Jen Mapes

@mapesgeog

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

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Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 24d

In random pop culture references: there is an ep of LEGO Ninjago where they defeat an enemy called The Administration using their own paperwork & rules.

Animated Lego characters standing
Among cubicles

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 26d

My worlds collide! I appreciate that such a thing as "Ohio Bicycle Users Cartographic Society" once existed.

Folded map labeled Ohio Bicycle Users Map with some old stamps canceled in 1982 with a return address of Ohio Bicycle Users Cartographic Society.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 26d

If you look closely at the webcam photos there’s still people on the beach. Must be him.

Two webcam photos of a beach before & during wildfire smoke. The during image shows incredibly poor visibility and yet a few people are still lying on the beach.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 26d

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 27d

What a ridiculous thing for NWS to include in an air quality warning. It’s too late. Now I’m forced to drive short distances that I would otherwise be biking.

A code MAROON air quality alert means that air pollution concentrations within the local region are extremely hazardous for the general population. Efforts to minimize effects, even indoors, may be difficult to impossible. Follow local emergency instructions via television or radio.

To help our region reduce air pollution:

* Drive less: bike, walk, use transit, work from home, combine trips

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 28d

That's So Saratoga: a local brewery is providing a free trolley between its multiple pub locations: downtown, the lake, and the racetrack. Not sure this counts as transit but I'm favor of anything that means fewer cars (esp during track season), unlike FB guy. www.saratogian.com/2026/07/14/w...

Local FB guy: "uber drivers must be delighted that Druthers has decided to take business away from them"

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· 29d

This is not the way. I hope you can sleep at night, Chronogram editors. This won't save newspapers, it will kill them.

The piece you referenced appears in our Resource Guide, a special section that contains sponsored advertorial content. These articles are provided by advertisers and are not written, edited, or curated by our editorial staff. They are clearly separated from our editorial coverage as part of this dedicated section.

Like many independent publishers, Chronogram is navigating a rapidly changing media landscape.

Chronogram screenshot with no clear note that this is an ad, let alone that it is an ad for an essay writing service written by AI and not a reporter. The headline reads "The Science Behind Why Shared Green Spaces Improve Neighborhood Life"

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 13

Here's a candidate for the hall of shame. They created a fake graveyard for May 4 Kent State shooting victims on a fake campus. So offensive and gross.

Fake AI slop image showing a non-existent campus building and a non-existent memorial next to gravestones for nine people when only four were killed. Posted on Facebook by a slop account called Ohio Explored. 647 engagements and 217 comments most of which fail to recognize the fake AI slop.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 11

Someone I follow shared an article about how green spaces improve neighborhoods, & I thought maybe a class reading or good refs? NOPE. It was by AI. It's in Chronogram. Had a byline even but then even incorporates how it is basically an ad for AI. Please read before sharing!!

Such a topic is often studied by students in the framework of urban planning, public health, sociology, and environmental sciences since it deals with people and their environment. Sometimes, the subject of investigation can become too extensive, and the student says, “I need someone to write my essay.” The proper way of working on such a topic should be organization of science through professional help. The issue of green space is simple but very interesting to investigate.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 10

If you want to see the problem with using Yelp as a walkability database (prob w AI "help"), then try searching for a house close to yours on Realtor.com, then choose "neighborhood." It's a mishmash of non-existent biz, ones that have closed or home biz & completely missing many that DO exist.👎

map showing a supposed restaurant that is clearly in the middle of a vacant (treed) lot next to a railroad track

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 10

And yeah, I've got an IKEA pannier, but it's not the same. Also, the Huffy bag only cost $20.

IKEA pannier on bike rear rack holding a globe in front of an academic building.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 10

I'm thinking about this bc my kid is ready to bike by themselves to school and would love something they could drop their backpack into. Maybe just a back basket will do the trick, but I love my bag bc I can use it for little separate things too. Even just my phone & wallet sometimes.

Bike bag in use with mammo-bus in the background.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 10

Biking folks, 10+ years ago I bought this bag in plain grey and now it is discontinued in all colors. Is there anything else like it? ❤️ bc it expands to hold my big work bag but collapses to show "hey nothing in here" when locked up. Fits baguettes. Truly the perfect bike bag.

Huffy Rear Rack Bike Bag collapsed in packaging.

