Hexmap

The political news site Downballot has developed a hexagon-based cartogram for reporting congressional district data. Since we talk about approaches like this in our GIS classes, it is interesting to see one in such a prominent use.

The Geospatial Data Act is almost law

For a while now, the GIS community has been trying to get the Geospatial Data Act passed by Congress. Yesterday, the bill finally passed out of Congress and headed down Pennsylvania Ave to await the President's signature, which is expected before Sunday.

In addition, the FAA Reauthorization bill asserted greater government authority over drones.

Maps as keys

Once again, a major news outlet (NY Times) is trying to use maps as the key to unlock the mysteries of the electorate. Well, really it is Colin Woodward whose new book looks pretty interesting too. Maps are keys.

Liberty State Park

Well, it is almost never good when I use both the NJ tag and the politics tag on the same story.
The NJ legislature has approved some major changes for Liberty State Park. But the Star-Ledger reports that some faculty at Rutgers (and Harvard) are pushing back.

Free Workshop

Rutgers' Eagleton Institute of Politics will be hosting Thomas J. Carew, Ph.D., the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, as he leads the free workshop on “How Does Science Affect Political Decisions about Education, Health, and the Environment?” The workshops are free but RSVP is required. Register and learn more here.

The Eagleton Science and Politics Workshop offers students and postdocs in both the natural and social sciences the opportunity to explore ways in which science intersects with politics, policymaking, and public discourse – and how to build careers in that space.

Lecture - Anita Bakshi

Rutgers University Landscape Architecture Common Lecture February 12, 2014 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Cook/Douglass Lecture Hall, Room 110, Cook Campus Dr. Anita Bakshi completed her PhD in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, and is currently working as a Researcher with the Conflict in Cities Research Programme. Her PhD research on Cyprus focused on urban memory in the divided capital of Nicoisa – exploring personal memories and imaginings
related to Nicosia’s walled city center and the Buffer Zone, an uninhabited no-man’s land, that 
divides it. She received her BA degree in architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She has worked in architectural design firms in Berkeley, Chicago, and Istanbul as well as researched architectural heritage in Berlin and Cappadocia, Turkey. Current research interests include memory and history in divided cities, the design of memorial structures, the politicization of heritage, mapping and visual research methodologies for complex urban environments, and the overlap between urban spatial practices and issues of social and economic justice.

Shutdown II

The headline says it all:  Yosemite National Park closed for its own birthday

Visitors to Jockey Hollow are disappointed

Arizona's National Parks shutdown could cost the state millions
  "Visitors at Grand Canyon National Park alone spend $1.2 million per day, the association said."

National Parks during the shutdown

UPDATE 11am 10/1/13

As of Midnight, the government has gone into shutdown.

A government shutdown certainly makes teaching a class about National Parks more interesting. What does it mean for the parks? For starters, National Parks Traveler reports the NPS will furlough over 20,000 employees.

Yellowstone Insider blog reports that, "In the event there is a government shutdown tonight, visitors will be immediately asked to leave Yellowstone National Park, and those staying overnight will be asked to leave in the next few days."

USA Today says that Sandy Hook has already removed the goats that eat their poison ivy.

The Argus Leader reports that the governor of South Dakota has offered to use state funds and workers to keep Mount Rushmore open.

The Ku Klux Klan will need to find someplace other than the Gettysburg Battlefield for their rally this weekend.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, which usually gets 2 million leaf-peeping visitors in October, will still be open for driving but facilities like campgrounds will be closed. I am guessing that many of the bathrooms along the parkway will also be closed too.

In Utah a private river rafting company will have to shutdown because they need to use parklands to access the river, explains CNNMoney.

Public access will be closed, but oil drilling in parklands will continue.

With the NPS closing the park roads, the city of Estes Park is left with just one road in and out, according to KUSA.

Of course, our class field trip can't happen until the shutdown is reversed. Sorry.

Yesterday's NY Times took a closer look at how neighbors are pressuring other neighbors at the shore to allow dunes to be built. Will the owners of duneless beachfront homes become pariahs? This story makes it seem like they already are.

National Parks in the budget crisis

Longtime readers know that Places and Spaces is a sucker for stories about our National Parks, but for reasons we will explain soon, there will be even more stories about National Parks and the National Park Service. In the meantime, here is one that is less fun:

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees is reporting on closures and service reductions that would be implemented in some of the most heavily visited parks under sequestration. They remind readers that some of these actions (see Glacier) could have significant financial impacts on the surrounding communities.

Of course, with Hurricane Sandy recovery in the mix, Sandy Hook will be its own special story.

The 1st Amendment and the 2nd Amendment

The Journal-News, out of White Plains, NY, has published a very detailed interactive map of every resident in their area that is registered to own a gun.  On the surface it is an interesting map. Depending on your expectations, it may show that there are more legal guns (or legal gun owners, to be precise) than you expected in a small neighborhood in Yonkers. Here is a small close-up of the map of pistol owners in Southern Westchester County:

Pretty detailed, right? It might be interesting to make a map of the streets without guns. Or compare a density map of guns with a density map of population or crime. Add schools and you have a different map.

While the website does not give the details of the gun, it does list the name and address of each license holder. Some pro-gun advocates see this, not as a thoughtful mapping of a timely issue, but as intimidation of citizens simply exercising their 2nd Amendment rights. Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds writes, " I guess nobody could object to people putting the newspaper staff’s addresses on the Web now, right?."

