Geography

Derek Gregory's definition of geography, soon to be published in the new Dictionary of Human Geography.

Sense of place

A great bibliography of place and sense of place.

California's Antelope Valley, photos and text by Matthew Jalbert, published in Radical Urban Theory. An amazing undergraduate honors thesis. Also on the Antelope Valley is the equally amazing film by Jenny Cool, Home Economics: A Documentary of Suburbia.

Albany's Central Avenue, by the Times Union, shows the possibilities of digital media plus reporting to create a multi-media representation of place.

The New York City subway, an essay in the New York Times: "here below, where by the very definition of “in-between” nothing important can possibly happen, everything does."

Urban renewal and revitalization

I first became interested in urban renewal after reading Joe Manning's book Disappearing into North Adams. "I can sit there and see where North Adams used to be," a long-time resident tells Manning. Urban renewal destroyed an entire side of Main Street in the city. After demolishing the multi-level buildings that were there, the city built a K-Mart and a parking lot. The store has now been vacant for four years. Pigeons roost in the parking lot.

This online exhibit focuses on the effects of urban renewal in Lancaster, PA. Particularly moving are photos of North Queen Street demolition.

This 1950s propaganda movie speaks to the mindset of urban renewal proponents. "Obsolescence should not cause despair," the narrator says. "Large-scale demolition is the first step in building modern cities."

Sprawl

Here's another great movie from the Prelinger Archive of public domain films: a 1954 film by General Motors advocating the construction of the Interstate Highway System.

The Sierra Club offers a series of illustrations showing how neighborhoods can be transformed with higher-density, mixed-use structures and available public transportation.

From NPR: a four-part series examining Wal-Mart's social and economic impact.

A YouTube animated map of Wal-Mart expansion across the country.

Dead malls.com gives dozen of examples of what happens when malls are put out to pasture (or should be but aren't).

The American Landscape

James Lileks' collection of roadside motel postcards and humorous commentary. You can find some beautiful photos of the American roadside at the American Highway Project and at Roadside Peek and Roadside Gallery. And Roadside America has a very detailed travel guide to "offbeat tourist attractions" organized by state.

There are far too many great roadside sites to list, but check out this site and this site for some long link lists.

Groceteria has some great photos of old grocery stores including A&P and Safeway. And from the early days of the big-box, Discount Stores of the '60s.

HoJo Land is a tribute site to Howard Johnson's Restaurants. So is Under the Orange Roof.

Uhaul has spent a lot of time (and money?) creating a website where you can see their "classic" and "modern" graphics that illustrate each American state and Canadian provinces on the side of their trucks. They then attempt to explain why they chose the new (very random) graphics.

Learn more about fights to save historic buildings at The National Historic Trust's announcement of America's 11 Most Endangered Places.

Social Geography

The New York Times is running a series on class in America, including interactive graphics (free registration required).

From almonds (10,000 B.C.) to tear-free onions (2002), the Food Time Line describes the time and place origins of hundreds of dishes and foods.

Ted Rall's cartoons have a left-leaning view of war, politics, and social class.

Maps

Maps from memory, or cognitive mapping in academic-speak.

Strange maps, a blog of...you guessed it, strange maps. A fine collection.

Maps of malls and other non-places.

Losing Georgia uses Google Earth interactive maps, photographs, and other sources of data to follow the progression of sprawl in Douglas County, Georgia.

Download maps of subway systems for your iPod.

Danny Dorling makes cool maps. He uses cartograms to depict the demographics of the U.K.

Xpeditions Atlas has printer-friendly maps of world regions, countries, and U.S. states.

TerraServer USA provides aerial photographs of any location in the U.S.

Lonely Los Angeles, a collection of maps showing empty space (I know!) in Los Angeles.

Attractive maps of U.S. Census statistics of your choice (back to 1940) at SocialExplorer.net.

Draw a Google map from a GPS file, or make Google API from other sources with GPS Visualizer.

Library of Congress American Memory Project map collection.

Universities

• State University of New York at Geneseo Department of Geography
• The Pennsylvania State University Department of Geography
• University of Southern California Department of Geography