Ariel Bierbaum

“housing providers” is a type of Orwellian doublespeak intended to euphemize the landlord-tenant relationship and to obscure...it elides the basic extractive nature of landlording, the fact that landlords expect, in fact, rely upon the relationship to be monetarily profitable to them."

The Human Toll The US is undergoing rapid social, economic, and policy change. If you've been impacted, we want to hear your story! To participate, visit: https://tinyurl.com/thehumantoll Study sponsored under University of Wisconsin-Madison IRB Protocol #2025-1096. PI: Dr. Jessica Calarco Participants must be at least 18 years of age and reside in the US [image of a person with their face in their hands]

How have you been impacted by the changes we've seen under the current administration? What would you want to say to those in charge?

I'm launching a new research initiative to collect and share anonymous stories of the human toll. And I'd be very grateful for your help.

tinyurl.com/thehumantoll

And I find this piece by @anbutler5.bsky.social and Sinclair to be a helpful primer for my ed students too: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

@sarahlenhoff.bsky.social (and others!) has 2 pieces applying the mobility justice framework empirically in Detroit. detroitpeer.org/wp-content/u...

meridian.allenpress.com/her/article-...

Thanks - I'd love to hear what you and your students think!

I have a more conceptual piece on transpo and ed that you may be interested in too....https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2020.1803104

Sam Speroni has written many words on these issues.
luskin.ucla.edu/person/samue...

Pay is not a full explanation. even in districts that pay well, there is a shortage.

Sam Speroni at UCLA is on it. luskin.ucla.edu/person/samue...

following!

The South is Everywhere – Scalawag In their new book, Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life, scholars Marcus Anthony Hunter and Zandria F. Robinson show how Black folk continue to make the South into a nation.

"if we understand the South as a representation of both "systemic inequity" and Black interconnectedness, then the South must necessarily be everywhere." scalawagmagazine.org/2019/03/choc...

People think they have amazing stories about ChatGPT. And they tell them all the time. You just don’t register them as amazing if you are a normal ish adult human being because it’s mid shit like, “it told me to eat brisket!” or “it wrote twenty emails no one wants!”

Image of a map of the United States showing all of the public radio stations

With CPB funding being cut, now is a good time to support independent and nonprofit media.

Your local public radio station will need your help and support. If you believe in public media, consider donating to your local station.

Find it here: cpb.org/cpb-station-...

New paper by colleagues at @umdsmartgrowth.bsky.social @urbaninstitute.bsky.social and Toole Design!

There is no ethical AI. The tech is based on stolen intellectual property, anti-solidarity between workers, labor exploitation, environmental injustice, climate destabilization, structural racism, and gender inequalities.

From @clintsmithiii.bsky.social's book, Counting Descent.

#poem #books #writing

Timeline cleanser

Hike and Bike trail. Davis, California

Toilet A sociological study of public restroomsSo much happens in the public toilet that we never talk about. Finding the right door, waiting in line, and using the...

Maybe a little light reading for your trip? nyupress.org/978081479589...

I'm not sure why this is considered cynical. Instigating "creative destruction" of public goods to serve their own interests seems to be the business model.

My students bring me joy: "What surprised me most was how much possibility lives in place. Even in neighborhoods marked by disinvestment, there is creativity, resilience, and vision. The challenge is not whether potential exists—it’s whether our systems are designed to recognize and build upon it."

You know who hates our system of public education?

People who don't like the idea of democracy; people ideologically opposed to taxation; people who think that freedom *to* is more important than freedom *from*; people who believe that our unequal society is proof of natural hierarchies.

In my forthcoming (Spring 2026) co-authored book, Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Reuse, in Philadelphia, we look at several closed schools and their reuses, and recommend a more reparative planning process that includes things like what Scout is offering here.

This is an amazing evolution for Scout and the public; when Bok High School closed in 2013 and Scout took over in 2014, they initially distanced themselves from the trauma of closures.

"former UArts students, faculty, and alumni will be welcomed back into the campus for performances and programming. Scout has also invited a death doula to guide visitors through “grief and memory work,” Scannapieco said."

Scout partners with DIGSAU, AOS, and ISA to bring life back to the former UArts campus in Philadelphia Scout announced today public programming that will soon take place at the former UArts buildings it acquired, the first step in its adaptive reuse proposal for the 19th-century buildings.

“It didn’t feel right to start jumping into the next chapter without acknowledging the past, and allowing space for closure..." a Celebration of Life...will “provide closure, and also cleanse the ground a bit before moving into its next iteration.”
www.archpaper.com/2025/05/scou...

May I offer anyone lamenting the state of your institution today some wise words from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social ?

Fiction. Art. More fiction. A dash of poetry.

YouTube video by The Weather & Climate Livestream Weather and climate science needs your help

200 climate scientists & meteorologists, terminated NOAA staff & displaced NASA Goddard Institute scientists will live-stream for 100 hours. Today at 1 PM EST through June 1 on how DOGE is impacting weather and climate science.
Trailer here: youtu.be/-Go-RCg3AjI
Livestream at wclivestream.com/watch

which of course was the plan all along....

I expect this will crash a market for covid vax for children so they won't be available at all in short order.