I'm working on an interactive map of US churches
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  I'm working on an interactive map of US churches
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Author Topic: I'm working on an interactive map of US churches  (Read 1265 times)
RI
realisticidealist
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« on: May 11, 2020, 10:31:41 AM »

I'm attempting to create a map of almost all US churches (not just Christian churches, btw) with rooftop-level precision. I'm somewhat early in the verification process, but I have a huge dataset assembled already. You can see what I have so far here, with the caveat that it's only hand-verified locations, only ~7-8% of churches, the sample is highly non-random, and the pop-up boxes don't work well on Chrome so far.

I'm looking for feedback on what I have so far and on what you would like to see from this. Also, this is a very time-intensive process, but if any one would like to help out, I'm looking for assistance. That could be just verifying/finding churches in your area or denomination or whatever you'd like. My end goal will be to make the final dataset freely available.
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afleitch
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« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2020, 11:21:07 AM »

Again, I think it's a very valuable tool. If it's a matter of pulling data you could include 'variables' from ethnicities to gayborhoods.
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
Nathan
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« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2020, 05:21:31 PM »

I'm happy to help you find/count/verify churches in Western Massachusetts. Please PM me with details on how I could go about that. This is a great project.
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2020, 12:02:16 PM »

I've added a bunch of churches to the map where I'm fairly confident in their location, but they haven't been verified. Puts the map up to 92k churches (~25%) and makes it look a bit more representative, although not entirely. The map is now colored such that the dots are red if verified and yellow if unverified, which you can also filter by.
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Esteemed Jimmy
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« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2020, 10:52:51 PM »

Interesting project. Good luck!
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cris01us
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« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2020, 09:43:36 AM »

This is very cool!  Keep up the great work!
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ilikeverin
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« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2020, 10:27:13 AM »

This is incredible, and I'm hitting notify on this post Smiley

I'm about to move and I'd love a radius search function so I could pull all churches in a certain area. I'm glad you have filters by mainline/evangelical/etc.

How are you going to handle churches that share a single building? (I've already noticed some in Hartford and Buffalo where I know that's true.)
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2020, 04:35:58 PM »

I am pretty continuously updating this map with more and more churches, but there are still an absolute ton more to do. Currently 190k churches on the map. The US has an incredible number of churches, and many of them-- and sometimes entire denominations-- are completely off the grid. I'm starting to suspect that official numbers may marked underestimate how many churches there are. Also, Google Maps is pretty bad in certain parts of the country (Bing tends to do better in some rural areas, esp. in the Midwest/Great Plains). If there's a particular area or denomination you'd like to see more work on, let me know, although I can't guarantee anything. Especially let me know if I've missed something major or if you know a good source I've missed.

As far as churches which share a building, I'm either placing only the "primary" church (i.e. the one you'd see a sign for outside the building) or I mark them as an interdenominational church if they are truly joint churches.
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zoz
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« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2020, 07:53:47 PM »

What do you mean by "verified" churches?
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2020, 09:34:01 PM »

What do you mean by "verified" churches?

A church being verified means that I have manually checked to make sure that its coordinate is on the rooftop of the correct building.
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2020, 02:02:41 PM »

I've spent the last several weeks updating the most difficult state in the country, West Virginia. These updates are now live.
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2021, 04:51:06 PM »

I've started adding Canadian churches to the map as well.
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2021, 06:11:10 PM »

Have you considered emailing various denominations? I would assume that those churches with Bishops or a Convention A) don’t receive too much fan mail to answer you and B) would have such information freely available. Very small chance you didn’t already think of this, but it’s just something that popped into my mind.
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ExtremeRepublican
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« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2021, 07:21:10 PM »

What do you mean by "verified" churches?

A church being verified means that I have manually checked to make sure that its coordinate is on the rooftop of the correct building.

I can confirm a bunch of the ones in Franklin, TN for you if you would like.

Here are some that I'm certain of, based on either going there or driving past there:

Grace Chapel
ClearView Baptist Church
Cross Point Church Franklin
Christ United Methodist Church
Cornerstone Presbyterian Church
Redemption City Church
West Main Church of Christ
The Church at West Franklin

I could also point to the locations of a few churches in Franklin that are not on this map.

I also do have a correction (and it's to a large church in the area):
"Somali/Ethiopian Fellowship Baptist Church" should read "Brentwood Baptist Church".  I imagine that they have a ministry to that community that is showing on your map, but the church is called Brentwood Baptist.
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Torie
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« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2021, 02:36:00 PM »

I assume you mean functioning churches rather than ex churches. My city I think has more ex churches than functioning ones.
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Biden his time
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« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2021, 10:47:44 PM »
« Edited: April 26, 2021, 07:22:23 AM by Abdullah »

I'm attempting to create a map of almost all US churches (not just Christian churches, btw) with rooftop-level precision. I'm somewhat early in the verification process, but I have a huge dataset assembled already. You can see what I have so far here, with the caveat that it's only hand-verified locations, only ~7-8% of churches, the sample is highly non-random, and the pop-up boxes don't work well on Chrome so far.

I'm looking for feedback on what I have so far and on what you would like to see from this. Also, this is a very time-intensive process, but if any one would like to help out, I'm looking for assistance. That could be just verifying/finding churches in your area or denomination or whatever you'd like. My end goal will be to make the final dataset freely available.

As always, nicely done.

Is there a way we can verify different religious institutions on the user side? I know a few places, nearly all of which are unverified currently.
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RI
realisticidealist
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« Reply #16 on: May 13, 2021, 04:46:11 PM »

My free trial of Carto has expired, so the map is no longer up. I'd like to figure out another hosting solution which may facilitate interactive verification, but I'm not really sure what a good option would be. Anyone know any options?
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