Will B. Payne
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willbpayne.bsky.social
Will B. Payne
@willbpayne.bsky.social
180 followers 110 following 41 posts
Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Science at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, studying spatial data and urban inequality through location-based services.
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Reposted by Will B. Payne
jstehlin.bsky.social
AAG 2026 Call for Papers/Panelists: "Urban Politics from Bidenomics to MAGA Urbanism" organized by myself and @alanwiig.bsky.social. Please send abstracts and/or expressions of panel interest to us by October 24, and share widely!
AAG 2026 Call for Papers/Panelists: Urban Politics from Bidenomics to MAGA Urbanism Sponsored by the Urban Geography Specialty Group With the return of Donald Trump to the presidency, there is broad agreement that U.S. political culture is at a crisis point (Bouie 2025; Viala-Gaudefroy 2025). Since January 2025, the Trump Administration, an unusual assemblage of impresarios, hustlers, influencers, and hard-core ideologues, has deployed a chaotic program to remake American government and society in the image of authoritarian nationalism across the realms of foreign policy, immigration, trade, social policy, media, and energy (Townley 2025). In short, key figures in the administration have called for “repealing the 20th century,” and more proximately, key policy legacies of the Obama and Biden administrations (Davies 2025). Most recently, the administration has focused its attention on “crime” in “blue” cities and states, sending ICE agents and National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Portland in a show of force against its political enemies (Ward and Fertig 2025; Wong 2025). While most commentary on the Trump administration focuses on the transformation of the federal government, the changes underway are also profoundly urban (Wyly 2025). This session will explore the urban dimensions of the Biden-Trump transition across a range of domains. We invite paper abstracts and panelists discussing any of the following topics and beyond: - Urban policy under the Biden and Trump administrations - Changing city, state, and federal interactions (conflict, cooperation, etc.) - Implications of legislative changes (IIJA, IRA, BBB, etc.) for cities - Specific sectoral dimensions (energy, housing, climate, social policy, etc.) - Urban voting patterns, gerrymandering, and partisanship - Urban militarization, policing, political violence, and spectacle - “Sanctuary cities,” immigration, and xenophobia - Interrelated housing, housing affordability, and homeowners' insurance crises - Urbanism, suburbanization, and transportation investment - Nativism, racism, natalism, and cities - Energy, petronationalism, and urban climate response - Urban discourses across legacy media, social media, and administration figures - Tech, venture capital, AI, and cities - Structural and conjunctural dimensions of each administration in the longue duree We anticipate at least one paper session and one more open-ended panel session based on this theme, depending on interest. Please submit paper abstracts or expressions of interest in panel participation (including topics of interest) to John Stehlin (jgstehli@uncg.edu) and Alan Wiig (alanwiig@ufl.edu) by 6:00 PM EDT (GMT -5:00) on Friday, October 24.
October 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
desireefields.bsky.social
It’s your lucky day! We have identified your profile as a winner, but time is running out to claim your reward. Just send us 250 words within the next three days so we can process your claim. Act now! #AAG2026
October 15, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
desireefields.bsky.social
Along with Will Payne and Jovan Lewis, I'm organizing an AAG session on the economic geography of scams for the 2026 conference in San Francisco. Please share widely! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
AAG 2026 CFP: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography
AAG 2026 CFP: Schemes, Scams, and Flim-flam: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography Will B. Payne, Rutgers University Desiree Fields, University of California, Berkeley Jovan Scott Lewis, University ...
docs.google.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
dancohen.bsky.social
In which surveillance study scholars, computer scientists, digital geographers, and a random economic geographer (me) collaborate to unpack the black box of how/why cell phone companies model your location in cities. There's more ambiguity than you'd think!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Article abstract for Navigating digital geographies: Black boxes, geospatial narratives, and the art of constructing location data. Click link to read abstract
September 29, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
geoplace.bsky.social
Call for Papers: Locating Power & Resistance in Global AI Production Networks

AAG 2026 Annual Meeting

AI is not just “in the cloud.” It relies on global supply chains, with power concentrated in a few countries and corporations.

fair.work/en/fw/blog/c...

#AAG2026
Call for Papers: Locating Power and Resistance Within Global AI Production Networks
American Association of Geographers (AAG) 2026 Annual Meeting
fair.work
September 23, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
dygottlieb.bsky.social
Yuppies has a cover! And a release date!

