This stunning new project maps every word found on NYC streets

Time Out

2 days ago

If New York City had source code, it might look something like this.
A mind-bending new project from media artist Yufeng Zhao and data storyteller Matt Daniels has sifted through 18 years of Google Street View imagery to build a searchable map of every word visible on NYC's streets. The result, hosted on The Pudding, is part sociolinguistic study, part urban scavenger hunt and fully addictive.
Using optical character recognition (OCR) software, Zhao fed eight million Street View panoramas into a tool that transcribed everything from storefront signage to bumper stickers to graffiti tags. In total: 138 million snippets of text, neatly geotagged and searchable. Want to know where the word 'jerk' appears? (Hint: It's more about Jamaican cuisine than personality types.) How about 'gold,' 'halal' or 'beware'? There are maps for each.
Some findings are charmingly predictable, like the 111,290 sightings of 'pizza' scattered across the five boroughs or the hot dog hegemony of Sabrett-branded carts. Others are almost poetic in their specificity. 'Luxury' gets thrown around citywide but is especially concentrated in Hudson Yards. 'Iglesia' maps neatly onto New York City's Spanish-speaking enclaves. And 'Siamese'? Not a feline reference, but an old-school term for a dual fire hose hookup.
The most common phrases across the dataset form a sort of municipal mood board: 'stop,' 'no,' 'do not,' 'only' and 'limit' dominate—a stern vocabulary of restriction that reflects the city's built environment. (If you're wondering, 'Fuhgeddaboudit' does appear, too—and it's actually posted on signs.)
The project's companion search tool, AllText.nyc, lets users explore these words visually, like decoding the city one frame at a time. But it's not just fun and games. The project raises fascinating questions about how the city presents itself, what it values and what slips into the visual background.
It also suggests that while Google may have pioneered Street View, it's indie tinkerers like Zhao who are now pushing its potential. 'It feels like sifting through the city's source code,' the authors write. Or maybe it's more like an urban poem—written not in verse, but in vinyl decals and awning fonts.