Julia Sizek
@jsizek.bsky.social
Environmental historian and legal geographer of California desert's landownership checkerboards, Native American land trusts, groundwater, dirt bikes, and vacation homes. Also projects on the Northwest Forest Plan and cervid Chronic Wasting Disease.
My weird obsession with golf courses has finally paid off professionally and I'm very excited about it
October 21, 2025 at 10:39 PM
My weird obsession with golf courses has finally paid off professionally and I'm very excited about it
It's almost like AI is more demand-side than supply-side, creating consumer demand instead of promising actual labor saving efficiencies.
AI is clearly anti-productivity given the extent that its externalities create more work for society.
October 14, 2025 at 1:17 PM
It's almost like AI is more demand-side than supply-side, creating consumer demand instead of promising actual labor saving efficiencies.
In disturbing letterheads I didn't anticipate seeing at work today
September 19, 2025 at 8:58 PM
In disturbing letterheads I didn't anticipate seeing at work today
Today! Free on Zoom for those of you who appreciate California history
Moderating this fun discussion of California myths at the California state library this week! Join on Zoom to learn more about Calafia, pulp novels, and Ramona
Mythmaking, Myth Breaking: California at 175
Join the California History Section for a live webinar on Mythmaking, Myth Breaking: California at 175 on Thursday, September 18, at 4PM!
See how myths have shaped our ideas...
libraryca.libcal.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Today! Free on Zoom for those of you who appreciate California history
Reposted by Julia Sizek
I couldn't find much 1960s coverage of families displaced by the W-X freeway. So I looked at households listed on W or X in the 1950 census & called up the kids to see if they were still living there when construction began. I found two amazing people? Reporting is fun www.sacbee.com/news/local/t...
Will traffic on Highway 50 ever end? Sacramento history suggests the answer is ‘no’
Where are these freeway lanes headed? “It feels like spitting in the wind a little bit. In five years, we’re gonna feel like we want another lane.”
www.sacbee.com
September 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I couldn't find much 1960s coverage of families displaced by the W-X freeway. So I looked at households listed on W or X in the 1950 census & called up the kids to see if they were still living there when construction began. I found two amazing people? Reporting is fun www.sacbee.com/news/local/t...
Moderating this fun discussion of California myths at the California state library this week! Join on Zoom to learn more about Calafia, pulp novels, and Ramona
Mythmaking, Myth Breaking: California at 175
Join the California History Section for a live webinar on Mythmaking, Myth Breaking: California at 175 on Thursday, September 18, at 4PM!
See how myths have shaped our ideas...
libraryca.libcal.com
September 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Moderating this fun discussion of California myths at the California state library this week! Join on Zoom to learn more about Calafia, pulp novels, and Ramona
Reposted by Julia Sizek
Re-establishing Wildcat Canyon as a through route to exurban Contra Costa County is a mistake. Fix it if you must, and leave it closed.
A 2.5 mile-stretch of the road below Inspiration Point, a popular route from the Berkeley Hills to Orinda and the reservoirs, has been closed since March 2023.
Wildcat Canyon Road in Tilden, closed by landslide 2 years ago, may reopen by December
A 2.5 mile-stretch of the road below Inspiration Point, a popular route from the Berkeley Hills to Orinda and the reservoirs, has been closed since March 2023.
www.berkeleyside.org
September 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Re-establishing Wildcat Canyon as a through route to exurban Contra Costa County is a mistake. Fix it if you must, and leave it closed.
Cadiz Inc up to new antics, zombie projects never die
The plan dividing California—turning the Mojave Desert into a green hydrogen giant with groundwater and thousands of solar panels #cawater pedirayudas.com/en/mojave-de...
