Mapping New Deal Utopias: Dynamics of Neighborhood Mobility in Greendale, Wisconsin
Mia Nighgroh, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Utopian planned communities like Greendale, WI were championed during the Roosevelt administration as part of the New Deal’s efforts to create model suburban communities and facilitate economic stability for low- and middle-income white families. Following the end of the New Deal, the neighborhood transitioned from federal to private funding. Utopian communities like Greendale were designed to promote financial stability, but the shifting economic landscape destabilized the geographic and social structure that had been established. This research examines the dynamics of mobility and sheds light on the migratory strategies residents used to navigate the economic precarity of structural change.
Mapping What Was Hidden: A LiDAR Approach to Unmarked Graves and Land Justice
Spenser Anderson
Kristopher Smith, Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC)
Accurate methods for locating unmarked grave sites, including ground penetration radar, arborist analysis, and walking sites, are precise but resource intensive. Given the vast number of unmarked burial sites in the States, faster and cheaper preliminary tools are needed. Using LiDAR data and historical records, we have developed a Red-Green-Amber model that enables individuals, organizations, and researchers to screen large swaths of land and prioritize sites for further investigation; thus, improving the speed and reach of unmarked grave site identification. For communities navigating heirs' property disputes, where unmarked graves can both evidence historical land use and complicate title resolution, this tool aids in the fight for justice.
The Geography of Prosperity
Nina Feldman Motivf, Web Cartographer
Tova Perlman, Motivf, Data Scientist
AJ Ashton, Carotgrapher
This presentation introduces the Geography of Prosperity Index, a new framework for evaluating long-term urban success across 250 U.S. cities. Moving beyond traditional economic metrics, the index integrates five dimensions: population renewal, climate resilience, automation readiness, social cohesion, and governance/foresight, to assess future readiness. Geography of Prosperity Index results are visualized through an interactive map that reveals emerging patterns of opportunity and risk. The session will explore the methodology, cartographic design choices, and key spatial insights, highlighting how mapping prosperity can better inform planners, policymakers, and investors about the evolving geography of the American Dream.
Reconstructing a neighborhood through community mapping: Urban renewal in Warren, Ohio
Jennifer Mapes, Kent State University
More than 1,000 U.S. cities lost whole neighborhoods to urban renewal in the 1950s-1970s. Records about the demographics and economics of these places are surprisingly hard to find. This paper describes efforts to document businesses, and later individuals, located in one of these neighborhoods. About 2,784 people lived in The Flats in Warren, Ohio in 1950 before the urban renewal area was identified in 1964. Our research shows that this was a racially integrated neighborhood and that displacements of urban renewal created a more segregated city. This research creates a framework for other small cities to document the individual- and neighborhood-level effects of this destructive policy.
Rooted Out: Gender, Hiring, and Disappearance in the Robinson Cartographic Family Tree
Helen Tosteson, UW-Madison
The Robinson academic family tree traces four generations of cartographic scholarship from a single root: Dr. Arthur Robinson. At UW-Madison, this tree is prized. But a closer look at its branches reveals a striking pattern: women are dramatically underrepresented, particularly as advisor nodes. I present a gendered analysis of the tree, examining where women appear, and where they disappear. Through generational counting and career tracing, I argue that the academic leak occurs through differential hiring into research universities, transitions into government and industry, and in at least one case, outright omission from the tree itself.
