dr. meg smith

What a privilege it was to lead a workshop on borders and spatial justice in Agua Prieta, Sonora, just steps from the US/Mexico border! We explored how borders act both as physical obstructions and as mechanisms of erasure, eroding the relationships and shared histories that link border communities.

As we asked what it looks like to work towards spatial justice, as individuals and through collective, collaborative efforts, #DigitalHumanities projects provide some starting points: From archival recovery projects, to critical data projects, to supportive networks that deliberately cross borders.

What a privilege it was to lead a workshop on borders and spatial justice in Agua Prieta, Sonora, just steps from the US/Mexico border! We explored how borders act both as physical obstructions and as mechanisms of erasure, eroding the relationships and shared histories that link border communities.

Why do something simple, when I can make it hard? For my #WeekWithoutDriving @trailnetstl.bsky.social bingo, I didn’t like how crossing out the square hid the task. So I made a little flip-book style one with pop-ups. It’s not fully responsive yet (mea culpa), but here’s a draft. #stl #StLouis

A video dispatch from day 7 of #WeekWithoutDriving, featuring an intermodal bus-bike commute and the dreaded Metro fare gates! #stl #StLouis

That said, it’s real cool and fun to build things. But then you’ve gotta maintain them. There was already a ton broken glass in the new Chouteau lanes, which aren’t even open yet. I peeked up Jefferson as I passed, and the bike lane had tons of trash and debris. That’s the case all over the city.

A video dispatch from day 7 of #WeekWithoutDriving, featuring an intermodal bus-bike commute and the dreaded Metro fare gates! #stl #StLouis

Day 6 of #WeekWithoutDriving: cool, cool. A cancelled PM rush hour bus on a major arterial. Good thing I brought a book! I’m almost done with this one, and while I’ve enjoyed the reflections on urban ecosystems and our relationship with nature, I’ve struggled with its inattention to human beings.

I’ve noticed a common refrain in the comments of social media pictures of urban overgrowth, like East St. Louis’s Majestic Theater: “nature is healing.” That’s not health. A vision of a healthy ecosystem contingent on the disenfranchisement of entire communities is already ethically bankrupt.

Day 6 of #WeekWithoutDriving: cool, cool. A cancelled PM rush hour bus on a major arterial. Good thing I brought a book! I’m almost done with this one, and while I’ve enjoyed the reflections on urban ecosystems and our relationship with nature, I’ve struggled with its inattention to human beings.

To regard the empty lots in St. Louis first and foremost as zones of urban wilderness is to dismiss the deliberate policies of neglect, exploitation, and segregation that have displaced people from them. Even in industrial spaces — when I ride the riverfront, I’m struck first by the tent camps.

Day 6 of #WeekWithoutDriving: cool, cool. A cancelled PM rush hour bus on a major arterial. Good thing I brought a book! I’m almost done with this one, and while I’ve enjoyed the reflections on urban ecosystems and our relationship with nature, I’ve struggled with its inattention to human beings.

Until the final chapter, humans really only appear as perpetrators of harm to the environment, with little attention to the ways that humans who live near empty lots are both constituent members of the eco-community and victims of the same harms that more-than-human actors experience.

Day 5 dispatches from #WeekWithoutDriving: TBH, an ordinary commute! All vehicles were on time, even my evening 90 (often up to 30 minutes late or cancelled). However, watching other people board and chatting with the regulars on my evening busses, fare issues were a recurring theme. #stl #StLouis

Bugs are inevitable with a new product roll-out, I get that. But for people who ride and rely on transit, these frictions add up, adding needless frustration and costs to the transit experience. For people who don't regularly ride transit, those frustrations make them less willing to try again.

Day 5 dispatches from #WeekWithoutDriving: TBH, an ordinary commute! All vehicles were on time, even my evening 90 (often up to 30 minutes late or cancelled). However, watching other people board and chatting with the regulars on my evening busses, fare issues were a recurring theme. #stl #StLouis

The system's still really buggy. Last month, I reloaded my card through the phone app. Although the card and app are connected, the card never actually accessed the pass. Instead, every time I used it, it charged my cash balance and put me into a negative balance.

Day 5 dispatches from #WeekWithoutDriving: TBH, an ordinary commute! All vehicles were on time, even my evening 90 (often up to 30 minutes late or cancelled). However, watching other people board and chatting with the regulars on my evening busses, fare issues were a recurring theme. #stl #StLouis

For a VERY long time, that distinction wasn't made clear on either agency's website. That's changed in the last year or so, but there's still a lot of confusion. And the effect of that confusion is that people end up paying double fares when they shouldn't have to.

Day 5 dispatches from #WeekWithoutDriving: TBH, an ordinary commute! All vehicles were on time, even my evening 90 (often up to 30 minutes late or cancelled). However, watching other people board and chatting with the regulars on my evening busses, fare issues were a recurring theme. #stl #StLouis

My Day 4 #WeekWithoutDriving report: despite football Sunday, I managed to run a few errands! In the morning, we took Ada and my parents’ dogs to Zoomies. To avoid taking two cars, I hopped back on the bike and met them there. And during halftime, I made a quick grocery run by foot. #stl #StLouis

In winter, the city fails to enforce code violations by businesses who let snow and ice pile up on walks. (If you want some shaming postcards for this winter, hit me up!) In sum, the city often seems more interested in dressing up downtown for tourists than in maintaining its fabric for residents.

My Day 4 #WeekWithoutDriving report: despite football Sunday, I managed to run a few errands! In the morning, we took Ada and my parents’ dogs to Zoomies. To avoid taking two cars, I hopped back on the bike and met them there. And during halftime, I made a quick grocery run by foot. #stl #StLouis

Bikes and bike infrastructure are incredibly valuable as means of crossing those infrastructural boundaries. More bikes and bike lanes! AND (not but) bike infrastructure is not a replacement for pedestrian infrastructure. Sidewalk maintenance and construction isn’t as sexy, but it’s just as urgent.

My Day 4 #WeekWithoutDriving report: despite football Sunday, I managed to run a few errands! In the morning, we took Ada and my parents’ dogs to Zoomies. To avoid taking two cars, I hopped back on the bike and met them there. And during halftime, I made a quick grocery run by foot. #stl #StLouis

From food deserts to gated neighborhoods, our current inequities of access and infrastructure reveal historic legacies of redlining and other legal violence. That goes for lower-income, majority-minority neighborhoods, where cities chose deliberate disinvestment as a strategy of segregation.

My Day 4 #WeekWithoutDriving report: despite football Sunday, I managed to run a few errands! In the morning, we took Ada and my parents’ dogs to Zoomies. To avoid taking two cars, I hopped back on the bike and met them there. And during halftime, I made a quick grocery run by foot. #stl #StLouis

I live in a very walkable neighborhood. I easily walk to two grocery stores, my dog’s daycare, my vet, my hair stylist, my gym, my library, 3 bus lines, and more. That made it really easy to dabble with car-free transit — I could try a one activity at a time, identify the pain points, and adjust.

My Day 4 #WeekWithoutDriving report: despite football Sunday, I managed to run a few errands! In the morning, we took Ada and my parents’ dogs to Zoomies. To avoid taking two cars, I hopped back on the bike and met them there. And during halftime, I made a quick grocery run by foot. #stl #StLouis

Both are true! Comparing food production to a hyper-consumptive technology that offers marginal benefit, if any, to most users is pointless, misleading, and often willfully deceptive. But if a growing awareness of climate crisis encourages people to interrogate both systems, I think that’s a win.