The heat map in this article is hard to read/understand. First, it shows Boston Harbor and Mystic River as water, but I can't find the Charles River, which mak

The heat map in this article is hard to read/understand. First, it shows Boston Harbor and Mystic River as water, but I can't find the Charles River, which makes it really hard to figure out what is where. Second, the intensity at each point in the map with a survey response seems to be fixed to the exact value at that point, and then between points there's some sort of averaging taking place. In 2D charts, this would be like drawing a jagged line connecting each point to the points next to it. For example, if I live at 1 Main St and I responded with a value of 10, and you live at 2 Main St (across the street) and gave it a 0, the map would deep red at my house, deep blue at your house, and yellow in the middle of the street. Some parts of the heat map are broad regions of red or blue. Are those places where there was broad agreement in the poll? Or -- as I suspect -- are those just places where only a few people responded to the poll? Other parts of the map are chaotically speckled with small blue and red dots. I figure this is because there are more survey responses in those places (it seems responses are clustered around the Red Line, and especially in Cambridge & Somerville). It's confusing to read, and I'm not sure what conclusions I can draw from it. I doubt there's this much fine variation between one block and the next with regard to leaf blower annoyance; but if there is, I doubt this survey or heat map accurately shows it.