Exactly. Politics in the US is no longer a debate about which policies to adopt within a liberal framework of accepted rules. It's now a blood sport and one side playing it like it's still cricket won't work

Pritzker: What's at stake here is free speech. It's our constitution and our way of life. Do we really want the president intimidating people, organizations to get others fired? People ought to be standing up and speaking out.

<infinite scream>

We committed war crimes. Ha ha. Aren’t we so funny. Ha ha.

Turns out you can’t rely on the benevolence of billionaires to keep your free society alive, I guess

Just since yesterday, the President has engaged in more extrajudicial killings, promised to use the federal government's power to repress the political opposition, threatened to prosecute a reporter for asking him a question, and filed a baseless lawsuit to try to intimidate a leading news outlet.

Boston's fed grant to improve safety at key intersections has been cancelled by USDOT because, according to the agency: "DOT's priorities presently include... preserving or increasing roadway capacity for motor vehicles... [the] project includes several elements that impede vehicle capacity & speed"

This should be physically impossible. A street with as much pedestrian and transit activity as this *cannot* be designed in a way that allows a speed that can lead to this horrific mess.

micro mobility praxis

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

Blueskyism is when I post about walking/biking and don't get comments telling me to get out of the street and threatening to make me a meat crayon with their truck.

stand for the flag / kneel for the cross

A real thing posted by the President this morning. What the fuck is wrong with this man?

ACTUALLY what is driving the surge is DRIVERS SPEEDING.

More of this please!

I want to highlight that this is a centre-right journalist writing in the most mainstream newspaper in Canada asking: “Donald Trump is on the brink of becoming a dictator. Can he be stopped?”

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

I've been saying this since January but just describing the news accurately makes you sound hysterical to people who aren't following things that closely

Utterly depraved.

this point—that this era is not forever and accountability can come in many forms—has for some reason proved bizarrely elusive for democrats

What a policy failure

You don't get what you don't pay for. Put it on a gd bumper sticker.

We refuse your "help," Donald

This is what US DOT Secretary Duffy wants to happen everywhere. Not because removing street murals saves lives [in fact, evidence suggests they improve street safety], but because they happen to celebrate the existence of queer people. Remove all the street murals you want, we’ll still be here.

the message from the white house is that you live in a city run by people the president doesn't like, you will be occupied like you are an enemy of the state.

hundreds of national guard troops stationed around union station, the white house and the capital to do...what exactly? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/u...

Still the best seal of any local government agency in Chicagoland

Today I saw soldiers on the National Mall the president sent there to intimidate us But I also saw what our city has built for & by us. I took our speedy Metro, rode our public bikes on our trail network, swam in a public pool We can build a society on the basis of fear or a society for the public

what

What a great time to leave all the staff in uncertainty on whether they’ll be laid off in January. (Fund transit! It’s important!)

Great news! A 25 operator increase in July puts CTA Rail right at the cusp of 2019 staffing levels for the first time since Covid.

Hilarious.

Just utterly out of words to describe what we’re seeing. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Let's repeat the rules about transit investment: —Prioritize projects that will serve many people (you can do this by serving high densities of residents & jobs). —Serve those lines with frequent trains & buses. If you're not planning service every 30 min *at worst*, why are you building the line?

Friday afternoon, Springfield dealt a body blow to Chicago's finances. Over at A City That Works, Conor and I break down the implications: citythatworks.substack.com/p/the-fallou...

I refuse to give up the em dash—the perfect way to express thoughts in sequence!

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

Amazing work

A little like when Trump wanted to just stop testing for Covid because there was too much Covid and so he wanted to just suppress the numbers.

Congratulations to Acting BLS Commissioner Marco Rubio. (Not sure whether I’m joking.)

Breaking News: President Trump moved to fire the official in charge of jobs data, claiming, without evidence, that labor numbers were being “manipulated.”

Suffice it to say, it’s going to be tough to do research if the federal government starts making up data…

Chicago adopted its biggest parking reform yet @parkingreform.org @abundanthousingil.bsky.social

GOP reconciliation law killed funds for these reconnecting communities projects: —Portland I-5 cap —Boston I-90 parks/street grid —Philly Chinatown/Vine St. cap —Atlanta I-75/85 cap —Jacksonville Emerald trail —NYC Queensway trail —Austin I-35 cap —Dallas highway caps —Knoxville greenways

If you’re a transit agency or a state DOT with any interest in running a high-throughput commuter or intercity city in the next 50 years… Pick out your fave underused ROWS and get ready. This is a huge opportunity to get trackage and structural clearance concessions you’ll need for it.

this is all to say I have hedged about the storms that were in the forecast and which you were probably hoping were predictable Forgive me they are stochastic so difficult to foresee

Better things are possible.

Check out how quickly and explosively that storm formed over northeast Illinois and Chicago. The time span from the first frame to the final frame is about 90 minutes #Chicago #WXsky