Out May 12 with @harvardpress.bsky.social.
August 31, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
shannonmattern.bsky.social
José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Freshkills, “will soon defend his Ph.D. dissertation at Rutgers…. He sees the park as a hopeful story at an otherwise ‘grim’ time for conservation efforts. ‘We’re seeing all these species come back… And they’re all here on Staten Island.’”
The Birds Flocking Back to the Fresh Kills Dump
New Yorkers stuck their garbage in Staten Island for fifty-three years. As the landfill becomes a park, foxes, deer, and grasshopper sparrows are moving in again.
www.newyorker.com
August 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
jacobtlevy.bsky.social
The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.
ketanjoshi.co Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 19
Good thing no one uses Microsoft Excel for anything related to legal, regulatory or compliance business functions

www.theverge.com/news/761338/...
Microsoft Excel adds Copilot Al to help ... theverge.com The Verget-4.1-mini Al model | 5 successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function Microsoft started experimenting with in 2023. Microsoft notes that you can combine its new Al function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel's COPILOT function is "never" used for AI training, as "the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output." The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can't access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT "can give incorrect responses." Copy Share Select all Web search Dictionary ...
August 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
jessaloomis.bsky.social
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment technologies are targeting young women and reconfiguring the spaces, practices & relations of digital money and finance. Very happy to have been interviewed for this story based on my research on BNPL and the geographies of consumer fintech w/ @dcockayne.bsky.social
theatlantic.com The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · Aug 16
“Buy now, pay later” services have become “the gateway drug to consumer debt for more and more women,” Annie Joy Williams argues—and these payment programs are thriving in our influencer-driven world:
The Rise of ‘Cute Debt’
Female shoppers are being pushed toward buy-now-pay-later services.
bit.ly
August 18, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
eiui.bsky.social
Sea-level rise & flooding are ongoing due to climate change. How should coastal communities & decision makers respond? In a New Jersey study Geronimo et al. found cultural & institutional factors create barriers to transformative adaptation strategies @willbpayne.bsky.social‬ doi.org/10.1111/risa...
Title, authors’ names, abstract, and keywords from a paper about the perspectives of various actors about flood risks and losses in a coastal area in New Jersey
August 15, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
bloustein.rutgers.edu
New article by Laura Geronimo, Will B. Payne @willbpayne.bsky.social, Clinton J. Andrews, Elisabeth A. Gilmore, Robert E. Kopp: Cultural and Institutional Factors Driving Severe Repetitive Flood Losses: Insights From the Jersey Shore. #research onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
August 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
bobkopp.net
New paper by former @bloustein.rutgers.edu PhD student and MACH postdoc Laura Geronimo examines how differences in values and worldviews shape attitudes toward coastal adaptation strategies
Cultural and Institutional Factors Driving Severe Repetitive Flood Losses: Insights From the Jersey Shore
Decisions about how to respond to coastal flood hazards often involve disagreements over resource allocations. In the United States, large intergovernmental fiscal transfers have enabled rebuilding i...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
bloustein.rutgers.edu
Dr. Will Payne @willbpayne.bsky.social and colleagues published a new article in JPER titled "Digital Twin or Digital Kin: Misunderstandings and Myths about Urban Simulation, and Directions for Change." journals.sagepub.com/eprint/RDXWS...
A digital city on a serving tray
July 31, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
xkcd.com
iNaturalist Animals and Plants

