The Year in Maps: from Boston Globe

The Boston Globe reports that thanks to GIS and other computer offerings, mapmaking has exploded in the past year.

Why I GIS

There are a handful of reasons why this blog has gone dormant in recent months -- not the least of which is the fact I was immersed in a 4-credit computer programming course that was required for my GIS certification.
Another reason is the fact that I sometimes feel as if I am a tiny voice in the wilderness amid the growing (exploding?) field of GIS. With all of these experts out here, who wants to read the musings of a newbie? Indeed, I didn't feel as if I had much to say.
Finally, what I did have to say centered largely about the issue of cemeteries and land use, as expressed in my newly relaunched blog, Whistling Past the Graveyard (same name, new location: http://taphofiles.blogspot.com). I figure that perhaps it was prudent to narrowcast about a topic with which I do have a tiny bit of expertise and a good deal of interest.
But I read an interesting column today from Directions Mag, about the difficulty of coming up with a top-10 GIS stories list for 2008. I like the running analogy. The members of the author's running club are all in it for the running -- no matter how far they run. We're all in this GIS thing for different reasons, but we all like GIS. And I have something to contribute -- even if, right now, I don't know exactly what that is.
So, now that I'm out of the programming pond, I hope to be back here. Members of my church have ideas to map the grounds, and I hope to contribute there. I will continue with my cemetery blog, and hope to expand that in 2009. I even want to revive my GeoSongs feature of this blog.
So, while my blog probably isn't even within the top 1,000 GIS stories of the year, I'm here for the long haul.

Pro mapmakers vs. "citizen mapmakers"

Here's a piece from the Toronto Globe & Mail that details how the proliferation of online mapping opportunities turns everyday folks into amateur cartograpers. It could turn into the spatial equivalent of citizen journalism. It's an interesting turn of events.

New GeoSong: River Winding, by Catie Curtis

It's been a long, eventful summer. Hope it's been good for everyone. Here is the second in (what I hope is) a series of geo-type songs. Feel free to comment on this social commentary.



River Winding


River winding through this mill town
My hometown is dark by four
Winter coming, the mills have long shut down
No one's working anymore
I drove by McDonalds and a long line was followed
From a posting today of a job
River winding through the darkness
Always to rise and fal

lRiver winding, you wouldn't believe how many souls
Were glued right here
Winter coming, everyone's got shoes
But no one knows how to get through the year
I drove by my high school
And the students are so few now
So many families have left
River winding through the darkness
Sometimes cursed and sometimes blessed

River winding, sparkling in the moonlight
Cleaner than it's been
But the main street store fronts are mostly empty now
Hand written signs, space for rent
I drove by the factories and the windows were broken
Where the lights used to be always on
River winding through the darkness
Always to move along
Along

National Geographic's Map of the Day

Every weekday, they offer a new map at National Geographic. This is a cool feature to check out.

See Walmart; see Walmart grow

Thanks to the Planetizen folks for discovering this

Newsweek weighs in on death of suburbs

Well, the writer doesn't actually predict the death of the suburbs, but he raises some of the concerns that have been addressed elsewhere, including the earlier Atlantic Monthly article on the subject.

Celebrate

Thanks to the folks at Planetizen for finding this post. It's June, so, besides being Gay Pride Month (yay!), it's now Public Participation in Urban Planning Month. I like the sounds of it. As I've written before, it costs way too much to join some of these organizations, so how can we citizens participate if we have to pay the grocery bill. Perhaps a movement is afoot ...

That 'Divine' nature lover - Bette Midler

You never know what you might find when you tune in to National Public Radio. I listened today to a "Talk of the Nation" interview with Bette Midler - the Divine Miss M herself - and while I've always been a fan of her music career, I was pleasantly surprised to hear of her New York Restoration Project, an effort she founded to re-green New York City. Divine, indeed!
In fact, one of my passions is how cemeteries can be an integral part of greenery in cities (and countrysides, too!). My other blog is devoted to the issue of planning and land use and cemeteries, so I encourage Miss M. to consider that in all her good work.

North Carolina growth

I've blogged in the past a couple of times about North Carolina, which has surpassed my home state of New Jersey as the 10th most-populous state in the nation. One was an essay, reprinted from an earlier blog, urging North Carolinians to make sure to consider mass transit it their growth plans. The other was a post about people meeting to discuss the state in the 21st century.
Now comes an article by a California planner, who notes that the amazing growth experienced by North Carolina is very similar to what California experienced after World War II. Seems like more words of wisdom -- and warning -- about a state that can no longer be ignored. As this writer suggests, just ask Barack Obama.

