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Jen Mapes

@mapesgeog.bsky.social

5K followers 820 following 330 posts

Community geographer, cartographer, pedestrian, cyclist. Author of "The New American Small Town: Lessons for sustainable urban futures" (West Virginia University Press, June 2025). https://communitygeography.kent.edu/

communitygeography.kent.edu

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Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 1d

Shout-out though to my university which is compensating me for making this online class the right way which includes making it accessible to all.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 1d

This is so representative of where we are at today.

(I am adding alt text to 375 slides with so, so many maps is why I'm asking for a technology that's existed for 30+ years to work for accessibility tools, too, but thanks AI for the tip about using my eyes to spell check my own typing. So retro!)

Google AI answer reads, "to spell-check the alt text of an image in PowerPoint, you cannot directly run a spell check on the alt text field. However you can use the Accessibility Checker tool on the Review tab to find missing alt text or inaccuracies and then write the alt text manually, ensuring it is spelled correctly before it's finalized."

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 1d

My book, The New American Small Town: Lessons for Sustainable Futures, is out there in the wild! (At my city library, but still)

The New American Small Town on a new nonfiction library shelf.

Reposted by Jen Mapes

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 4d

A recent photo of a starling murmuration as if smoke from a chimney has been called a "fluke" by its Yorkshire based, UK photographer, Anna Tosney #WomensArt

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 3d

Treated like untrustworthy criminals 😡 It sounds like there were a lot of non-students involved too, who would just come in and do a show for free for the benefit of all. I just feel like there is something else going on behind all the non-disclosure agreements.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 3d

As a former student newspaper reporter, this doesnt sit right. thelandcle.org/stories/idea...

Ideastream now programming WCSB, formerly Cleveland State University's student-run radio station – The Land

Programming from Cleveland State University students and WCSB staff ended this morning, according to a message from CSU leadership.

Reposted by Jen Mapes

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 5d

obligatory sturgeon mention content

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 5d

Day care costs 🫠 School preferences 🫠 … yeah I get it, changes your viewpoint.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 5d

WaPo article is here but unfortunately requires login for gift link. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Why are Americans relocating? The data shows surprises.

The tranquility and safety of suburban and rural areas increasingly appeal to many movers.

www.washingtonpost.com

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 5d

My non-geographer friend just now (!!) sent me an article from today's WaPo that links to this study aboutdci.com/wp-content/u...

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 5d

One of those classic "I know *someone* has done this!" topics. Good luck!

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 5d

My research is specifically on small towns, but overall I don't trust US News to have researched specifically why people choose to move or not. There are some good surveys out there that show a disconnect between where people would like to live and where they actually live. So complicated!

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 6d

Public library & mammobus were stops today in #weekwithoutdriving

Public library bus racks with bonus 3 slices of pizzz on the ground

Bike parked next to mammobus that reads “early detection saves lives “

Reposted by Jen Mapes

Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 8d

So proud of my colleague David Padgett for his work with GIS mapping & analysis to support environmental justice, HBCUs, and in training educators in NASA's GLOBE program.

amerisurv.com/2025/09/15/t...

#BlackSky #GISchat 🌎 🌍 🌏

The Pioneering Professor Who Transformed Community Advocacy - The American Surveyor

In the early 1990s, environmental justice advocates across the US struggled to prove that marginalized communities faced disproportionate exposure to pollution and other...

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 8d

Would love to see small towns up their transit game, especially to big city destinations (like museums and airports). But it's complicated. Need to show ridership to increase routes/frequency, but need more routes/frequency to increase ridership.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 8d

Every week is #NationalWeekWithoutDriving, but no, not really. Being honest: This week I need a car for: watching Labyrinth on the lawn of the city art museum, going to see my friends' kid's marching band, and bringing cats to the vet. Public transit doesn't do it -- (hybrid) car it is then.

Reposted by Jen Mapes

Sarah Goodyear @sgoodyear.bsky.social · 9d

Healing and repair are the work we have in front of us. There will be plenty to do for generations, and we can do it with joy and a sense of purpose.

Tracy Hadden Loh @lohplaces.bsky.social · 9d

Good morning! I am waking up to #NationalWeekWithoutDriving in a hotel in downtown Rochester, NY. It’s built on a former parking lot redeveloped as part of the removal of the east segment of the Inner Belt highway. Healing Rochester from urban renewal will take decades, but it can be done.

Hotel and apartments on infill surface parking lots in downtown Rochester, NY.

Apartments overlooking the right of way of the former Inner Belt highway in Rochester, now a complete street.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 10d

This was one of the best festivals I've ever been to. Like part family-friendly rave, part MassMOCA but everything is touchable. In a 300,000 square feet, four story, 6 acre old industrial complex.

Paper cranes hanging from the high ceiling of an old industrial building next to a very tall globe.

Glorious 5 pm sunlight reflects on large homemade trees with ribbons cascading down from their limbs.

Massive high ceilings of an old industrial building now including a hot air balloon, dragonfly and monarch made out of transparent paper.

A chaotic scene inside the old industrial building includes a beehive mural, giant marble run, breakdancing competition (right), and a milk jug light display, all illuminated in red and magenta lighting.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 10d

A huge space in the even-huger old manufacturing building in Cleveland was dedicated to a Map of Care and associated exhibits at the Ingenuity Fest.

abstract map showing neighborhoods in Cleveland with ribbons tacked on to illustrate landscapes of care

Document explaining places of hope for the map of care, with examples like community gardens, tree-planting programs and murals.

A variety of sights near the map, my favorite being "Space Time Mattering"

The label for the Cleveland Ohio Map of Care: "Are you okay? Is everyone okay?"

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 12d

Ran across this map of factories in an Ohio small town (no date) that takes such aesthetic joy in pollution. hub.catalogit.app/search/trumb...

A close up of the map I describe in the next image: A map of Warren, Ohio, which shows all of its manufacturing plant locations, depicting them each with 3D-look buildings and clouds of smoke. The borders are decorated with smoke (pollution). It is titled "Industrial Map of Warren, O."

A map of Warren, Ohio, which shows all of its manufacturing plant locations, depicting them each with 3D-look buildings and clouds of smoke. The borders are decorated with smoke (pollution). It is titled "Industrial Map of Warren, O."

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 12d

This is the walk to school. Tell me again what we are doing wrong. Is it the skipping? bsky.app/profile/mape...

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 13d

This road design will never be safe. *no skipping allowed, kid!*

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 13d

This road design will never be safe. *no skipping allowed, kid!*

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 13d

I've had some luck with fixing Google Maps, but this time rather than removing the park label from this...asphalt mixing plant... they doubled down and just added my screenshot of their aerial view. Still. Not. A. Park. (It was never a park).

An aerial photograph by Google showing a Park tag tied to a place called "McBride Park" which is instead some kind of industrial wasteland.

Jen Mapes @mapesgeog.bsky.social · 13d

How many places can you see a Vrbo ad (without some unique landmark in the background) and immediately know where it is? This is a Eureka Springs appreciation post.

Vrbo ad showing a small Victorian cottage built into a hillside.

Reposted by Jen Mapes

Jeremy Cole @jeremycole.bsky.social · 15d

Nobody: …

Sweden: What if anti-homeless architecture was like, super cute?

Bench with brass sculptures of cats on it

Bike helmet on cat sculpture