Fun fact for NW side urbanists: Illuminated Brew Works will give you 10% off your tab if you bike there. And despite its name, Northwest Hwy is a surprisingly bike-friendly route to get there.

I would like to request that the Tribune bring back its 1920s-era HANDS OF DEATH infographic summarizing car crash fatalities

Fall at LaBagh Woods. People have a hard time believing this is within Chicago city limits.

Some great friday news for Portage Park!

Out and about on the NW side this evening.

An astonishingly large crowd! Chicago

The Forum in Bronzeville. I only had time to hit one Open House Chicago site today, and this one was well worth the trip

A beautiful day to be downtown. My favorite part: all the people handing out American flags 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

So many people heading to the #NoKings protest in Chicago that it’s standing room only on the train. In fact, it’s so packed we can’t get on this one.

CTA date night: 80 🚍 to Buona Terra.

Exciting to see the LaBagh Woods moth crew featured in this article in the Reader!

Two of my photos of moth monitoring at LaBagh Woods are in this cool @chicagoreader.com story by @katieprout.bsky.social: "Chicago’s creatures of the night" chicagoreader.com/city-life/fe...

Currently, Dubuque has no passenger rail service, but the Illinois Department of Transportation is developing a passenger rail line connecting Chicago to Rockford, Illinois, expected to begin service in 2027. Dubuque is less than 100 miles from Rockford.

Elite level of transit dedication: my husband took the BNSF to Lisle and walked to the Morton Arboretum for the Robin Wall Kimmerer event. So proud ❤️

Riis Park has elevation changes, which feels like a novelty for Chicago

Beautiful afternoon for a bike ride to Riis Park to see the yellow-crowned night heron and cackling goose that have been hanging out there. #greenbirding on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

Portage Park backyard garden update: 12 pounds harvested from my second potato bin.

This is remarkable. The world added more solar and wind capacity in 2024 than we added demand. 100% of demand growth PLUS 9% to retire dirtier sources. Cheap energy keeps winning. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

I counted 30+ people waiting for a southbound Damen bus at Milwaukee this morning. Eventually 3 bunched buses arrived simultaneously, by which time several people had given up and walked away. Just seems like there is so much latent ridership if we could get serious about prioritizing bus traffic.

Late season radishes from the backyard.

Very excited about my sister’s new farm project: heirloom beans. L: Poletschka beans, R: Illinois Wild Goose beans

When you’re sitting on the bus and see someone struggling with the front bike rack, you should go help them. There is a 100% chance that it will result in a charming interaction that renews your faith in humanity.

Busy morning biking down Milwaukee Ave

Everything’s pretty terrible right now, but you can still bike to moth monitoring night, be inspired by your fellow nature weirdos, and soak up the energy you need to keep fighting.

Perfectly timed Amtrak California Zephyr-to-MDN Metra connection on the way home. A small miracle, given the two hour headways on this Metra line. Judging from the crowds, I think we could support more service!

Big progress on Metra-adjacent housing in downtown Aurora. 👍

I spend a lot of time in small Midwestern towns and cities and there are so many where the downtown is coming back to life and there’s some weird little lefty, gay-friendly bookstore, coffee shop, or brewery.

The subtle art of shaking the pawpaw tree just hard enough to drop only the ripe fruit and not the unripe.

Combing the underbrush for fallen persimmons and pawpaws. 📍Louisa County, IA

Headed home. The pawpaw and persimmon harvest beckons.

Ironweed buds about to burst, looking like adorable little berries dusted with sugar. 📍Middlefork Savanna Preserve, Lake Forest.

Important local news update: the trilingual English/Spanish/Polish billboard lawyers housed in a former Taco Bell are building a new addition. Portage Park is an endlessly fascinating neighborhood.

Damen infill station on the left, dense infill affordable housing on the right. A good reminder from my commute that there are still some non-terrible things happening in the world.

Wednesday evening at LaBagh Woods. Last volunteer worknight of the season.

Just bought roomette tickets for the Amtrak Southwest Chief. It’s impossible to fully convey how much I’m looking forward to this trip. I get a cozy little room to myself to read books and watch the scenery for two days. Like a rolling meditation retreat. I hope the cell service is terrible.

Some late season wetland wildflowers seen by LaBagh Woods volunteers today

Let’s finally get this done! I promise to take the Moline train and consume economically significant amounts of coffee, beer, and baked goods from local Quad City businesses, if that helps. www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-n...

First backyard potato harvest of the year. 10 pounds!

Skeptical-looking backyard planthopper.

I worked for Dr. Carr when she was acting commissioner at NCES. She served with deep integrity and was rigorously nonpartisan. I don’t know how to sit with my anger at how she was disrespected by this morally bankrupt administration.

Chicago Union Station at night

Continuing on one stop further to Quincy.

An advantage of rural biking in Illinois is that you end up on a lot of barely-traveled paved roads that look like this. Where I grew up in southeast Iowa, it seems like roads with equivalent traffic levels are almost always gravel.

Schuyler County, IL: venturing into new territory in my ongoing quest to see how much of the Midwest i can see via train + biking from Chicago.

Beautiful morning on the Amtrak Carl Sandburg. With this trip, I’ve finally taken all of the Illinois state-supported Amtrak routes.

NEW RESULT: Democrats have flipped a state Senate in Iowa. This was a seat Trump carried by 11%, but Democratic nominee Catherine Drey has just won it by 10.4%. This is the second legislative flip by Dems in Iowa this year. It also means the GOP loses its supermajority in Iowa’s senate.

Today’s Metra-accessible birding hotspot: the Wood Dale/Itasca Reservoir, close enough to be walkable from the Wood Dale MDW stop.

Metra-adjacent brewery date night. 📍Illuminated Brew Works, Norwood Park

Collecting Squarrose Sedge at LaBagh’s volunteer workday. Love these little spiky pineapple-looking sedges

Crowded start to today’s MDN-MED-bike to Indiana adventure. This has been typical for my weekend Metra trips lately. More frequent service and more bike cars, please!