Not part of the "in" crowd

Here's a piece about the (as-yet) failings of the New Urbanism movement to change our landscape, except on the periphery and a few other spots (we call this spot "anti-zoning"?). Some interesting points here. I wonder, too, whether the New Urbanists are "uncool," as this piece suggests, because they often are neo-traditionalists with a kind of back-to-the-future mind-set, perhaps even nostalgic. Nostalgic to a fault?
This writer also raises a point about NU's "insular mentality." Here, too, I agree. McDonald's Dollar Menu commercials aside, folks, the dollar's dropping: $185 to join the Movement at Congress for New Urbanism? $375 at Urban Land Institute? That's at least a few tanks of gas.

A shout-out to not-just-any blogger

City planning officials in Oak Harbor, Washington, have opened a blog where citizens can comment on development issues. A local newsaper wrote a piece on it.
This sounds like a worthwhile idea for all sorts of organizations; a good way to keep the citizenry involved.

Pave the streets green

Found this at a Web site from Canada. Is it doable? There are some towns - early "garden cities" the likes of Radburn, NJ - where housing fronts greenery and driveways are in back. Worth doing?

SongScape: "My City Was Gone," by the Pretenders

Welcome to a new, regular feature of Eclectic Pedestrian. While American popular music long has addressed social-justice issues, it less frequently directly addresses such topics as sprawl and development. My goal here is to begin a different type of conversation, one where geographers, planners and others in related fields can let their hair down a bit, perhaps pick up an air guitar instead of a PowerPoint clicker, and talk about meaningful music and how this particular type of music can change our landscape - figuratively or literally.
First up is this classic from the Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde and the lads succinctly express the disdain, even sorrow and lamentation, at returning home, only to find that home has been stripped of all its dignity.
In September 2007, Hynde returned to her hometown of Akron, Ohio, to open a vegetarian restaurant and to talk about her love of the city, saying in the Akron Beacon Journal:
"My blood is Akron. It courses through my veins ..."
"Let's get rid of the malls and bring it all back downtown."

MY CITY WAS GONE, by the Pretenders; written by Chrissie Hynde
I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go, Ohio
Well I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees
A, o, oh way to go, Ohio
I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said, a, o, oh way to go, Ohio

Uncle Sam *doesn't* want you ...

The Pentagon has asked - and Google has complied - that the online mapper stop showing some Street View images of military installations, out of fears that national security could be compromised. The story is all over the Web. One from Reuters is as good as any to get a sense of what's going on.
As you probably know, this is not Street View's first step into controversy. Other folks have complained about privacy invasions, as SV has offered some "peeks" into people's windows as the SV crews have happened by, snapping away.

The New Cartographers

Thanks to one of my fave sites, Planetizen, for directing me to this article from "In These Times," which notes how the Internet has made it possible for almost anyone to map almost anything. Just make sure there's enough work out there if I need to change careers, OK?

The new slums of America?

I just started reading this article, from The Atlantic monthly mag, on how the combination of the subprime fiasco and the coming energy crisis will - some predict - help turn America's suburbs into a new slum. More on this later, after I read the piece.

North Carolina's 21st-century vision

A while ago, I posted an essay I wrote on an earlier blog, imploring North Carolina not to become another New Jersey. It seems they are taking steps in the right direction -- at least some North Carolinians want to take steps in the right direction.
A former state transportation secretary is proposing a series of ideas to help fund "urban transit" in 21st-century North Carolina, specifically, creating a "congestion fund" to finance rail, port and other public transporation needs. Critics are sure to rail against any proposed tax increases, but a tiny increase has made the light rail in the Charlotte area an early success.
Says the official, Sam Hunt:

"The congestion and the growth in these urban areas is a reality that can't
be ignored. If we don't come up with money to answer these needs, then the rural
areas can rest assured that their money will be transferred to those urban areas
-- because that's where the people are and that's where you have a majority of
the votes. So unless you come up with revenue to solve their problem, in the
long run the rural areas will lose, too."

Philly's walkability

Here's an interesting post about Philadelphia's walkability factor -- and the need to do more in the area. In case this link goes away someday, pay close attention to this one, as well: WalkScore.com

"Lost" map

Now, here are some folks with a creative spark: This is a site with maps of the fictionalized island on the TV show "Lost."