xkcd.com/3118/
Comic. The Most-Observed Animal and Plant in Each State on iNaturalist. (Not the most common species in the state, just the one people have reported the most times.) [labeled map of the US] WA: Mallard/Western Sword Fern. OR: Mule Deer/Western Ponderosa Pine. CA: Western Fence Lizard/California Poppy. HI: Green Sea Turtle/‘Ōhi’a Lehua. ID: Mallard/Big Sagebrush. NV: Common Side-Blotched Lizard/Creosote Bush. MT: White-Tailed Deer/Common Yarrow. WY: American Bison/Sticky Geranium. UT: Mule Deer/Utah Juniper. AZ: Ornate Tree Lizard/Saguaro. CO: Mule Deer/Great Mullein. NM: Mule Deer/Creosote Bush. AK: Moose/Fireweed. ND: American Bison/Prairie Rose. SD: American Bison/Hoary Vervain. NE: American Robin/Common Milkweed. KS: Ornate Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. OK: Pond Slider/Eastern Redcedar. TX: Northern Cardinal/Pinladies. MN, WI, IL: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Common Milkweed. IA, MI: White-Tailed Deer/Common Milkweed. MO: Brown-Belted Bumble Bee/Amur Honeysuckle. AR: Three-toed Box Turtle/Chinese Privet. LA: Green Anole/Baldcypress. IN: American Robin/Amur Honeysuckle. OH: Eastern Pondhawk/Virginia Springbeauty. KY: Common Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. TN: American Robin/Christmas Fern. MS: Northern Cardinal/Pale Pitcher Plant. AL: Gulf Fritillary/American Sweetgum. GA: Green Anole/American Sweetgum. FL: Brown Anole/White Beggarticks. NY: Eastern Gray Squirrel/White Snakeroot. PA: White-Tailed Deer/Garlic Mustard. WV: White-Tailed Deer/Great Rhododendron. VA: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern Poison Ivy. MD: White-Tailed Deer/Wineberry. DE: Fowler’s Toad/American Pokeweed. NC: Eastern Gray Squirrel/Christmas Fern. SC: Northern Cardinal/American Sweetgum. NJ: Spotted Lanternfly/Common Mugwort. VT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. NH: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern White Pine. MA: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. CT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Striped Wintergreen. RI: American Herring Gull. ME: American Herring Gull/Canadian Bunchberry.
July 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
njpolicylab.bsky.social
Higher #corporate ownership rates of small, 1- to 4-unit properties appear in a range of #NJ municipalities, including Trenton, New Brunswick, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Newark:
Mapping Corporate Landlords in New Jersey - New Jersey State Policy Lab
As part of our ongoing research project supported by the New Jersey State Policy Lab, we are examining the growth of corporate ownership in the state’s small residential property market. Our focus is ...
policylab.rutgers.edu
July 21, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
economyandspace.bsky.social
OnlineFirst - "Mapping elite tastes along New York City’s gourmet gentrification frontier, 1990–2015" by Will B. Payne:

#localreviews #commercialgentrification #NewYorkCity #geographicinformationscience #foodculture

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
June 11, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
aresluna.org
I wrote something new! It’s a UI design history essay about Mac’s Control Panel, and it uses emulation in some… maybe new and maybe interesting ways?

aresluna.org/frame-of-pre...
Frame of preference
A story of early Mac settings told by 10 emulators.
aresluna.org
July 8, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
xkcd.com
Geology Murder

xkcd.com/3112/
Comic. [two people in labcoats look at body pierced with blade draped over bench] PERSON 1: We found him lying uncomformably on the lab bench. I wonder if the iron-rich intrusion in his back is related. PERSON 2 with ponytail: It could be clastic. Maybe a rift opened in his body, and the intrusive material later fell into the hole. [caption] The Geology Department Investigates Their First Murder
July 9, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
chaykak.bsky.social
"Text may get treated like a transitional medium, a temporary resting place for ideas." Joshua Rothman on reading in the age of AI www.newyorker.com/culture/open...
What’s Happening to Reading?
For many people, A.I. may be bringing the age of traditional text to an end.
www.newyorker.com
June 18, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
njpolicylab.bsky.social
Approximately 19% of Trenton's one- to four-unit #housing properties transitioned to corporate ownership between 2012 & 2022, totaling just over 4,000 properties in the Garden State capital, according to new research from @ericseymour.bsky.social w/ @bloustein.rutgers.edu:

#Rutgers #NJ #NewJersey
Who Are Corporate Landlords Acquiring Homes From? Examining Property Transitions in New Jersey - New Jersey State Policy Lab
In this fifth blog post on our research into corporate ownership of New Jersey’s one- to four-unit residential properties, we share more preliminary findings from our analysis of changes in property o...
policylab.rutgers.edu
June 12, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
jacobsoboroff.bsky.social
Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A.
June 12, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
jesscraven101.bsky.social
I am in downtown Los Angeles right now and it is completely surreal to hear that Trump is sending Marines here. We are listening to mariachi music. People have dogs. There are teenagers here. It is utterly and completely peaceful. Please tell your friends.
June 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
bloustein.rutgers.edu
Professor @willbpayne.bsky.social has examined how user-generated review platforms can impact restaurants' reputations, and as the landscape of restaurant discovery evolves, he notes it is more crucial for restaurants to navigate online reviews carefully.
She reviewed a Tampa restaurant on Yelp. Then came a lawsuit.
The legal battle illustrates the fragile relationship between chefs and restaurant owners and the people they serve.
www.tampabay.com
June 5, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Will B. Payne
minakimes.bsky.social
Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...
There is one place, however, where Musk, with the help of his minions, achieved his goals. He did indeed shred U.S.A.I.D. Though a rump operation is now operating inside the State Department, the administration says that it has terminated more than 80 percent of U.S.A.I.D. grants. Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished.
May 30, 2025 at 4:20 PM