Bike bag in use to hold flowers, pulled up to full height of about 18 inches. Clipped to back rack.

Zoomed in photo showing clips that allow user to remove bag and carry.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 7

Other unsustainable features include 3-car garages, urban flooding due to too many impermeable surfaces and unending strip malls.

LEGO built roads and large blue area indicating flooded road with water flowing from a large parking lot (city hall), also flooding out a few small homes (cardboard via IKEA).

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 7

Had some 10 year olds help de-sustainable-izing my sustainable LEGO city built by students each year. I've saved all the college students' post-its from additions to the city. The kids pulled up the green (except large lawns), added pavement and features like a tire dump and "ciber truck."

Post its reading construction recycling, artistic mural created by artists from the city, sidewalk connecting library/cafe and bus stop, raised intersection, food bank, art/history. museum, four-plex, bus stop and recycling center.

The final lego city with a list of sustainable qualities added by the students behind. the city is densely built and full of green with lots of traffic calming measures, public transit and mixed use.

Kid-created tire dump, which is just a pile of lego tires. Red pieces indicate it is on fire.

Kid-created "ciber truck" parked outside a single family home surrounded by a large fenced in lawn.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 6

There's a whole jail theme which is definitely worse if added to a city

chain link fence with barbed wire on top set as a square cage

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 6

Shopping around for new pieces for my "build a sustainable city with LEGO" class project (toilets, for public restrooms, are one thing I might buy). And come across this which is the most unsustainable terrible infrastructure I could add to my city. Most terrible...so far anyway....

Generic LEGO pieces some red blockades and others yellow with black stripes labeled "no crossing" surrounding a parking lot with only 3 spots in it.

Streets surrounded by concrete barriers and no sidewalks.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 4

I went back to see if *anyone* thought this was inappropriate. Nope. This is just a source of employment, not a important service for others.

No Bus Service announcement with comment: "have a great three days off" (they're closed Sunday too).

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 4

Why have a bus service if it doesn't actually serve people. Our county's only cooling center is halfway between our two largest cities and bus is the only way to get there if you don't have a car.

Announcement that the Portage County bus service will not run Friday or Saturday due to the holiday.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 2

The planned closure of this downtown grocery store in Cleveland really hits hard. It was always a bit optimistic to think it could work but that’s what made it so wonderful.

Sign in the window of a historic bank building that says “Elevate your everyday.
Groceries, lunch, wine. catering-and so much more, right downtown. heinens
DOWN TOWN”

Full and meticulously kept shelves of groceries with old tile floors peeking through.

The rotunda of the historic bank building made into a food court and ice cream shop with elaborate columns and paintings in an open second floor.

Exterior of the Heine’s grocery store in an old bank building along a bus rapid transit line surrounded by taller turn of the century buildings in downtown Cleveland.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jul 2

Yeah! This! Heres how it’s playing out over in Kent. This street closure (that happens to include a few DORA biz) is for the whole city! Almost everyone loves it, except bar owners NOT on this street. Yet here we are highlighting the views of 18 people over thousands.

Kent
Businesses aren't sold on the Franklin Avenue closure
Motorists and pedestrians may be used to the annual closure of Kent's Franklin Avenue, but DORA affiliated businesses around downtown Kent still aren't sold.
A recent survey of DORA
businesses found that 18 out of 24 respondents were in favor of

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jun 20

Side project: a map of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Mostly for me. Maybe to share online and print a few. Why make a new map, when we all know those NPS cartographers are superstars? Here's some thoughts...

Map illustrating in muted greens and browns most of Cuyahoga Valley National Park highlighting major trails, water bodies and the scenic railroad. Points of interest are also shown. Purposefully low res because this is a draft.

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jun 19

This summer I'm doing some research on the impacts of Cleveland's school closures on mobility & access. I took a Streetview look at the surrounding neighborhood of one of them (29 closed) and see...a parent walking their kids to school. Sad to lose this 😥.

100+ year old homes, a duplex and single family two story craftsman styple, with lush street trees and a parent wearing their small child's backpack and an older child with backpack walking down a sidewalk

Jen Mapes@mapesgeog· Jun 17

My favorite photos from our camping/train trip to Yellowstone/Tetons. I’ve been many times but we brought friends who’d never been West before and it was glorious! (But cold, below freezing most nights)