The plan dividing California—turning the Mojave Desert into a green hydrogen giant with groundwater and thousands of solar panels
The Mojave Desert already has renewable aircraft of the future. RIC Energy and the American company Cadiz Inc. have signed an agreement to build a
pedirayudas.com
September 10, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Cadiz Inc up to new antics, zombie projects never die
Prop 13 continues to be my enemy
This Berkeleyside piece does a great job of showing why it’s possible to hold a bunch of empty apartment buildings in Berkeley: incredibly low property taxes due to (all together now) Prop 13
www.berkeleyside.org/2025/09/05/b...
www.berkeleyside.org/2025/09/05/b...
September 6, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Prop 13 continues to be my enemy
I literally had a conversation with colleagues yesterday who told me about their behavior to avoid mountain lion encounters and I reminded them that they're much more likely to die driving to work
“We have bears, coyotes and snakes around here, but by far the biggest safety concern for me with my kids is cars.”
The number of children injured or killed by cars while walking or riding a bike has fallen steadily since the 1970s, but CDC researcher note that this decline is not because streets are safer, but because fewer kids are out and about in the first place.
August 13, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I literally had a conversation with colleagues yesterday who told me about their behavior to avoid mountain lion encounters and I reminded them that they're much more likely to die driving to work
AI not only requires tons of groundwater or surface water to operate it, but it also heats up that water to kill all the tiny microbes that make groundwater clean!
When I post that #AI destroys everything I am not getting all hyperbolic and shit
Some places will have to start rationing water - to enable AI slop.
"A data center like Meta’s, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers [will] require millions of gallons of water a day"
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/t...
"A data center like Meta’s, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers [will] require millions of gallons of water a day"
Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/t...
July 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM
AI not only requires tons of groundwater or surface water to operate it, but it also heats up that water to kill all the tiny microbes that make groundwater clean!
There is one extremely active nimby who has made it her mission to make sure that this intersection isn't safer for cyclists and pedestrians, sadly
Four lane road, no safety infrastructure to speak of.
Pedestrian dies in Berkeley traffic collision https://trib.al/k2adV5z
July 9, 2025 at 11:08 PM
There is one extremely active nimby who has made it her mission to make sure that this intersection isn't safer for cyclists and pedestrians, sadly
Please follow up with a detailed history of property tax repossession, been waiting for someone to write one for a decade kthanx
"We might cheer the retreat of seasteaders and space colonists from civil society, if not for the fact that the wealth used to construct their private worlds belongs to us."
From @timothyaschuler.bsky.social: the technofascists ruling our new gilded age threaten to rob us of what we hold in common.
From @timothyaschuler.bsky.social: the technofascists ruling our new gilded age threaten to rob us of what we hold in common.
Private Worlds
Today's billionaires and technofascists threaten to rob the American people of things we are supposed to hold in common.
placesjournal.org
June 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Please follow up with a detailed history of property tax repossession, been waiting for someone to write one for a decade kthanx
Reposted by Julia Sizek
watching closely to see if there's a spike in citations for Neither Settler nor Native
June 25, 2025 at 4:35 PM
watching closely to see if there's a spike in citations for Neither Settler nor Native
Reposted by Julia Sizek
Land Sale of the Century, James Watt’s dream come may come true.
June 19, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Land Sale of the Century, James Watt’s dream come may come true.
Counterpoint: Jaws is just Duel, revamped, so actually the template of the movie is about the terror of the open road and mysterious road rage
June 20, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Counterpoint: Jaws is just Duel, revamped, so actually the template of the movie is about the terror of the open road and mysterious road rage
Death valley has more Joshua trees than Joshua Tree. Protecting those trees and the areas around the NP will continue to protect the best habitat for the charismatic species moving forward
New research confirms Joshua trees at extreme risk of loss due to loss of suitable habitat from climate change. And one of the areas most likely to act as climate refugia near Death Valley NP -- Conglomerate Mesa -- is now the site of proposed gold mine with 'streamlined' federal permitting.
