Researchers and journalists who want to experiment with using AI to analyze public records for the public good are dependent on private companies who have an incentive to gatekeep that information for their own profit.

Example: there's so much you could do with public meetings posted to YouTube, but anyone who wants to download videos en masse is totally dependent on YT's API -- whose terms of use can be rescinded or changed at any time.

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’” It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

a clear example of the Cleveland double: 2 unit structure; 1 has the basement/1st floor & other resident has 2nd floor&attic; each w/ 1-2 bedroom, kitchen, bath, own private entrance; shares a driveway. relatively common w/in the city of Cleveland. #density

might write a blog post on the state of marker clusters (& spidering) in web #maps & their lack of #accessibility

does anyone in #gischat #geo #cartography remember a blog post from the mid 2010s (I think written by Brian Timoney?) that critiqued the use of multiple toggable layers, how most users ignore the additional map layers, & many web maps' UIs were too complicated? (& have a link to it?)

an important fact that i try to always keep in the back of my mind working for a public library

1020 BOLIVAR AVE, CLEVELAND, OH, NA

is this air monitor in Richmond heights broken or is there something anomalous causing that poor air quality? . map.purpleair.com/air-quality-.... cc @tkovach.bsky.social

I love @jasonkoebler.bsky.social take on AI in journalism discussed on the @404media.co podcast. "If AI is so transformative here, show me the reporters publishing more high quality pieces with AI that weren't doing it before." (paraphrasing) This is the right take. We need proof, not hype.

One thing I would like more people, and I mostly mean my fellow men, to understand is that no matter how smart you are, other people are also smart and some of them have tried to work on the same problems you’re working on. If a simple solution hasn’t been found yet, there probably isn’t one.

8203 GREENVIEW, DETROIT, MI, 48228

feel like charlie here about #cleveland public records requests or data on the city's data portal? share what you know at #datadayscle - & submit a propsal at datadayscle.org !!! (never presented before? we welcome that!)(your proposal is incomplete? that's ok! it can be refined later)

feel like charlie here about #cleveland public records requests or data on the city's data portal? share what you know at #datadayscle - & submit a propsal at datadayscle.org !!! (never presented before? we welcome that!)(your proposal is incomplete? that's ok! it can be refined later)

hey #cleveland share what you've learned about govt data or technology in local contexts; or maybe you made a great #map or #dataviz using govt data;

Every "tech" guy is just a VC guy in a subculture that gets called "tech" for no particular reason. Most real "tech" - like, i dunno, cutting edge materials research - doesn't get called that while "a new pizza delivery app" does

I'm already seeing centrists and leftists sniping at each other but the blame for this is 100% on the Republicans. This is what they do with power and it is imperative that we work together to keep them as far from it as possible, forever.

⚠️Ohio's budget bill severely limits our open records laws by torching public access to key legislative documents. Any materials communicated between lawmakers and their staff would be exempt from public records law until the conclusion of that session. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/06...

So what if a parent claims that racially integrated classrooms violates their religious beliefs?

Ohio prisons are opening - and withholding - legal mail to inmates: thelandcle.org/stories/how-...

no shit sherlock

#TIL we (my workplace, local public library) is loading 2 empty js files & 1 empty css file on every page load. (resulting from a poorly configured build process); oops. I might get around to fixing & dequeuing them today. (the 2 js files are render blocking though!). #webdev

Who's doing this work in Cleveland? Because I know we've got these things.

I still can't get past the idea that people in America are now supposed to accept that this is a valid form of law enforcement and just assume it's fine when random dudes in groups with face-coverings, no ID, no warrant, & no uniform grab people off the street and force them into unmarked vehicles

936 SPRING RD, CLEVELAND, OH, 44109

When a cabinet member announces "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.

New euphemism for authoritarian lawlessness just dropped

data/cartography wish list: @beltpublishing.bsky.social is eager to expand our 50 Maps series to KC, MIL, MNPLS. If you are local and/or a cartographer, we'd love to chat ([email protected]) (NB: we are also accepting queries from cities outside the Rust Belt/Midwest)

It's probably a lost cause, but to reiterate: - Nobody was pulled out of a car at the ISAP office in Chicago today - ISAP check-ins are not court dates - The messages sent to ISAP program participants were real - Detentions were carried out by federal agents at a federal program office

IRS’s Direct File wasn't open source while it was being developed. But somebody just made it public!

9300 DETROIT AVE, CLEVELAND, OH, 44102

This is absolutely the point. Any time somebody tells you they're cutting government programs in order to make them more efficient, Occam's Razor suggests that they're actually trying to make them more dysfunctional to justify even more cuts.

18900 NOTTINGHAM RD, CLEVELAND, OH, 44110

a couple of the dozen or so early 20th-century row houses in Cleveland that still remain

New interview with author and cartographer @alexbhill.bsky.social is on Belt's site now --> beltpublishing.com/pages/interv...

6621 EDNA AVE, CLEVELAND, OH, 44103

1146 E 111th ST, CLEVELAND, OH, 44108

2249 E 83rd ST, CLEVELAND, OH, 44103

Trump will say this proves government is inefficient and doesn't work, which will become the justification for selling them off and privatizing them. Same playbook they ran on public schools with defunding -> charterization -> voucherization

9016 MANOR AVE, CLEVELAND, OH, 44104

4608 ST CLAIR AVE, CLEVELAND, OH, 44103

We just brought Data Days over to Bluesky-- follow us at @datadayscle.bsky.social . Take our survey to let us know how Data Days CLE can best help you with #data and #civictech in 2025. Go to datadayscle.org for the survey.

The amount of compartmentalizing and dissociation required to get through the day in 2025 is really something!

This is precisely why I harp on the negative influence of reactionary centrists so often: Exaggerating the radicalism of the left gives voters permission to support the radicalism of the right. If both candidates are deranged fascist liars, why not support the one that's gonna cut your taxes?

If you were the CEO of an organization whose funding was about to be slashed, would you do literally anything to let your employees know you exist and that your cadre of chiefs are doing literally anything about the threats in place? Something to ponder.

Since 23andme is going to be sold, if you do not want your genetic and ancestry data being sold to the highest bidder, you can: - download your own data, various options available (may take a while to process) - when complete, delete your account you.23andme.com/user/edit/re...

#geospatial #maptime & #gischat folks: if you have a free carto.com legacy account, your data + maps will be deleted on 3/31... but you can export yr data + maps somewhat easily. 1. log in at carto.com/login (the login on carto.com homepage takes you to a different app login you don't want) 1/?

yesterday's improvement/work, improving layout of cpl.org/databases 150 awesome electronic resources (new & historic newspapers, magazines, online classes, databases, academic journals, primary sources) available to you with a #cleveland public #library card, 1/?

In my dreams I’m at a vegetarian potluck with Austin Carr in 1978

Reminder that 'savvy' political fact checkers spent the entire campaign telling voters that Trump was not going to do the things he obviously was going to do.