The interesting distinction here is that the gun licenses are public records. They have been all along. In theory, anyone could have gone to the courthouse or ATF or whomever, and gotten these seem records themselves. So why is improved access and heightened visibility off public records such an issue? Mappers should be aware of this response because it also happens when someone makes a map of long-public property tax records. Suddenly, this public display of public records feels like a violation of privacy to many. And, yet, mapmakers rarely seem prepared for this backlash (whether it is justified or not).

While geographers have long been aware of mapping as a political act (even unintentional), seom neogeographers are just relearning the lessons of the literature.

Lecture: Militant Mapping

7 March Department of Landscape Architecture Common Lecture
Britt Eversole:  Militant Mapping
4:00 pm  _ CDL 110

Militant mapping describes a genre of art, architectural and poetic representation created in 1960s and 1970s Italy that envisioned the creative unmaking of the image of the city and the landscape. Confronting the failures of the government to manage explosive urban growth, with its corresponding over development and environmental devastation of the countryside, artists and architects developed new forms of graphic engagement to combat this situation. By appropriating widely available mass media and documentary material they mapped the city as a site of political and economic power. In the hands of Italy?s energetic youth movements and extra-parliamentary activists, this form of cartography became a means of re-mediating the city not as a fixed, homogenous place but as a dynamic, multi-layered imaginary of non-violent, political action. The aspirations of these militant cartographers resonates with today's Occupy Movement, but also demonstrates the limitations of our present situation, in which architects and planners have abandoned the representation of political and visionary mandates in favor of hyper-professionalism and so-called neo-pragmatism.

Why does Congress hate bikes and buses?

Maybe they don't, but this week they have been moving on transportation legislation that dramatically cuts or eliminates funding for safe routes to school and alternative modes of transportation. Salon describes it as "The Tea Party's War on Mass Transit" but that doesn't fully explain the other members of Congress who have voted for these changes.

The ASLA is making it a major lobbying push.  The Episcopal Church is opposed. Now, on the eve of debate, the bill is temporarily stopped.  Because these groups successfully fought it?  No.  Rand Paul is holding it hostage because, as reported by Politco, he is upset that no one wants to debate over aid to Egypt.

Gerrymandering

Slate has a lengthy slideshow of the most gerrymandered districts.  But are they all really that bad?  For instance, one in NY hugs the shore of Lake Ontario.  Don't the shore towns share more with each other than with the Finger Lake towns?  Is that such a bad thing?

As usual, read the comments.  Slate's commenters span from the shallow political comments into some fairly thoughtful analysis.

Governor of Maryland starts the new year with a plan

Despite what the Washington Post characterized as "vehement opposition," Maryland's governor has used an executive order to create the state's first long-term plan for smart growth.  According to the Post, opponents described this end run around the legislature as war on rural Maryland and "the height of arrogance."  As a sign of the times, the governor denied a) this being part of a UN plan, b) an alien-implanted chip steering his behavior, and c) taking this as a directive from the recently deceased Kim Jong Il.

Since his 2nd term began in 2011, he still appears to have some time to joust with the legislature as they try to undo or alter this decision.  But it can be hard to implement a long-term plan like this if it really turns out to be widely unpopular.

What do you do when the map is wrong?

One of the big changes in cartography is the ease with which corrections can be made, as is now being shown in the corrections to Greenland that are being made in the Times Atlas of the World in response to the recent climate change cartocontroversy.

Obama on Innovation

I've been working on some writing about innovation and rediscovered my copy of the transcript from this year's State of the Union, which included a substantial section on innovation.  Since I never blogged it earlier, I'll throw in some now, with an emphasis on a couple passages that the GIS community might find more interesting.  First he reminded us of how American innovation can be:

The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation. None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn't know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do — what America does better than anyone else — is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We're the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn't just change our lives. It is how we make our living.

He then slipped into a free-enterprise innovation discussion that included a bit of geospatial: "That's what planted the seeds for the Internet. That's what helped make possible things like computer chips and GPS."

Finally, he made it part of a challenge to the country's future.  For GIScientists and technicians interested in the policy implications, this section gives some idea of where his administration is pointing us:

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn't even there yet. NASA didn't exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.

This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the Space Race. And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology — (applause) — an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

 Whether Democrat or Republican, the comments of a President's speeches often guide the actions of agencies and policymakers.  It is interesting to look to see how much is being said in DC today that reflects this speech given in January.  But without a budget (which is usually a major policy tool) it is hard to figure out who is winning the policy priority tug-of-war.

Cheap energy = sprawl?

One of the smart growth measures used in New Jersey places the burden of new infrastructure on the new developments that need it.  If a new neighborhood needs an expensive extension off of the power grid, either the new neighbors should pay for it or maybe the neighborhood shouldn't get built.  But a change in policy might shift the burden of infrastructure for McMansions to the people who are already living in less inefficient ways.  Is this about finding appropriate policies for BPU or part of an ongoing fight against government efforts to shape the NJ landscape?

Who doesn't like bikes and trails?

Maybe Tom Coburn.

One less municipality?

Princeton Borough and Princeton Township are considering merging into a single municipality. Can NJ live with only 565 municipalities?  What new map will I have to make for my lecture on municipalities in NJ?  What will the voters decide?