David Ramos
@imagineterrain.bsky.social
Designer/design educator in Washington, D.C. Making maps/systems to help us imagine landscapes past + future. Lost streams,🚲🛶🌊 On the web — imaginaryterrain.com
Pinned
David Ramos
@imagineterrain.bsky.social
· Sep 24
A pinned collection of map projects, starting with "Lost Streams of Washington, DC," and "From Bay to Mountains," the Chesapeake Bay region's railroads, past and present.
Well, Canada is no longer measles-free. (Also, I don't know how to spell "measles," because I'VE NEVER HAD TO USE THE WORD BEFORE, fecking antivax goons.)
Canada loses measles elimination status after ongoing outbreaks
International health experts say Canada is no longer measles-free because of ongoing outbreaks, as childhood vaccination rates fall and the highly contagious virus spreads across North and South Ameri...
apnews.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Well, Canada is no longer measles-free. (Also, I don't know how to spell "measles," because I'VE NEVER HAD TO USE THE WORD BEFORE, fecking antivax goons.)
Observations from an MLA program: people in the architectural professions have no sense of viewing distance or the scale of paper. School pin-ups instill bad habits, and looking at PDFs on-screen makes the problem worse.
November 7, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Observations from an MLA program: people in the architectural professions have no sense of viewing distance or the scale of paper. School pin-ups instill bad habits, and looking at PDFs on-screen makes the problem worse.
I should probably have said "light rail cars." (What's light rail? It's an interurban that was built after 1972.)
Purple Line streetcars will begin test runs on tracks from College Park Metro to the east, later in November, extending into the UMD campus in January. view.email.umd.edu?qs=3fa1b3ab6...
University of Maryland
view.email.umd.edu
November 7, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I should probably have said "light rail cars." (What's light rail? It's an interurban that was built after 1972.)
Purple Line streetcars will begin test runs on tracks from College Park Metro to the east, later in November, extending into the UMD campus in January. view.email.umd.edu?qs=3fa1b3ab6...
University of Maryland
view.email.umd.edu
November 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Purple Line streetcars will begin test runs on tracks from College Park Metro to the east, later in November, extending into the UMD campus in January. view.email.umd.edu?qs=3fa1b3ab6...
Craft is dead.
this looks like a trick daffy duck would put up to get bugs bunny into "the oval office"
November 5, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Craft is dead.
NYC will be getting a mayor who understands traffic safety—that the design of streets and what vehicles people drive both matter.
Two years ago I interviewed a 31-year-old NY state assemblymember about a 7-year-old girl killed by an SUV driver in his district. I hung up the phone, astonished that I'd talked to a legislator who so thoughtfully articulated what actually needs to change on our streets.
He'll make a great mayor
He'll make a great mayor
November 5, 2025 at 8:32 PM
NYC will be getting a mayor who understands traffic safety—that the design of streets and what vehicles people drive both matter.
So this is new: I'm now blocking people who offer outrageously stupid comments. Happy to talk about disagreements, but I do not have time for foolishness.
November 5, 2025 at 3:01 AM
So this is new: I'm now blocking people who offer outrageously stupid comments. Happy to talk about disagreements, but I do not have time for foolishness.
DDOT's seeking feedback about the Columbia Heights bus priority street redesign, with a public meeting at Mt. Pleasant Library, 5:30–7:30 pm tonight (11/4), open house drop-in style. content.govdelivery.com/accounts/DCW...
Columbia Heights Crosstown Bus Priority Project – Concept Open House
content.govdelivery.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:51 PM
DDOT's seeking feedback about the Columbia Heights bus priority street redesign, with a public meeting at Mt. Pleasant Library, 5:30–7:30 pm tonight (11/4), open house drop-in style. content.govdelivery.com/accounts/DCW...
We once had hydrofoils.
I wrote about a possible electric hydrofoil ferry service in D.C. (www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...) but a reader points out there was a hydrofoil on the Potomac back in the 60s - nixed because it "proved too fast for comfortable sightseeing." Doubt that will be an issue this time around.
November 3, 2025 at 10:50 PM
We once had hydrofoils.
Looking up Wills Creek toward the Narrows, Cumberland, Md. We're on the former Western Maryland line.
November 3, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Looking up Wills Creek toward the Narrows, Cumberland, Md. We're on the former Western Maryland line.
Little Seneca Lake on Sunday. We have no naturally-occurring lakes in Maryland or Virginia, so I appreciate these freshwater environments with rushes along the fringes of a still body of water.
November 3, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Little Seneca Lake on Sunday. We have no naturally-occurring lakes in Maryland or Virginia, so I appreciate these freshwater environments with rushes along the fringes of a still body of water.
Thinking about David Lynch's _Image of the City_, which would be confusing and full of cowboys.
November 3, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Thinking about David Lynch's _Image of the City_, which would be confusing and full of cowboys.
TIL that the Oxbow, in Northampton, Mass., no longer exists as painted by Thomas Cole — just a few years after Cole finished his painting, the Connecticut River cut through the meander's neck, leaving an oxbow lake.