A new paper projecting Joshua tree habitat under future climate based on incredibly high-resolution distribution data, from Joshua Tree Genome Project collaborators at USGS. They estimate up to 80% loss of suitable habitat by 2100 under the worst-case climate scenario. 🌿
buff.ly/PgOBBhv
buff.ly/PgOBBhv
June 18, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Death valley has more Joshua trees than Joshua Tree. Protecting those trees and the areas around the NP will continue to protect the best habitat for the charismatic species moving forward
The lobby for this is exclusively golden duplex owners in Berkeley who don't want to improve things for their tenants
E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/u...
E.P.A. Plans to Reconsider a Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos
www.nytimes.com
June 17, 2025 at 3:28 AM
The lobby for this is exclusively golden duplex owners in Berkeley who don't want to improve things for their tenants
The federal government had a little known program to sell off lands under the small tract act, and they had to end it because of too much interest and too much chaos. Today's checkerboard sale would be more of the same
I noted this earlier in a reply to another post, but this also includes checkerboard lands that comprise a vital ecological corridor where I-90 crosses the Cascades. The wildlife overpass near Snoqualmie Pass - the largest in N. America - is on checkerboard land (i.e., if sold: a bridge to nowhere).
June 17, 2025 at 3:26 AM
The federal government had a little known program to sell off lands under the small tract act, and they had to end it because of too much interest and too much chaos. Today's checkerboard sale would be more of the same
Villages connected by freeways
Whenever a major Los Angeles story hits national news, I am always struck by how little anyone from elsewhere in the country understands just how big the city actually is.
June 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Villages connected by freeways
Public transit helps you understand society in both the best and most car-brained ways
"When my wife and I began our journey southward to grandmother’s house for Easter Sunday dinner, we sought to do a thing that I have never heard of anyone doing before — we aimed to cross the northern quadrant of New York State using only local rural county transit buses."
A Rural Public Transit Odyssey
Across New York's North Country by Rural Transit Bus
shagbark.substack.com
June 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Public transit helps you understand society in both the best and most car-brained ways
Meanwhile Raymond Williams shouts into the void: what if the country and the city should be conceptualized together?
not the main issue here but i'd really appreciate it if democratic politicians spoke out in support of big-city life and culture with the same energy and reverence that all politicians have for small towns
los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates
los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates
June 9, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Meanwhile Raymond Williams shouts into the void: what if the country and the city should be conceptualized together?
As someone who works in small towns, cities and countryside are so intertwined that it's impossible to talk about rural America without its many metropoles
Amen. I love small town living but I grew up in a big city.
Both are America. Don’t let rural people monopolize what “real” America is.
Detroit is real America.
Memphis is real America.
LA is real America.
Both are America. Don’t let rural people monopolize what “real” America is.
Detroit is real America.
Memphis is real America.
LA is real America.
not the main issue here but i'd really appreciate it if democratic politicians spoke out in support of big-city life and culture with the same energy and reverence that all politicians have for small towns
los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates
los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates
June 9, 2025 at 1:49 AM
As someone who works in small towns, cities and countryside are so intertwined that it's impossible to talk about rural America without its many metropoles
People who hate on public transit clearly have not been on my last two trains, on which someone offered to buy me a drink and another kind person offered and successfully opened a notoriously annoying thermos that I should not use for my tea
June 4, 2025 at 12:52 PM
People who hate on public transit clearly have not been on my last two trains, on which someone offered to buy me a drink and another kind person offered and successfully opened a notoriously annoying thermos that I should not use for my tea
I got to pick where I live so I could bike and train commute, but not everyone gets that choice. Expanding bike lanes gives people the option to stop driving everywhere
Protected bike lanes have a near-magical ability to produce cyclists.
This new study of 28 US cities finds that census block groups w/protected bike lanes expanded bike commuting almost 2x faster than those w/standard bike lanes & >4x faster than those w/o new lanes.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
This new study of 28 US cities finds that census block groups w/protected bike lanes expanded bike commuting almost 2x faster than those w/standard bike lanes & >4x faster than those w/o new lanes.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
June 3, 2025 at 12:20 AM
I got to pick where I live so I could bike and train commute, but not everyone gets that choice. Expanding bike lanes gives people the option to stop driving everywhere