The DSA Dog Caucus put out a call for graphic designers to make fundraising swag. I designed a bandana and shirt, and with the help of other awesome volunteers, we raised $1700 for the Yellow Hammer Fund to provide abortion access in Alabama.
The Sins of “Smart” Cities
I just published my first academic/literary “think” piece in four years. At the invitation of the Boston Review, I reviewed two upcoming books about civic data and the appealing trap of “smart” cities.
Bike Share, Where?
Many keys have been smashed about Mobility as a Service, the apparent overnight rise of bike share, and the risks of VC-driven transportation infrastructure, but less has been said about how we should evaluate these new systems.
Fifth Peer Reviewed Publication
A full four years after graduate school, my last research paper has been accepted by the peer reviewed California Journal of Politics and Policy, published by the Institute of Governmental Studies and UC Berkeley.
Goodbye, BlinkTag
After several years (seven since my first proposal, three since becoming an owner), my time at BlinkTag is finally drawing to a close.
Participatory Budgeting
What is Participatory Budgeting? How can cities use technology to expand participation, without diluting the experience of its positive effects? I explored these questions in an investigation for The Engine Room which has now been translated into three languages.
YIMBYtown
I designed another image for East Bay Forward. This time, it’s YIMBY beavers for the YIMBYtown conference. Beavers are already nature’s engineers. Are they nature’s best neighbors, too?
Mammoth at MacArthur
As a lurker on the East Bay Forward list, I’ve been following the “Mammoth In MacArthur”* project. I was in Barcelona when they put out a call for a t-shirt design. After a day mesmerized by Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família, I had figures like these stuck in my head: On the train to Figueres, I tried […]
Writing about Security
As I’ve waded into security research, I’m most struck by how people seem to equate something that is hard with something that must be a good idea.
That Time I Was Quoted In The New Yorker
I was quoted in The New Yorker today. It was kind of weird, and got me thinking about how we should report on privacy.