On New York City's Lower East Side, Urban Ecology students at Satellite Academy High School (teachers: Meenamba Hass & Paul Melkonian) have mapped 8 different views, including: historical & cultural sites, parks, gardens, blight sites, restaurants, delis & bodegas, phone booths & teen hotline resources! We were especially interested in the phone booth map, as it let youth in trouble know there was a private place to call for help regarding drugs, pregnancy, hopelessness and other problems. These 8 hand-drawn maps were simply copied onto color paper and folded for dissemination around the neighborhood.

Then, the class took their map one step further, and created one larger map combining all 200+ sites on the 8 theme maps. This Green Map was exhibited at the InSites II exhibit at the Henry Street Settlement Abroms Art Center in 1999! Photos of the sites and student mapmakers helped round out the exhibit. Several of Satellite's sites were added to the LoMap, the Lower Manhattan Youth Green Map, the next year.

One of the teachers involved, Ms. Hass, became a member of the Green Map System's Teacher Advisory Council, which helped us develop our Youth Resource Disk in 2000. Thanks to NYC Environmental Fund and the Sustainability Education Center for support of this project and to all the students for sharing their ideas about this historical community!

Satellite Academy's Green Maps were included in Henry Street Settlement's youth design exhibit.