Below is my Letter to the Putnam County commissioners about why I support the 4Leaf Solar Project in Cloverdale, IN. TLDR: It’s about clean air, clean water, and the freedom of property owner to make their own decisions.
Continue reading →
Putnam County Precincts
We didn’t have a good map of the precincts here in Putnam County, so I made one. You can find an interactive version of it here.
Jobs-Housing in Indiana
Interactive Map of Job-Housing information in Indiana. Housing data is the ACS estimated houing stock as of 2022, and the jobs data is from Q4 2023.
HS Attendance Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Below, are some interactive plots for a project I worked on. They show the changes in HS GPA and Attendance after the COVID-19 pandemc for three high schools:
Continue reading →
COVID-19 Vaccination Race
Just for fun this morning, I put together a horse race visualization for state-by-state COVID-19 Vaccinations rates. The viz uses NPR’s data, which updates daily, so it will update as often as NPR updates.
Right now, Maine is winning with just over 1/3 of its population vaccinated. Let’s keep racing to get to 70%!
Continue reading →Letter to the Editor: The Indiana GOP doesn’t care about you.
UPDATE 3/2: The local newspaper decided to publish my probably-a-little-too-long letter. You can check it out here (give them clicks!).
To the editor,
We’re all tired. It’s been a long year. We need our leaders to cut the crap and work on addressing the challenges Hoosiers face every day – a better economy, improved healthcare, education for our kids. The General Assembly should focus on these issues, but the GOP Supermajority has a different agenda – they would rather fight culture wars and help their wealthy friends. The republicans that we sent to represent us aren’t solving our problems; they’re creating new ones for us.
Continue reading →
Remember Essential Workers?
Happy Labor Day, everyone! We shouldn’t forget about essential workers.
A few months ago, I wrote a post about how we don’t pay essential workers enough. At the time, it was a big topic. Essential workers were some of the only folks who had to actually show up to a physical location (ie: not their homes) for work still, and we were all concerned that they would get sick. Our leaders seemed poised to respond. And then they did nothing (mostly). Since then, we’ve heard nothing but crickets on the subject of essential workers. The drop in level of interest in essential workers is staggering. Check it out:
Continue reading →So…It’s been a while
Howdy! So…It’s been a while. This year really threw a wrench in everyone’s plans, including mine. Sadly, trying to balance the global pandemic, a new child, and work means that I’ve had little time to dig into or write about anything. I’ve only had time to shit-post on twitter for about 4 months now (which I’m getting really tired of). I hope to get back into a better routine soon.
In other, related news, just as the pandemic was really taking off, my spouse recieved an invite to apply for a new job in her hometown, Greencastle, IN. The new role was a big jump up for her professionally, and it also meant moving closer to family (her dad lives across town rather our closest family, my parents, living 50 miles away). We decided to explore it, and as she learned more, she concluded that it was the right career move. She got the job, and we started making plans to move.
After a little bit of stress about selling a house, working with movers, and findiing a new place, we’re finally (kind of) getting settled in here in Indiana.
Sadly, I’m not a Buckeye Anymore
So, yes, after focusing a lot of my energy on Ohio for the past few years, I’m no longer a resident of Ohio. And yes that makes me very very sad. I grew up in Ohio, and when I moved back home a few years ago, it felt really nice to come home. Just as I was settling back in, a great opportunity outside of Ohio came along. Ultimately, moving away is the right thing for our family.
So, I am now a hoosier (god, that feels wierd to write), but my heart will always be in Ohio. I still care (and will write) about Ohio, but now I will also focus on Indiana, the midwest, and well, whatever else I feel like writing about. I look forward to getting back into a routine that will allow some more depth than what’s possible in a tweet.
In the meantime, you can find me shit-posting on twitter. Feel free to say hello (especially if you have any tips about being a new hoosier). But more importantly, stay safe and healthy out there.
A Jobs-Housing Map for the Midwest Partnership
Howdy! It’s been a while, and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. As we’re starting to talk about reopening (probably too early) and recovery, I wanted to share another very brief post about housing
The housing crisis is everywhere, and part of our Coronavirus recovery should address it.
In light of regions of the country becoming mini-nation-states including a pact of Midwestern States and in an effort to get some more data, I put together this map, which shows the jobs-housing mismatch for the five states that are definitely part of the midwest, the former Northwest Territories:
Continue reading →
Essential Workers Aren’t Paid Like They Are Essential
If they’re essential, shouldn’t they earn more?
I went to the grocery store the other day to stock up. Trying to avoid social contact as much as possible, I went very early on Saturday morning, when normally the store would be empty. I was surprised to find that the store was packed with shoppers, some wearing masks, many with carts that were bulging with supplies. Workers were busily stocking shelves to keep up with demand and every checkout had a line.
As I walked around, I tried to do some math in my head to see if I could determine the probability that someone in the store was carrying COVID-19 at that moment. The state of Ohio estimates that 100,000 people currently have the virus, so the math is pretty straightforward. If 100,000 people have the virus out 11.7 million Ohioans, then roughly 0.85% of folks are infected. That means that if you have 117 people in a space at a given time, it is likely that at least one of those 117 people are carrying coronavirus. Looking around the store, it seemed like there were more than 117 people there, and certainly, over the course of a single clerk’s shift, well over 117 people will come into the store. The likelihood that a typical Kroger employee is going to be exposed to COVID-19 is incredibly high.
Continue reading →