Jen Mapes
@mapesgeog.bsky.social
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/
This playground at The Battery in NYC restored my faith that we CAN do urban design right.
November 27, 2025 at 1:39 AM
This playground at The Battery in NYC restored my faith that we CAN do urban design right.
I’ve been in the Merriman Valley a lot lately and it’s this juxtaposition of beautiful trails, great coffee, sewer infrastructure, and ugly shopping plazas. I need to read the neighborhood’s master plan — still in the city of Akron yet so distant from it. Right at the edge of the National Park.
November 22, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I’ve been in the Merriman Valley a lot lately and it’s this juxtaposition of beautiful trails, great coffee, sewer infrastructure, and ugly shopping plazas. I need to read the neighborhood’s master plan — still in the city of Akron yet so distant from it. Right at the edge of the National Park.
GIS Day in the Community Geography Lab, including a mapathon georeferencing Sanborns using AllMaps.
November 20, 2025 at 3:10 AM
GIS Day in the Community Geography Lab, including a mapathon georeferencing Sanborns using AllMaps.
Mural, by Grace Nestor-Louie got said permission and turned out great! Would love to see this ordinance clarified though so no special permission is needed.
November 16, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Mural, by Grace Nestor-Louie got said permission and turned out great! Would love to see this ordinance clarified though so no special permission is needed.
Another beautiful atlas saved from recycling. This one appears to be a guide for boating down a river in Belgium? Love the bridge illustrations.
November 13, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Another beautiful atlas saved from recycling. This one appears to be a guide for boating down a river in Belgium? Love the bridge illustrations.
Toured the new Davey Tree research & training campus today with students from around the US. The 200 acre campus & facilities were great but most impressed by their happy & enthusiastic employees. Glad they’re such good neighbors here in Kent & expanding (12,000 employees across the country!)
November 11, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Toured the new Davey Tree research & training campus today with students from around the US. The 200 acre campus & facilities were great but most impressed by their happy & enthusiastic employees. Glad they’re such good neighbors here in Kent & expanding (12,000 employees across the country!)
Snowing today, but the dawn redwood (one of only a few deciduous conifers) is warming up my lab with color 🧡. Our grounds manager tells me this was only planted 20 years ago but it already towers over our 4 story building.
November 10, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Snowing today, but the dawn redwood (one of only a few deciduous conifers) is warming up my lab with color 🧡. Our grounds manager tells me this was only planted 20 years ago but it already towers over our 4 story building.
To get a better sense of the neighborhood I thought I'd try showing how many people lived at each address because some were single-family homes and others apartments but they were getting the same symbol. Trying to add a business layer but that's a bit much in a static map.
November 9, 2025 at 7:34 PM
To get a better sense of the neighborhood I thought I'd try showing how many people lived at each address because some were single-family homes and others apartments but they were getting the same symbol. Trying to add a business layer but that's a bit much in a static map.
#30daymapchallenge Day 7: Accessibility. Made a quick map for a friend of elementary school redistricting. Lots of ways to analyze this but of course my interest was in "how many students that could walk to school are now put into a non-walkable (further away) school/district?"
November 7, 2025 at 5:44 PM
#30daymapchallenge Day 7: Accessibility. Made a quick map for a friend of elementary school redistricting. Lots of ways to analyze this but of course my interest was in "how many students that could walk to school are now put into a non-walkable (further away) school/district?"
How do you map a neighborhood that doesn't exist anymore? By manually georeferencing it! 🫠 Building a case here that urban renewal segregated this integrated neighborhood of thousands of people.
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
How do you map a neighborhood that doesn't exist anymore? By manually georeferencing it! 🫠 Building a case here that urban renewal segregated this integrated neighborhood of thousands of people.
I always loved these signs in my hometown city hall. When I was a reporter, I'd walk by/through them often and I think we once wrote a story about the person in charge of repainting them when someone new was elected.
November 5, 2025 at 1:11 PM
I always loved these signs in my hometown city hall. When I was a reporter, I'd walk by/through them often and I think we once wrote a story about the person in charge of repainting them when someone new was elected.
The AI that we're entrusting our future to suggests that a similar book to transportation advocacy is either Celebrating 70 years of Porsche or The Correctional Officer's Guide.
October 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The AI that we're entrusting our future to suggests that a similar book to transportation advocacy is either Celebrating 70 years of Porsche or The Correctional Officer's Guide.
Similar idea but a mobile?
October 22, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Similar idea but a mobile?
These are awesome @lwvohio.bsky.social tshirts for 2 reasons. 1. Map. 2. Democracy. 💜🇺🇸
October 21, 2025 at 3:09 PM
These are awesome @lwvohio.bsky.social tshirts for 2 reasons. 1. Map. 2. Democracy. 💜🇺🇸
Was fortunate to have Micheale Glennon visit my lab today and she brought examples of her work: Maps? Art? Dataviz? All of the above✅ These show 1. the importance of stream buffers, 2. how HABs are created and 3. underwater pollutants in the Genesee watershed. www.adkwatershed.org/wool-water-g...
October 20, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Was fortunate to have Micheale Glennon visit my lab today and she brought examples of her work: Maps? Art? Dataviz? All of the above✅ These show 1. the importance of stream buffers, 2. how HABs are created and 3. underwater pollutants in the Genesee watershed. www.adkwatershed.org/wool-water-g...
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!)
(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!)
October 7, 2025 at 12:23 AM
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!)
(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!)
My book, The New American Small Town: Lessons for Sustainable Futures, is out there in the wild! (At my city library, but still)
October 6, 2025 at 6:48 PM
My book, The New American Small Town: Lessons for Sustainable Futures, is out there in the wild! (At my city library, but still)
My non-geographer friend just now (!!) sent me an article from today's WaPo that links to this study aboutdci.com/wp-content/u...
October 2, 2025 at 6:24 PM
My non-geographer friend just now (!!) sent me an article from today's WaPo that links to this study aboutdci.com/wp-content/u...
Public library & mammobus were stops today in #weekwithoutdriving
October 2, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Public library & mammobus were stops today in #weekwithoutdriving
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.
September 28, 2025 at 1:51 PM
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.
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.
September 28, 2025 at 1:31 PM
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.
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...
September 26, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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...
This road design will never be safe. *no skipping allowed, kid!*
September 25, 2025 at 4:07 PM
This road design will never be safe. *no skipping allowed, kid!*