Mapping the Most Poop-Filled Waterways in New York

Unless they have a mental disease or are Cosmo Kramer, most people don't need to be told not to swim in New York's waterways. But for a reminder why that's the case, have a look at this odious map showing the fecal material floating in the Rotten Apple's streams, creeks, and sludgy rivers.

This crappy cartography was made by Ben Wellington, a visiting assistant professor at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and the brain behind the fascinating open-data site I Quant NY. (Wellington made the map in the fall, but it's now getting its ignoble due in Revaluate's "Best New York City Maps of 2014.") His accounting relies on reports of fecal coliform from the city's environmental-protection department; this nasty bacterium, often washed into the water during combined-sewer overflows, can close down beaches when it reaches a certain feculence.