The Baltimore Phenomenon
The Baltimore Phenomenon is the tendency for a city to be omitted from maps due to space constraints while much smaller cities are included on the same map simply because space is available to display them. This phenomenon gets its name from Baltimore, Maryland, which, despite its large population, is commonly omitted on maps of the United States because there is not enough space in the surrounding area of the map. Larger cities surrounding Baltimore take precedence. In contrast, much smaller cities in other geographic locations are included at the same scale because the level of competition for map space may not exist in that particular area.
Read more about this topic: Cartographic Generalization
Famous quotes containing the words baltimore and/or phenomenon:
“There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The only phenomenon with which writing has always been concomitant is the creation of cities and empires, that is the integration of large numbers of individuals into a political system, and their grading into castes or classes.... It seems to have favored the exploitation of human beings rather than their enlightenment.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)