I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.

Doing things the "right" way, burning out and then realizing there is another option, coming back and winning it all with no fucks given? Yes please tell me that story forever.

Love that our university is hosting this Poets for Science Gathering in November. Join us! Poets who love science, scientists who love poetry, and poet-scientists are all welcome. poetsforscience.org/gathering-20...

map making = #sciart 💚🗺

Current* conditions near Cleveland, OH:

The times I've encountered this is not often but not zero. Committing here to calling this out politely: "please call back in when you're not driving" seems doable and potentially lifesaving.

My students don’t even think they’re real residents. I share my take that even if they aren’t here in 5 or 10 yrs (+) someone just like them will be and they should vote & participate for that person. Plus… a lot them end up staying!

This is why *all* researchers need reflexivity--not just qualitative ones. Our training and our backgrounds and our preexisting beliefs shape the research questions we ask, the methods decisions we make (eg, variables, models, or missing data strategies), and the way we interpret findings.

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

I don’t quite understand #mapsinthewild

Took some time last night while watching the Olympics to make a map on request for a retired prof. There's not a lot of maps of the Cuyahoga out there and he was looking for one that highlighted Kent. I'll post a cc copy to my website that is less Kent-centric so folks can reuse.

First movie theater movie was Star Trek IV. A classic.

Yes, this! Good job, Lakewood! Safe routes to school matter all year round, not just when audits are typically done in spring or fall. *also applies to all routes for people of all ages needing or wanting to walk/ride/roll

I’ll be sharing this in my Mapping, Space & Power class when we talk about the value & power of open source mapping tools.

Places like this persist in the Rust Belt — their owners aren’t getting offers to sell to some big box or condos.

Attention visual journalists: I’m always open to pitches for @sciam.bsky.social’s Graphic Science column. The column tells concise stories on topics in science via graphics (dataviz, illustrated diagrams, comic-style explainers, etc). It appears in both print & online. DM me for a pitch guide.

another year of us not running a super bowl ad

Well, they put me on TV. youtu.be/vh1g-8HrUS4

Our paper “Inferring fine-grained migration patterns across the United States” is now out in @natcomms.nature.com! We released a new, highly granular migration dataset. 1/9

Akron is one step closer to having pre-approved housing designs to help speed-up the approval process & lower costs associated with developing attainable housing throughout the community. signalakron.org/local-archit...

But this data already exists? There are maps. (they're just not digitized -- develop better digitizing tools instead?) Also this is an interesting characterization of zoning that I'm pretty sure my urbanist colleagues #onhere would find....uncritical

Finally! 10 days after the storm we are back walking to school.The city plow is still finishing this street though. Besides the school, this street connects downtown to retail and the food pantry/free meals. Adult pedestrians matter too.

I know it’s intentional but we should stop calling everything AI, lumping useful machine learning techniques for science with large language models that tech companies are trying to cram into everything.

Some thoughts of moving rocks. open.substack.com/pub/timcress...

Women have been mapping the world for centuries – and now they’re speaking up for the people left out of those maps theconversation.com/women-have-b...

If accessibility disappears after a snowstorm then there was never really accessibility to begin with. Winter reveals so much about who our cities prioritize.

📣New publication in JAMA Network Open!📣 We assessed travel time to clinics providing methadone (OTPs) in CT via mass transit compared to personal vehicle. Prior work showed long drive times; we show that methadone is inaccessible for people who use buses & trains. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

This is the sidewalk the city said they’re in charge of plowing. A week later. Not plowed. 2 ft of ice chunks & snow. This is at the school intersection— you can see the crossing guard in high viz.

More here: bettybarcode.com/2026/01/21/m... #PlowSidewalksToo

Look, you can go on the internet and look at what Stalinist city building was. It was definitely not road diets.

Here's to great little state schools! 5 classes I took in college -Revolution -American Landscapes -Fascism and WWII -Calligraphy -Roots of 20th Century Science & so many others with boring names but impactful content.

Controversial building approved in Saratoga Springs, NY (pop. 28k). The NIMBYs won't say "density" but say "mass and scale" instead. Not going to weigh in on the neighborhood fit or if they even need more condos, but I do appreciate the design.

Spoke with someone today who called this response to snow management “lazy fatalism” ✅

Anyhow, to wit: To avoid 'overlooking the lived experiences of deprived urban area (DUA) residents,' turns out you can *just ask them.* Making a machine that you can pretend is a DUA resident is quite the opposite of grounding in 'inclusive and participatory approaches.'

Yeah, small towns (and big cities) -- Let's do this!

Schools closed for Day 3 tomorrow. The text mentioned sidewalks, which I appreciate bc it raises awareness, but last time it snowed this much (4 years ago) the sidewalks were uncleared for at least a month. So, thanks, but one more day does nothing. Structural change is required.

City Schools: must close, too cold, dangerous for our walkers. Meanwhile, at every street corner:

There’s a point where shoveling your sidewalk feels more symbolic than practical bc no one else is going it. (But YES the student renters next door shoved their sidewalk too and YES they built a massive snow cave)

Reminder that some US cities have teams clearing sidewalks -- not just roads -- when a major snowstorm strikes. Yours could, too.

One of my favorite saves from recycling is this Atlas of the Grand Cañon. I brought it out to show the fourth graders. The cover credits John Wesley Powell but the title page says the author is geologist Capt. Clarence Dutton, 1882.

Considering doing a series of these as a nerdy way to decompress at night while my kid watches Dr who. Will not be doing all 31,000 USPSs.

"One proposed solution to the gridlock and parking problems at many of the country’s major national parks is expanding access via Amtrak trains" HELL YES www.thetravel.com/why-amtrak-a...

Maps in the wild: carved in the wood rail on the walk to Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Made a little topo activity for the fourth graders visiting my lab, translating a DEM of Cuyahoga Valley National Park into LEGO. My kid (home for the snow day) tested it and opines: "I think the river needs to be widened, it's too skinny." So much for cartographic accuracy 🫠

When I move into a house I am just like anybody else: I like to immediately get settled in and orientate myself by drawing a map of the immediate area, themed entirely around the habits of squirrels.

Also, why are we putting this on Parks & Rec? Especially if this is a Safe Routes to School project. Sure the bridge goes to a trail along the river, but it's also one of the few useful connections to bike or walk north/south but avoid downtown (no bike lanes there). It's TRANSPORTATION.

Great news! Our city is planning to replace a narrow sidewalk on a bridge with a shared use path! But this wording in the local news is just 🫠🙄 #snowmobilities

I teach "Mapping, Space, and Power" starting tomorrow. This 1942 LAT map came into my head from my grad school days and I spent hours reviving an old hard drive to find it. I can't believe it isn't *everywhere* in lit about understanding the power of maps but it is surprisingly hard to find online.

it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI