Here's a cool feature that Codex one-shot. You can toggle to a ward, and the map snaps to it, showing the violation hotspots. Here's where the tickets are being issued in bike lanes, bus lanes, and bus stops in the 44th ward, where the program just expanded. michaelmclean.me/chicago-smar...

RIP to the 🐐

Hurrah, the city is raising millions in revenue from an automated enforcement pilot! But, only in areas where the infrastructure violates NACTO best practices. Case in point: the Kinzie bike lane. michaelmclean.me/chicago-smar... Paint-only: $217,750 bike-lane fines. Concrete: 1 ticket, $250 fine

300-Unit Housing Complex Could Be Coming To Busy Lincoln Square Corner, Alderman Says "'I am so invested in figuring out the affordability and the density there,' Vasquez said." Awesome to see this in Lincoln Square. Ideal corner for that level of density. blockclubchicago.org/2026/05/15/3...

You could do this on one side of Michigan Avenue without much of a infrastructure lift, @acannon.bsky.social brainchild

Very. Important. Paragraph.

eBikes fix a lot of problems. They lower the level of fitness required to cycle, and they are just plain fun. I can't really explain it but I feel so much more connected to the places I bike through than other modes of travel. More than transit or driving.

“To the municipalities that are concerned about losing control of their growth: You have had decades and decades to get your house in order, and your failure to act has directly contributed to today’s housing shortage that negatively affects the entire state” -Michael Schill, NU president emeritus

The Ricketts bought up supportive housing, and they are demolishing it to build a few hundred parking spaces for Wrigley Field

I would vote for her to be mayor in a heartbeat chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/20...

Britain is so cooked. Their environmental regulator is likely going to delay the start of Hinkley Point C nuclear plant by 2 years. EDF has already spent £700m on fish protection, and it’s 93% effective at stopping them. But apparently that’s not enough! www.samdumitriu.com/p/natural-en...

The city has issued over $50k of fines at these three combined addresses. Not a shocker to anyone who has been on a bike or bus in downtown Chicago. Maybe use that money to put down concrete?! h/t @acannon.bsky.social michaelmclean.me/chicago-smar...

Its pretty cool that 4 Department of Finance Vehicles just drive around and make hundreds of thousands a year in revenue for the city. Heroes!

rofl'd at the tactical urbanism diverter

Trump is going to be presiding over a UFC fight next to the wreckage of the East Wing as gas hits like $7/gal.

The Cubs defended the revised Wrigleyville parking lot expansion plan, but neighbors are still calling foul. chi.streetsblog.org/2026/05/14/t...

Your city should build housing for trans refugees. Now, not decades from now. www.chron.com/culture/arti...

Chicago's Smart Streets pilot has issued nearly $900K in fines this year. Well over double last year's pace. March was the busiest month yet, but the overwhelming majority of issuances continue to be just warnings.

second BUILD plan fact of the day: one of the components is speeding up issuing permits for new housing, trying to get that down to 30 days + some time for application corrections Chicago issues new housing permits consistently in 100+ days, and the current 60-day rolling average is 134 days ‼️

With monthly bike tours, cyclists are inviting Chicagoans to support street vendors, starting in Little Village at the end of this month. The effort started amid last fall's Operation Midway Blitz. "We’re gonna treat and support them like family," an organizer said.

Join us for our 4th Annual Connecting Neighborhoods bike ride on the northwest side 🚴 This year we will be riding through Logan Square, Hermosa, and Belmont Cragin and visiting some of our local parks. We will have food and light refreshments at the end of our ride! Don't have a bike? We got you!

I lead a new hire orientation at work, and my favorite ice breaker is 'when was the last time you rode a bicycle?'. Most of the time its 'when I was a kid, but I'd love to again'. And sometimes you find fellow fietsers!

It’s giving London a bit

BUILD fact of the day: The plan would allow the option to build small apartment buildings with one stair, which has been shown to be as safe or safer than two stairs. and 68% of Illinoisans supported that

Not yet a *deal* on federal housing bill, but a bipartisan House response to the Senate version! It includes fixes to the Build To Rent ban and avoids eliminating key bipartisan provisions like the Build Now Act We will see what the Senate response is but it's a provisional sign ROAD is back!

