Brian Highsmith
@bhighsmith.bsky.social
institutions, inequality, geography, democracy | asst law prof at UCLA
Pinned
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
A lot of us reposted and like this yesterday. Just an FYI that the authors have made this data available as well, including in shapefiles!
🔎 We used the results to make an interactive web map that allows people to look up how the property wealth in their own metro area (or any other) is fragmented across different local municipalities. This tool visualizes tax base fragmentation across the US—check it out: www.taxbasefragmentation.net
Tax Base Fragmentation | Discover Fiscal Insights — Explore Now
Explore data on tax base fragmentation and fiscal capacity across municipalities with interactive maps and analysis tools.
www.taxbasefragmentation.net
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
A lot of us reposted and like this yesterday. Just an FYI that the authors have made this data available as well, including in shapefiles!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
For all the discourse over Bay Area inequality, LA is on a totally different level
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 AM
For all the discourse over Bay Area inequality, LA is on a totally different level
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Check out our new paper (+ the accompanying web viz)!
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 25, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Check out our new paper (+ the accompanying web viz)!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Today while browsing an interactive map about tax base fragmentation in metro areas (I'll link further down) I learned about a tiny city called Hilltop, MN, 16 city blocks in size, an enclave fully inside Columbia Heights.
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Hilltop, Minnesota - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Today while browsing an interactive map about tax base fragmentation in metro areas (I'll link further down) I learned about a tiny city called Hilltop, MN, 16 city blocks in size, an enclave fully inside Columbia Heights.
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Its history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Check out this 🧵 on our own @robertmanduca.bsky.social's work with @bhighsmith.bsky.social and Jacob Waggoner. 👇 #AcademicSky #WealthInequality
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Check out this 🧵 on our own @robertmanduca.bsky.social's work with @bhighsmith.bsky.social and Jacob Waggoner. 👇 #AcademicSky #WealthInequality
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Metropolitan amalgamation is a good thing!
Don't allow the rich to self-segregate
Don't allow the rich to self-segregate
These maps of major metropolitan areas show striking differences in tax bases in areas close to one another www.taxbasefragmentation.net/home :
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
November 24, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Metropolitan amalgamation is a good thing!
Don't allow the rich to self-segregate
Don't allow the rich to self-segregate
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
A major problem for PA, and Philly in particular
November 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
A major problem for PA, and Philly in particular
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
This is one of the coolest tax projects I've ever seen.
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 6:32 PM
This is one of the coolest tax projects I've ever seen.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Across North Jersey disparities are even more stark between the have-nots. We absolutely need regional tax base sharing in NJ.
November 24, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Across North Jersey disparities are even more stark between the have-nots. We absolutely need regional tax base sharing in NJ.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
November 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Fun fact that St. Louis metro has 10.1 governments per 100,000 residents (Table 1)
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Fun fact that St. Louis metro has 10.1 governments per 100,000 residents (Table 1)
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Not many surprises in the Chicagoland map (Rosemont and McCook/Bedford Park doing their thing), but I think it does provide a great visualization as to how the Balkanization of the inner burbs (especially West Cook and the Southland) work against suburban residents, not for them.
November 24, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Not many surprises in the Chicagoland map (Rosemont and McCook/Bedford Park doing their thing), but I think it does provide a great visualization as to how the Balkanization of the inner burbs (especially West Cook and the Southland) work against suburban residents, not for them.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
These maps of major metropolitan areas show striking differences in tax bases in areas close to one another www.taxbasefragmentation.net/home :
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
November 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
These maps of major metropolitan areas show striking differences in tax bases in areas close to one another www.taxbasefragmentation.net/home :
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
—Compare the north vs south shore of Nassau County
—Coastal vs inland Miami
—Inglewood vs El Segundo
—East Palo Alto vs everything around it
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Exciting new research that demonstrates how localities in the same metropolitan area have wildly varying tax bases—which go on to have a huge impact on the ability to provide services. Rich towns can collect more taxes, give themselves better services, and reinforce inequality.
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Exciting new research that demonstrates how localities in the same metropolitan area have wildly varying tax bases—which go on to have a huge impact on the ability to provide services. Rich towns can collect more taxes, give themselves better services, and reinforce inequality.
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
I'm trying to get better about using my blog as a place to collect things that are a) related to what I do and b) interesting/important (and stealing this idea from @simonwillison.net).
Quoting Manduca, Highsmith, and Waggoner | Christopher B. Goodman
Robert Manduca, Brian Highsmith, Jacob Waggoner, Tax base fragmentation as a dimension of metropolitan inequality, Socio-Economic Review, 2025
www.cgoodman.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I'm trying to get better about using my blog as a place to collect things that are a) related to what I do and b) interesting/important (and stealing this idea from @simonwillison.net).
We are really excited about this article — thank you for sharing! — and will be doing a thread soon collecting the main findings and implications (with a link to an interactive nationwide map that is not in the academic publication). Watch this space!
