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/
Our city recently decided that this side of a building (on a street corner) is a “facade” and thus is not allowed, and requires permission from council to be used for a mural. 🫠
James Brown, Cincinnati
November 16, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Our city recently decided that this side of a building (on a street corner) is a “facade” and thus is not allowed, and requires permission from council to be used for a mural. 🫠
Reposted by Jen Mapes
“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets
From making you live longer to making cities more resilient: If you want a reason to make your city more walkable, it's in here.
www.fastcompany.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:40 AM
“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
Reposted by Jen Mapes
Day 7 of #30DayMapChallenge asked us to think about accessibility. @gsagostini.bsky.social considers two metrics of access simultaneously: distance to a Subway and distance to the subway.
November 13, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Day 7 of #30DayMapChallenge asked us to think about accessibility. @gsagostini.bsky.social considers two metrics of access simultaneously: distance to a Subway and distance to the subway.
The New American Small Town was reviewed in JAPA -- excited to see it shared with the planners! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The New American Small Town: Lessons for Sustainable Urban Futures
Published in Journal of the American Planning Association (Ahead of Print, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:16 PM
The New American Small Town was reviewed in JAPA -- excited to see it shared with the planners! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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.
Reposted by Jen Mapes
"And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters"
Beautiful cover of Fitzgerald by Ross Thorn, recorded this morning on the shores of Lake Superior.
www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4hq80...
Beautiful cover of Fitzgerald by Ross Thorn, recorded this morning on the shores of Lake Superior.
www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4hq80...
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November 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
"And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters"
Beautiful cover of Fitzgerald by Ross Thorn, recorded this morning on the shores of Lake Superior.
www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4hq80...
Beautiful cover of Fitzgerald by Ross Thorn, recorded this morning on the shores of Lake Superior.
www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4hq80...
Reposted by Jen Mapes
Just preaching my message of "wanting to do less more often" we all have our reasons.
November 10, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Just preaching my message of "wanting to do less more often" we all have our reasons.
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.
Reposted by Jen Mapes
Car brand BYD's new SUV ad pokes fun at people walking and cycling, comparing them to Horse & Carts.
It joins a long list of car ads that sell a false promise of convenience and aspiration while punching down at sustainable transport modes.
So I made it a bit more realistic...
It joins a long list of car ads that sell a false promise of convenience and aspiration while punching down at sustainable transport modes.
So I made it a bit more realistic...
November 7, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Car brand BYD's new SUV ad pokes fun at people walking and cycling, comparing them to Horse & Carts.
It joins a long list of car ads that sell a false promise of convenience and aspiration while punching down at sustainable transport modes.
So I made it a bit more realistic...
It joins a long list of car ads that sell a false promise of convenience and aspiration while punching down at sustainable transport modes.
So I made it a bit more realistic...
#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.
Reposted by Jen Mapes
There are a lot of arguments for why Mamdani won. I, a pundit, believe it was the typeface.
www.curbed.com/article/zohr...
www.curbed.com/article/zohr...
Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign Logo Looked Nothing Like a Campaign Logo
The bodega-influenced visual language of an outsider campaign.
www.curbed.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:40 PM
There are a lot of arguments for why Mamdani won. I, a pundit, believe it was the typeface.
www.curbed.com/article/zohr...
www.curbed.com/article/zohr...
Reposted by Jen Mapes
#30DayMapChallenge
Day 2: Lines – The Secret Life of Streams 💧
UV light reveals piped streams.
Early Wellington was shaped by streams flowing to the harbour. As the city grew, many were piped underground, hidden from sight but still running beneath our feet.
#Wellington #Flooding #cartography
Day 2: Lines – The Secret Life of Streams 💧
UV light reveals piped streams.
Early Wellington was shaped by streams flowing to the harbour. As the city grew, many were piped underground, hidden from sight but still running beneath our feet.
#Wellington #Flooding #cartography
November 2, 2025 at 10:42 AM
#30DayMapChallenge
Day 2: Lines – The Secret Life of Streams 💧
UV light reveals piped streams.
Early Wellington was shaped by streams flowing to the harbour. As the city grew, many were piped underground, hidden from sight but still running beneath our feet.
#Wellington #Flooding #cartography
Day 2: Lines – The Secret Life of Streams 💧
UV light reveals piped streams.
Early Wellington was shaped by streams flowing to the harbour. As the city grew, many were piped underground, hidden from sight but still running beneath our feet.