Chicago we are (almost) so back. The Census just dropped new population estimates through July 2025. The estimate has us at 99.6% of the July 2020 population! Upshot: the metro area has fully recovered. www.census.gov/data/tables/...

Reelect Alderman LaSpata

Tragically, drivers keep fatally striking people on foot and bikes on the SW Side. -4/5: Adrian Gomez, 18, 63rd/Kedzie -4/20: Autumn Perez, 29, 63rd/Western -5/12: Male pedestrian, 53, 68th/Pulaski. www.fox32chicago.com/news/man-53-... @swcollectivechi.bsky.social @chicritmass.bsky.social

Illinois is facing a housing crisis—and communities across the state are feeling the impact. Illinois legislators should support Governor Pritzker's BUILD proposal as one important piece of addressing our housing crisis. Read the full article: chicagotribune.com/2026…#ImpactForEquityty

It looks a bit busy, but Chicago badly needs something like this at our diagonal intersections. Maybe we will consider it in like 10 years after NYC goes first nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/13/m...

Federal housing deal seems to be reached, with fixes to allow “build to rent” housing via @aarmlovi.bsky.social punchbowl.news/hr6644_res4_...

Contrary to the narrative some are painting, our housing proposal doesn't replace local control or dictate development. It's a toolkit and vision to address the housing shortage facing families across Illinois. The mayors are right — it's time to BUILD.

Get inspired about what's possible for suburban transit-oriented development in the Chicago region by hearing from experts from DC, Dallas and NY at the next @metroplanning.bsky.social Transit Talks event on May 19 from 8:30 - 11. Register here: host.nxt.blackbaud.com/registration...

Or, Springfield :)

interesting rationale from a prospective juror in the Elon Musk Twitter stock manipulation case

Very bullish on the future of this corridor

So that explains RFKs tooth situation

Analysis: a16z is the largest known donor in the current US midterm election cycle, spending $115M+ so far on pro-crypto, pro-AI, and Republican Super PACs (New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Chicagoans, and anyone living in Cook County: you have to call your Cook County Commissioner, *now*, about this. Flock isn't just "license readers". It has been used by out of state cops to look for women who have travelled to Illinois for abortions. 🧵:

Follow these six simple steps to turn Chicago into San Francisco:

"Battery costs keep dropping to new lows!" Sadly not for Bosch eBike batteries, which just keep going up and up. 800 watt hours? Over $1,000 now.

your plan to lower the price of housing by building more of it pales in comparison to my plan, which increases the price of housing by building less of it.

These "requirements to build affordable housing" are a demand that home builders rent or sell a percentage of brand new homes at a loss. This is a tax on new housing that has worsened the housing shortage and increased rents in every city where it was implemented. Policymakers should reject them.

"The housing market, and subsequent shortage, crosses municipal boundaries and affects communities across Illinois, from large cities to small towns. That’s why we support a statewide solution to give us the framework to do the things that make sense for our individual towns."

It’s aggravating that if you want to live in a single family home, the system basically allows them everywhere. But if you want to live in anything else, it’s a thicket of zoning, and building codes that are stacked against it.

The real answer--as adopted by progressive advocates around the country, and electeds from Pritzker to Johnson to Mamdani--is that getting rid of regulations that require million-dollar mansions and investing in affordable housing are complementary policies, not at odds with each other.

Germanium costs ~$5,800-8,600/kg This mine in New York just entered into an agreement to begin the process of recovery of up to 13,000kg / year from their waste tailings. Almost pure margin expansion. www.titanminingcorp.com/news/news-re... (I own it #$TII)

Electric bus service has really taken a tumble in the past few months. At its highest (week of 8/25), ebus operation made up 13% of the revenue miles; in late March (week of 3/14), it was 1.4%.

They balanced it by agreeing to fiddle with pension contributions to the tune of $2 billion-ish, which is one of those tricks that works fine as a temporary measure but totally fucks you in the long run if you succumb to the temptation to keep doing it, and unfortunately that temptation is massive.

Easy to do this in all sorts of areas. Here's four units in a double lot, so we can double density while sacrificing pretty much nothing. Bonus points that it's added onto an old Sears kit home