Very cool article about how our fragmentation of local tax bases allows some suburbs to effectively act as tax havens at the expense of central metro areas.
(The link preview is bad, but it's:
Tax base fragmentation as a dimension of metropolitan inequality
by Manduca, Highsmith, & Waggoner)
(The link preview is bad, but it's:
Tax base fragmentation as a dimension of metropolitan inequality
by Manduca, Highsmith, & Waggoner)
Validate User
academic.oup.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:34 PM
We are really excited about this article — thank you for sharing! — and will be doing a thread soon collecting the main findings and implications (with a link to an interactive nationwide map that is not in the academic publication). Watch this space!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
October 14, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...
October 3, 2025 at 4:05 PM
What a great opportunity! Seminar Native Peoples, American Colonialism and the Constitution with @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social & Ned Blackhawk for grad students & "junior" faculty. In person & virtual. Apply by 10/10.
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...
www.nyhistory.org/education/in...
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
Zohran's big innovation is to attack economic *and* authoritarian power. Those are allied with each other to particularly noxious effect right now, as corporate elites capitulating to Trump's authoritarian takeover are demonstrating. Zohran attacks them as linked to one another, as I show here:
Mamdani’s innovation is showing how to emphasize cost-of-living *without* retreating from the defense of immigrants and *without* shirking the mission of centralizing Trump’s authoritarian lawlessness.
He attacks all forms of power, economic *and* authoritarian.
newrepublic.com/article/2011...
He attacks all forms of power, economic *and* authoritarian.
newrepublic.com/article/2011...
October 1, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Zohran's big innovation is to attack economic *and* authoritarian power. Those are allied with each other to particularly noxious effect right now, as corporate elites capitulating to Trump's authoritarian takeover are demonstrating. Zohran attacks them as linked to one another, as I show here:
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
These two things might seem unrelated, but together they help distill the workings of competitive authoritarianism. When the opposition loses, it gets blamed on their having terrible leaders, but part of why they have terrible leaders is bc any rising leader is hounded by the ruling party.
September 4, 2025 at 11:48 AM
These two things might seem unrelated, but together they help distill the workings of competitive authoritarianism. When the opposition loses, it gets blamed on their having terrible leaders, but part of why they have terrible leaders is bc any rising leader is hounded by the ruling party.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
A professor who was actually canceled - fired - and crickets from the hysterical “anti-cancel culture” crowd.
A lot of people who were panic mongering about a woke cultural revolution are conspicuously quiet about a youth activist denouncing a professor for wrong think and that professor being fired as part of a campaign of public shaming by political leaders.
Update on the Texas A&M professor / cell phone video situation: the professor has been fired by the A&M president
president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...
president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...
September 10, 2025 at 1:36 PM
A professor who was actually canceled - fired - and crickets from the hysterical “anti-cancel culture” crowd.
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
These efforts to impose some state's restrictions (when it's abortion) or lack of restrictions (when it's guns) on other states are absurd
It also feels, imo, weirdly reminiscent of slave states' efforts to impose their laws on free states by demanding that they return people who freed themselves
It also feels, imo, weirdly reminiscent of slave states' efforts to impose their laws on free states by demanding that they return people who freed themselves
As I said in this piece, NH is trying to impose their weak gun laws on Massachusetts, and we want other states to respect our strong gun laws. Strong gun laws that work, that are keeping our rates of gun deaths lower than any other state in the entire country.
www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/...
www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/...
Massachusetts gun licensing law being challenged by New Hampshire as unconstitutional
New Hampshire is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to Massachusetts' gun licensing laws, arguing the restrictions are unconstitutional.
www.cbsnews.com
September 6, 2025 at 9:55 PM
These efforts to impose some state's restrictions (when it's abortion) or lack of restrictions (when it's guns) on other states are absurd
It also feels, imo, weirdly reminiscent of slave states' efforts to impose their laws on free states by demanding that they return people who freed themselves
It also feels, imo, weirdly reminiscent of slave states' efforts to impose their laws on free states by demanding that they return people who freed themselves
If you're doing work in this area, do consider applying! I got such helpful feedback last year on my (then-early-stage) research about Gilded Age efforts to use state constitutions to challenge oligarchy, and also had a great time hanging out with other democracy scholars in Lansing. 10/10!
I'm very happy to share that I will be hosting the *Second* Annual Democracy and Public Law Works-in-Progress Conference at the Michigan State University College of Law on April 3–4, 2026! Law scholars (current and aspiring), I'd love to host you!
Application:
msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Application:
msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
September 2, 2025 at 4:16 PM
If you're doing work in this area, do consider applying! I got such helpful feedback last year on my (then-early-stage) research about Gilded Age efforts to use state constitutions to challenge oligarchy, and also had a great time hanging out with other democracy scholars in Lansing. 10/10!
Reposted by Brian Highsmith
🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...
August 15, 2025 at 6:52 PM
🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...