iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tyler Simko

@simko.bsky.social

571 followers 383 following 24 posts

State & local politics + computational social science. tylersimko.com

Posts Replies Media

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

We use those classifications to show that communities are cautiously optimistic about potential economic development, but more negative about nearly everything else. Further, most of this opposition is driven by residents. Officials are much more positive about data centers. Much more to come soon!

Two plots showing: (1) economic development is primarily discussed in a slightly positive way, while most other topics are discussed primarily negatively, and (2) meetings in which more members of the public speak are much more negative than meetings in which more officials speak.

020

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Next, we use video transcripts to track (1) issues (e.g. water usage, utility rates), (2) speakers (e.g. members of the public vs. local officials), and (3) positions (speaking in favor or opposed to a possible data center).

A diagram showing how we use local government meeting transcripts from LocalView to classify discussions of data centers into positions (positive, negative, or neutral), speakers (members of the public, officials, and other), and issues (utility rate increases, water, etc.).

A bar graph showing that land use and infrastructure, electricity, water, and other utilities are among the most common topics discussed about data centers (appearing in 25-40% of data center discussions), while other tangible concerns about noise and traffic are less common but still appear often (10-15%). Economic development discussions appear around the middle of the distribution.

120

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

New short working paper with @mpreece.bsky.social + Adam Rauh: "Local community opposition to data centers is clear and growing." We use LocalView to study data center discussions in thousands of local government meetings across the US. First, we show attention is surging: osf.io/preprints/so...

A graph showing the increase in attention to data centers in local government meetings between 2023 and 2026.

2176

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

This sounds amazing. The summary is like one of these Facebook targeted t-shirt ads, but aimed at my research interests.

020

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Yes! And compatible with emojis for when you really need that extra energy...

Example of cli R package for status messages.

030

Tyler Simko @simko.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Thanks @mirya.bsky.social! See descriptives on when / where nationally salient partisan language appears in local politics (“climate change,” “gun control,” etc.). Identifiably partisan language is (1) common, (2) especially in larger cities, and (3) local D / R “slant” correlates with pres. vote.

Figure shows the relationship between the number of time members of Congress use certain partisan phrases, and how often those phrases are used in local government meetings.

Plot shows city-level distributions of partisan language in local political meetings.

Two figures showing patterns in the appearance of partisan language in local government meetings. Nationally salient terms are used more often in large places. The “slant” of partisan language that leans Democratic or Republican is correlated with local presidential voting patterns.

0254