Lab 2, Geocoding

         Being a college student, you learn what the term "all-nighter" truly means. Whether you are cramming for a midterm, finishing up a project due in the morning, or just staying awake to party and hang out with friends, all-nighters are common in a college setting. But how do these college students do it? With caffeine of course! There are many coffee shops in the Los Angeles area, but one dominates them all, Starbucks. The topic of my Geocoding project are the closest Starbucks locations to UCLA. Using the company's website, they had a Find a store generator and the 50 closest locations to Los Angeles zip code 90024 were listed. Using the address locator in geocoding in arcGIS and the Los Angeles county map downloaded from Tiger/Line, the top map shows the distribution of the Starbucks locations closest to UCLA. The closest location is on Weyburn and it is even a short walk away from my apartment. The farthest location is approximately only 10.3 miles away in Marina del Rey, a 15 minute drive from Westwood. Through geocoding, it is evident that there is a great concentration of Starbucks locations in the Westwood area not just because of the student population from UCLA, SMC, and Mount St. Mary's college, but many businesses are located in this prime metropolitan area in the westside, so many business men and women are avid Starbucks customers. The distribution of Starbucks locations in the Westwood area are clearly shown in the map but not intended to be used as a reference map. By using geocoding, it shows useful information that can help the user analyze the locations of places in relation to their own location.