November 3, 2025 at 2:59 PM
TIL that the Oxbow, in Northampton, Mass., no longer exists as painted by Thomas Cole — just a few years after Cole finished his painting, the Connecticut River cut through the meander's neck, leaving an oxbow lake.
The Potomac River at Great Cacapon, W.Va.
November 1, 2025 at 11:11 PM
The Potomac River at Great Cacapon, W.Va.
I had problems with search results on the USGS National Map last week. Looks as if the nation's data infrastructure is starting to crumble because of the shutdown. www.reddit.com/r/gis/commen...
From the gis community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the gis community
www.reddit.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I had problems with search results on the USGS National Map last week. Looks as if the nation's data infrastructure is starting to crumble because of the shutdown. www.reddit.com/r/gis/commen...
Mt. Pleasant. I like to think that the squirrel has been waiting politely.
November 1, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Mt. Pleasant. I like to think that the squirrel has been waiting politely.
Reposted by David Ramos
Putting aside, just for a moment, the problem of the demolition: Does Trump's White House ballroom make sense on its own terms?
Absolutely not: A 1,000-person ballroom is far too large for white-glove dining. One expert called it a "cattle call"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Absolutely not: A 1,000-person ballroom is far too large for white-glove dining. One expert called it a "cattle call"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump's 90,000-Square-Foot Ballroom Plan Puzzles the Experts
His planned space would be much larger than luxury banquet halls in the US capital and a departure from traditional presidential style.
www.bloomberg.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Putting aside, just for a moment, the problem of the demolition: Does Trump's White House ballroom make sense on its own terms?
Absolutely not: A 1,000-person ballroom is far too large for white-glove dining. One expert called it a "cattle call"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Absolutely not: A 1,000-person ballroom is far too large for white-glove dining. One expert called it a "cattle call"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Medic 21 just rollled by, playing the Ghostbusteds theme over the ambulance PA.
October 31, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Medic 21 just rollled by, playing the Ghostbusteds theme over the ambulance PA.
The Baltimore Brew was always reactionary, but now it's doing straight-up hit pieces on the housing bills. www.baltimorebrew.com/2025/10/31/a...
Acknowledging it’s a leap into the unknown, Planning Commission signs off on Scott’s sweeping re-zoning bill | Baltimore Brew
“We need to grow . . . the solution is to try more stuff, to do more things, to listen to people from other places and see what happens,” Planning chair says.
www.baltimorebrew.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The Baltimore Brew was always reactionary, but now it's doing straight-up hit pieces on the housing bills. www.baltimorebrew.com/2025/10/31/a...
The US Park Police, DC's most lawless and incompetent law enforcement agency, is on a hiring spree, aiming to more-than-double the officers it has in the city. wapo.st/4ofLO4K
Park Police seek hundreds more officers amid Trump’s crime crackdown
A hiring spree would add hundreds more federal officers in the nation’s capital, according to documents reviewed by The Post.
wapo.st
October 31, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The US Park Police, DC's most lawless and incompetent law enforcement agency, is on a hiring spree, aiming to more-than-double the officers it has in the city. wapo.st/4ofLO4K
It's striking, how much almost everyone's mental model of flooding says that floods happen when heavy rain falls right where the flooding occurs, and along rivers. That doesn't allow room for coastal flooding, like yesterday's (it's only by chance that we had rain in the morning!).
October 31, 2025 at 2:09 PM
It's striking, how much almost everyone's mental model of flooding says that floods happen when heavy rain falls right where the flooding occurs, and along rivers. That doesn't allow room for coastal flooding, like yesterday's (it's only by chance that we had rain in the morning!).
The US Coast Guard Instagram account's another loss. A year ago, the account was distinctive, characterized by its attention to the service's 11 wide-ranging missions, incl. environmental protection and aids to navigation. Now it's all drug busts and skeezy "be on the lookout for narco boats" posts.
October 31, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The US Coast Guard Instagram account's another loss. A year ago, the account was distinctive, characterized by its attention to the service's 11 wide-ranging missions, incl. environmental protection and aids to navigation. Now it's all drug busts and skeezy "be on the lookout for narco boats" posts.
Flood walls were raised at Washington Harbour, yesterday. www.reddit.com/r/washington...
From the washingtondc community on Reddit: What is this wall in Georgetown?
Explore this post and more from the washingtondc community
www.reddit.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Flood walls were raised at Washington Harbour, yesterday. www.reddit.com/r/washington...
Reposted by David Ramos
NEW: #2030Census advocates led by The Census Project urge Congress to strike a House funding bill provision that would take away the Census Bureau’s ability to “inquire” more than twice to get a survey response, a change that they say would "adversely affect the quality and availability" of data
thecensusproject.org
October 30, 2025 at 11:26 PM
NEW: #2030Census advocates led by The Census Project urge Congress to strike a House funding bill provision that would take away the Census Bureau’s ability to “inquire” more than twice to get a survey response, a change that they say would "adversely affect the quality and availability" of data
It’s that time of year: If you are running for office in DC, and your materials say you seek a seat on the ”City Council,” *I will not vote for you*.
October 28, 2025 at 10:25 PM
It’s that time of year: If you are running for office in DC, and your materials say you seek a seat on the ”City Council,” *I will not vote for you*.