Author: dillonm
Uneven development and the anti-politics machine
The Market Value Analysis (MVA), and similar algorithms, perpetuate racial and class-based inequalities by embedding systemic biases into urban planning and the geography of cities under the guise of objectivity. Presented as neutral tools, these algorithms depoliticize decisions, reinforcing the legacies of redlining while prioritizing capital accumulation over equitable development and justifying the abandonment of marginalized communities. [continue reading]
The urban-tech feedback loop
Tech companies are reshaping cities through a feedback loop where consumer behaviors, tracked via smartphones, inform the design of urban spaces tailored to affluent users, reinforcing consumption and deepening inequalities. Using a "data-walk" methodology in Seattle's South Lake Union, we uncovered how surveillance and data collection commodify everyday actions, embedding tech-driven priorities into urban development. To disrupt this cycle, we advocate for inclusive methodologies... [continue reading]
From FOSS to profit
Through tracing the historical evolution of these formats, we uncover how digital labor—whether voluntary, outsourced, or co-opted—plays a role in shaping the operations of for-profit technology firms. Open standards, often associated with transparency and accessibility, paradoxically contribute to proprietary goals as well, serving as gateways through which corporations can attract free labor and build out profitable infrastructures. Companies often adopt open standards and Free... [continue reading]
The Amazon Warehouse
Amazon’s warehouses are vast, windowless spaces, each the size of multiple football fields, where thousands of employees and over half a million robots work in tandem to process immense volumes of packages daily. Coordinated by Amazon's AI-powered AWS platform, robots such as Pegasus and Proteus move products efficiently through these facilities, while delivery drivers are monitored closely by AI systems that regulate their behavior... [continue reading]
Interrogating narratives of urban change
Baltimore’s treatment of majority-Black neighborhoods versus Latine/x areas illustrates how racist logics structure urban development. While Latine/x neighborhoods like Highlandtown are framed as vibrant immigrant communities worthy of preservation, Black neighborhoods like Upton are cast as slums primed for exploitation and “renewal.” This distinction impacts how each neighborhood experiences investment or neglect, with Latine/x areas more likely to attract capital while Black neighborhoods face... [continue reading]
The Ground Rent Machine
In Baltimore, Maryland, more than 55,000 homes—roughly 30 percent of all residential plots—are subject to ground rent, a legacy of British feudal property law. Under this landlord–tenant system, the homeowner makes payments to the ground leaseholder, who maintains rights to the land. During the early 2000s, many Baltimoreans fell behind on their ground rent due to recessionary headwinds and were “ejected” from their homes... [continue reading]
National Forgetting in the American South
Using a cultural landscape approach, this study examines all National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) sites in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, located in the southern United States. The NRHP recognizes sites representative of “our” national heritage by listing them on this registry. From analysis of these records and related archival materials and observations garnered from field visits to select historic sites in the parish, this... [continue reading]
Assessing performance of ZCTA-level and Census Tract-level social and environmental risk factors in a model predicting hospital events
The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) strikes again. Using Census Tracts, instead of zip codes (ZCTAs) altered which social determinants of health (SDOH) features were retained during variable selection. [continue reading]
Mapping for Whom?
Scholars have shown that communities of color and low-income communities are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and without intervention, scientists will miss localized events in these neighborhoods and these communities might go unrepresented in rainfall models, further exacerbating the disproportionate impact. [continue reading]
Doing Critical GIS
In 2019, Taylor Shelton and I organized a series of events at Red Emma's Bookstore and Cafe. This paper is the attempts to bring together many of the themes we saw in the presentations. We focus on "what" we map and "how" we map. For example, how might we think about absences and presences on a map? Why is it that, for example, poverty... [continue reading]