Conversation with Vicky Johnson-Dahl and Brent Warren

Belt talks to Vicky Johnson-Dahl, cartographer, and Brent Warren, editor of Columbus in 50 Maps
Brent, you edited this book, and Vicky, you created the maps. Making a book like this requires a collaboration between someone who's language oriented and someone who's visually oriented. Tell me about the process of collaborating to create a book that communicates effectively.
 
Brent Warren: It involved lots of emails! I would send Vicky written descriptions of my ideas – some of them were pretty well-developed, others not so much – and she was really good at coming back with visual interpretations that we could then build off of and tweak until we had something that worked. For some of the maps I actually made spreadsheets, like with the Short North development map, where I just listed a huge amount of information about each individual development project and Vicky was left to figure out how to represent as much of that information as possible on a map. I think I learned more and more as we went about what was possible; about what worked visually and what didn’t. Some of my ideas turned out not to be practical or possible as maps, they were just better off as text, and actually some of those concepts ended up making their way into the intro or into my descriptions of other maps.

Vicky Johnson-Dahl: LOTS of emails. Every map tells a story; luckily for me Brent is a fantastic storyteller. His point of view is really sharp so even just spitballing how to represent a given dataset, I came away with a clear idea of how to work with the data in a way that suits his voice. No map is ever just right the first time, though, so we passed a lot of concepts, drafts, and versions back and forth while we honed both our working processes and the book itself. 


For each of you: what is your relationship to Columbus?

BW: I grew up in Columbus, went away for college, then spent a little under a decade living in other cities before coming back in 2005. So I’ve spent a lot of time here, obviously, and I write about the city every day, but I think having that period of time away was crucial as well because it allowed me to view Columbus from afar for the first time. That was probably my biggest “Columbus-booster” era - when I was away and after I first came back – because I was excited to see that my city was finally starting to grow into its potential. But of course, living here as an adult and reporting on the ins and outs of urban development, my relationship to Columbus changed, and it probably changed again when I had kids and I started to see them form their own ideas about the city. How I think about the city seems to change every day, but underneath it all is a deep well of fascination and affection.

VJD: I've never been to Columbus! I hope that doesn't come off as a red flag about that book, cartographers map places they haven't been all the time. It's part of the job. I'm really excited to visit soon, though, I feel like I understand the area in a unique way now through developing all of these maps with Brent. But there's no substitute for really experiencing a place, and I can't wait to explore it in person.


Vicky, you also did the cartography for Buffalo in 50 Maps. What was unique about working on Columbus in 50 Maps? How did you approach the two projects differently and similarly?

VJD: It's been really fun comparing Buffalo and Columbus! I don't mean that to sound like a competition; this series of books covers a lot of cities, so you'll see some of the same ideas mapped by different authors/cartographers across Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, etc. with different approaches, different takes. Initially I was worried I'd be repeating myself with some of these, but as we worked over the last year or so, I realized it would be basically impossible to repeat myself just because Columbus's story is not Buffalo's. As far as my approach: I was able to take some lessons from my experience with Buffalo in 50 Maps—the biggest one being organization. With a lot of emails flying around, I had to be extra cognizant of file names, sources, and documentation.   


Brent, in the acknowledgments for this book, you wrote about appreciating it as a space to drill-down deep on certain aspects of Columbus. What were you most excited to dig into?

BW: That process started right away, with the first two maps in the book. The first map shows the locations of mounds and earthworks (including the dozens that once stood here but were taken down), and the second shows Salt Lick Town and the other Mingo villages that were present in what is now downtown Columbus in the late 1700s. I didn’t know much about the history of this place before European settlers arrived; I don’t remember learning much about that in school, and most histories of Columbus basically start with the founding of the state capitol in 1812. There’s been so much new scholarship on the topic in recent years, though, and much of it now centers Indigenous voices and perspectives, so having an opportunity to interact with that work and fill in some of the huge gaps in my own knowledge has been a real pleasure.  


I love the map of strip mall treasures and the idea of mapping transit that was proposed but never built. Which maps are your favorites?

BW: "Amina Robinson’s Columbus" was one of the first ideas I had for the book, and I’m really happy that it turned out so well. Robinson is such an important figure in the cultural landscape of Columbus, and she also was an amazing map maker herself—many of her works are representations of streets and neighborhoods, so it seemed like a natural fit for the book.

VJD: The "Put Us on the Map" map was one of the first ideas Brent pitched and it was one of the things that just immediately sold me on this collaboration. It's funny and silly on the surface but there's a deeper thoughtfulness behind it. Brent captured it perfectly with his closing line: "Here’s to a future where our leaders care less about what people outside of our borders think about us and more about what we can do to make Columbus better for the people who live here." 


What did you learn while working on this project that surprised you most?

BW: I did a lot of research for the LGBTQ Columbus map and I realized that there were some incredible stories that I just didn’t know about, like the photo of David Kirby on his deathbed that was taken in the Pater Noster House and that became famous around the world. It really struck me that I was in high school when that photo was taken, and was actually living not too far away from where it was taken. I did not know about David Kirby, but also at the time I never really considered that the AIDS epidemic was not just something that was happening elsewhere, it was having a devastating impact on so many people in Columbus.

VJD: We don't really have tornadoes in Buffalo, certainly not enough to warrant a whole warning system, so I was totally blown away by the Wednesday sirens. Brent had to explain it to me; I couldn't believe that every Wednesday at noon an alarm goes off and people just go about their day with a siren blaring for a little bit. The system makes sense—it saves lives—but the idea of it is just so foreign to me. A weekly siren! Do dogs just get used to it or do they all go nuts?