. Probably that ultra-rich inky blue we picked (looks even more sharp in person). 💦

This map highlights areas designated in the Generalized Future Land Use plan that are recommended for high and moderate intensity development to accommodate ever growing demand for housing.

Map titled "FUTURE GROWTH: Recommended Development Intensities" for the City of Madison, Wisconsin. The map uses a light background to show the city outline, with colored areas indicating development plans: Dark Purple shows the Highest Intensity, Magenta shows Moderate Intensity, and Hatched Green areas indicate Potential Future Neighborhood Growth Areas, mostly on the city's outskirts.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 19 Projections | Projected Growth

City projections expect the Madison pop to surge by 115k residents (+42.8%) by 2050. The city is banking on infill & densification along BRT corridors via High Residential & Mixed-Use zoning to accommodate this growth.

#yimby #madisonwi

A dark blue, star-themed map titled “Bike to Pluto” shows the Planet Trek Dane County installation, a scale model of the solar system laid out along Madison’s bike paths. The Sun and inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) appear clustered near downtown Madison, with Ceres and Jupiter slightly farther west along the Southwest Commuter Path. Saturn is located near the UW Arboretum, Uranus along the Military Ridge State Trail, Neptune farther west on the same trail, and Pluto near the map’s upper left corner. Each planet is marked with a stylized icon and labeled in bright colors. The bike path routes are shown as light lines connecting the planetary markers. Text on the map reads: “Planet Trek Dane County is a scale model of our solar system along Madison’s bike paths.” A footer credits LATLONG.SHOP, the 2025 #30DayMapChallenge, and data sources.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 18 Out of This World | Bike to Pluto

Did you know you can bike a scaled model of our solar system from @mononaterrace to Mt Horeb—about 23mi representing the 5.9Bkm from the 🌞 to Pluto! Follow the signage as you riding along the SW Commuter Path/Military Ridge State Trail!

What streets or features form the boundaries of the Isthmus? Where does the North Side start? When does the Near West Side become just the West Side? Add your take here: which-side-of-madison.latlong.shop

#30daymapchallenge | Day 17 A New Tool | Which Side of Madison?

A few weeks ago, I experimented with @mapbox.bsky.social GL Draw API to spin up a simple site where people can sketch and submit the boundaries of Madison’s different “sides.”

Today, it lives on as an annual UW Foundation fundraiser: each donated flamingo helps fill the hill again, supporting scholarships and programs. A bit of a stretch for the theme, but we used “random points in polygons” to represent 4474 flamingos donated this year inside the hill's grass “cells.”

A detailed 3D-style map of the Bascom Hill area on the UW–Madison campus. Buildings such as South Hall, North Hall, Bascom Hall, Birge Hall, the Education Building, the Law Building, Music Hall, and Science Hall are shown in white. Trees and landscaped areas are rendered in pale green. In the center of the map, the grassy slopes of Bascom Hill are filled with hundreds of small bright pink dots representing plastic flamingos. The text “Flamboyance of Flamingos” appears at the top. A footer notes design credits and the #30DayMapChallenge.

#30daymapchallenge | Day 16 Cell | Fill the Hill 🦩

For the uninitiated, it might seem strange that a flock of flamingos descends on @uwmadison.bsky.social campus each fall. The “Fill the Hill” tradition goes back to a 1979 prank, when the Pail & Shovel Party covered Bascom Hill with 1008 flamingos.

Infographic titled "CAPITOLS OF WISCONSIN" showing the abstract architectural evolution of the capitol buildings on Madison's square. It displays three minimalist diagrams: 1) 1837–1863 (A small, simple black center within a square garden), 2) 1857–1904 (A larger structure with wings, showing the start of the cross shape), and 3) 1906–PRESENT (A large, distinct cross-shaped building representing the current, four-winged capitol).

#30daymapchallenge | Day 15 Fire | Wisconsin State Capitol(s)

The Wisconsin State Capitol and its massive granite dome is certainly the most recognizable element of Madison’s skyline, but its current layout is actually the third iteration on the Capitol Square.