mappd — how you livin'?

a map of where not to live in america, and who's turning it around.

what it is

• interactive map of 196 places with data-backed flags on water quality, environmental hazards, education, poverty, infrastructure, governance, and climate
• "Building the Future" entries showing places that are fixing things
• the story: story.html — the six months the map didn't have, told plainly, with the therapies that landed riding beside the ledger of losses
• civic action tool: form letters to representatives for places near you
• literacy dashboard: PIAAC scores for all 50 states + DC
• sortable data table with every entry

files

• index.html — main map
• app.js — map logic, filters, search, civic action
• places-data.js — all entry data (TAG_COLORS, SEV, PLACES array)
• story.html — the story page (hand-formatted prose — genuine paragraphs, lists, no generator)
• data.html — sortable/filterable table of all entries
• literacy.html — PIAAC literacy dashboard with interactive state grid
• state.html — per-state detail page (literacy + mappd entries)
• sources.json — source URLs for fact-checking
• check-sources.sh — verifies source URLs are still live (cron: sundays 07:07)
• watch-piaac.sh — sha256 fingerprint of NCES's PIAAC release page; fires a marker when the state/county estimates land (cron: monthly 1st, 08:08)
• add-entry.sh — template for adding new entries

keeping it current

add a new entry

bash add-entry.sh  # prints a template
# fill it in, paste into places-data.js
git add . && git commit -m "add [place name]" && git push

check if sources are still live

bash check-sources.sh

update literacy data

watch-piaac.sh (cron, monthly) fingerprints NCES's release page and waits for the PIAAC Cycle 2 state/county estimates — national scores already refreshed (258, down 12).  When the watch fires, edit the STATES array in literacy.html and state.html.

paint laws (so new entries wear the right dot)

tags paint, in order of precedence: future → blue #0288d1 (outranks everything); reversal/improving → the comeback cameo, pink #e91e63; otherwise severity — extreme #7f1d1d darkest red, severe #c62828 red, moderate #ef6c00 orange.  paint is law; the ledger decides by tag, not by vibe.

hosting

github pages: repo settings → pages → main branch → root.  live in 30 seconds.

data sources

EPA, CDC, NCES, PIAAC, Census, GAO, UNC Sheps Center, local reporting