#Wellington #Flooding #cartography
Reposted by Jen Mapes
"Neighbourhood interiors were never intended for commercial activity", says one letter writer. To be fair, this is true, if you toss the entirety of human history and modern day Earth outside North America in the trash, and think that urban planning less than a century old is ironclad natural law.
No corner coffee shops: Toronto committee waters down neighbourhood retail plan
It’s the second time in less than a year councillors balked at allowing certain businesses to open on some residential streets
www.torontotoday.ca
October 31, 2025 at 1:29 PM
"Neighbourhood interiors were never intended for commercial activity", says one letter writer. To be fair, this is true, if you toss the entirety of human history and modern day Earth outside North America in the trash, and think that urban planning less than a century old is ironclad natural law.
Love this! All aboard for the #30DayMapChallenge (that I don't have time to ....well, maybe one or two....)
Day 1 #30DayMapChallenge: Points 🧵🪡
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
November 1, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Love this! All aboard for the #30DayMapChallenge (that I don't have time to ....well, maybe one or two....)
Reposted by Jen Mapes
Day 1 #30DayMapChallenge: Points 🧵🪡
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
November 1, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Day 1 #30DayMapChallenge: Points 🧵🪡
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
I created a hand-felted map of Wellington showing Community Emergency Hubs as buttons, using locations from the GWRC web map viewer (via the Natural Hazards Portal).
It is roughly to scale, offering a soft, tactile take on community resilience. 💚
Reposted by Jen Mapes
Your annual reminder that US streets and vehicles are generally not designed to keep pedestrians, especially small ones, safe.
So wonderful Halloween is the most likely day you’ll kill a child with your car, and someone will kill a child you care about with theirs.
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
So wonderful Halloween is the most likely day you’ll kill a child with your car, and someone will kill a child you care about with theirs.
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
October 30, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Your annual reminder that US streets and vehicles are generally not designed to keep pedestrians, especially small ones, safe.
So wonderful Halloween is the most likely day you’ll kill a child with your car, and someone will kill a child you care about with theirs.
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
So wonderful Halloween is the most likely day you’ll kill a child with your car, and someone will kill a child you care about with theirs.
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
This web map is beautiful! I’m a print map gal at heart, but this Shows how much creativity is possible. trollmap.com
Trollmap — By Thomas Dambo
trollmap.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:16 AM
This web map is beautiful! I’m a print map gal at heart, but this Shows how much creativity is possible. trollmap.com
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.
This is huge! Would have loved it when I was living in Saratoga Springs. Too bad the actual downtown Albany train station was abandoned by rail in 1968. This one’s across the Hudson in Rensselaer. The old Albany station had 96 trains/day in 1900.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced that beginning Dec. 1, some Amtrak service between New York City and Albany would be restored and the price capped at $99.
Even better, Hochul announced that the Metro-North commuter railroad would be running its own lines to Albany for around $40.
Even better, Hochul announced that the Metro-North commuter railroad would be running its own lines to Albany for around $40.
A Flat $40 Train Ticket From NYC to Albany? It’s Happening Next Year.
For the first time, Metro-North will run trains past Poughkeepsie through the Hudson Valley to Albany. Some Amtrak service will also be restored.
nyti.ms
October 21, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This is huge! Would have loved it when I was living in Saratoga Springs. Too bad the actual downtown Albany train station was abandoned by rail in 1968. This one’s across the Hudson in Rensselaer. The old Albany station had 96 trains/day in 1900.
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. 💜🇺🇸
Listening belatedly to @99pi.org ‘s Power Broker series & realizing it could be remade this year with this year’s politics and it would be entirely different. Not sure if it’s a particularly crazy year or just that Robert Moses is applicable to all politics always. Both, I think.
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social on making public transit accessible: "I think the way that you move around the city, it influences the way in which you see the city. Too often if you're riding around only in a car with tinted windows, the only New Yorker you might see is a reflection of yourself."
Zohran Mamdani, the Internet’s Mayor
Mere months ago, New York’s mayoral front-runner was polling right next to “Someone Else.” He spoke to WIRED about building a social media machine, Big Tech capitulation, and learning from Eric Adams.
www.wired.com
October 20, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Listening belatedly to @99pi.org ‘s Power Broker series & realizing it could be remade this year with this year’s politics and it would be entirely different. Not sure if it’s a particularly crazy year or just that Robert Moses is applicable to all politics always. Both, I think.
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...