I have now been doing this blog, with an increasingly haphazard publication schedule, for two years. The pace of writing has slowed considerably as I have taken on more administrative duties in my department, where I am now undergraduate program chair and the principal academic advisor, tried to buckle down and refocus some effort on … Continue reading Two years and some links
Tag: Cities
AAG 2018 New Orleans
I recently returned from the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), held this year in New Orleans, Louisiana. I skipped last year's meeting, the first one I had missed since I first attended in 2000, that year held in Pittsburgh and myself as a newbie MA student at Syracuse University. I passed … Continue reading AAG 2018 New Orleans
Early April snippets
I am currently sitting in the Detroit airport, on my way to New Orleans for the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), where I will be presenting a paper on collective bargaining and institutional culture in the Canadian foreign service, co-written with a former research assistant. It has been a hectic few … Continue reading Early April snippets
Windsor 2: is Windsor racist?
I had not originally intended to write about Windsor, Ontario again for a little while, but in the past couple of weeks, questions have arisen in the Canadian national and local Windsor media about race and racism. Though this has been simmering for a while in different ways, it came out more prominently after Jagmeet … Continue reading Windsor 2: is Windsor racist?
Parkdale, Toronto
As I indicated in my previous post on the closure of the Honest Ed's retail store in Toronto, gentrification has transformed many parts of the city over the last couple of decades. This has perhaps been most evident in the neighborhood known as Parkdale, in the southwestern part of the city along Queen Street West. … Continue reading Parkdale, Toronto
Honest Ed’s, Toronto
This post is likely not going to do justice to its subject, but I'll throw it out there anyway. Those familiar with Toronto will know Honest Ed's, the landmark discount store at the corner of Bloor Street and Bathurst Street, in a neighborhood called the Annex, near the University of Toronto and just north of … Continue reading Honest Ed’s, Toronto
Las Vegas, Nevada
This is yet another post about an American city, probably the last on that kind of place for a while, but it's also a little different than previous posts because this one is a rerun, of a sort. I previously managed a blog through the Google blogger platform, but discontinued it maybe 9 or 10 … Continue reading Las Vegas, Nevada
Flint, Michigan
It has been three years since the city of Flint, Michigan, changed its source of municipal water to the Flint River. With the political decision to put no corrosion control in place with the new source, the river water corroded the city's aging infrastructure of water mains and residential delivery pipes, releasing years of lead … Continue reading Flint, Michigan
Jakarta, Indonesia (part 3)
In the last of my posts on Jakarta, I want to briefly comment on both the help provided me by Dr. Jo Santoso while I was there, and the immediate neighborhood of my hotel, which became the site of a terrorist attack in January 2016. Dr. Santoso is the head of the graduate program in … Continue reading Jakarta, Indonesia (part 3)
Jakarta, Indonesia (part 2)
As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the most striking elements of Jakarta as a place was how the co-presence of vast wealth and deep poverty mark the built environment and how people engage with it. This is common in many urban areasĀ around the world, perhaps most intensely in cities in the Global … Continue reading Jakarta, Indonesia (part 2)