I choo choo choose you!

send this to ur valentine 💘

I’ve been meaning for a while to talk about this... I’m proud that with my team at work that we’ve been working to simplify signage for accessibility and internationalization, including using fewer, simpler terms, applying a predictable information hierarchy and using pictograms where possible.

Has anyone else ever heard someone say that you shouldn't use your turn signal so if someone's following you they won't know your next move? Aside from that logic, what the hell is up with folks who don't do it for lane changes? So someone doesn't speed up to not let them in?

I'm humbled that LeVar Burton, who I knew from the orig Reading Rainbow, was what made me interested in Star Trek TNG, and then became my idol as a kid—a kind, sensitive person who could solve anything with a brilliant, technical mind. It's so cool my gen got to grow up with a Black genius hero.

It me, again! So many features to talk about with what we're doing at work. So proud to be able to move Chicago forward as someone who grew up on this system, bringing into reality things I wish I had as a kid and bringing some of the best ideas from around the world to make Chicago better.

❤️

It me! (And coincidentally we did this in the morning before I went to the office and flew to London that night to see friends and did, in fact, catch up with my counterpart and swap stories! It's always great to catch up with peers and share ideas.)

May she rest in peace in the lea of a picturesque ridge, surrounded by only the finest of fruit wines... and may we never forget her name.

'This is exactly what tyranny looks like, by the way. Not jackboots marching in formation, but armed agents roaming neighborhoods, stopping people, killing civilians, and then daring the public to question it. Tyranny is execution followed by a press release.'

Good afternoon from downtown Chicago, where despite heavy snowfall, thousands have gathered for an anti-ICE/CBP demonstration in solidarity with the Twin Cities. More are still streaming in. Lt. Illinois Gov. Juliana Stratton just addressed the crowd, and called for ICE to be abolished.

Güten Abend, Chicago

What are your top three cities you've been to, in no particular order? I'll go first: Chicago London New York (Sorry, LA, I love you, too, but you're hard to span and the dining is maybe the most expensive of what would be my top four.)

Good morning Chicago.

Güten Morgen

In not-terrible news today I've been sort of redecorating my flat and made this derivative mid-century modern art as I lean into that as a style. Sure, I pay for a personal Adobe license, but the print and frame probably cost me $20.

New wayfinding signage to Washington/Wabash while State/Lake is under construction.

Sometimes if you wave at just the right time, they'll toot-toot at you!

What is this fucking weather? I did not approve this.

Can someone make a map of which countries tend to put the loo/toilet roll on the rod correctly and which ones are full of W.C. war criminals?

Why is it that every time I open this app it destroys my mood? Here is a picture of my grandma's mid-century modern china in a hutch I just bought from Wayfair so it's not in storage anymore that makes me happy.

I had my unread work emails down to 18 this morning in London I am now back in Chicago and there are now 143 unreads. HOW? How does anyone get literally anything done when email is a thing that exists? I shall be requiring all messages be sent by interoffice mail those yellow envelopes.

Just gonna readily admit I sometimes take inspiration in my professoonal art from London in the most cheeky ways.

A bit of Berlin station name signs (in their many tile-surrounded typefaces).

As per tradition, London, I have a prawn and mayo sandwich and cloudy apple juice for the Lizzy Line ride in and have dressed properly for the occasion of my arrival in you.

Am I joyscrolling? I think I am.

Transit is freedom. Transit makes Chicago great. It is for everyone and it is beautiful. 32 years ago today I boarded at this spot on the Pulaski Orange Line platform with my legally blind mom to help her learn her new, faster way to work on its first weekday. 'L'ove at first ride.

Got a gorgeous night shot of a train going overhead at Schiller (which used to have a stop here!) on the Brown Line with, though no longer the outside tracks in use, the four-track infrastructure they originally built from Wilson to Chicago before heading with two tracks into the Loop 'L' in 1900.

I love when one of my favorite people on the Internet—like patron saint level—surprise me by wearing a T-shirt with the logo I'm responsible for making sure we use right! @techconnectify.bsky.social

When you're lucky enough, you find yourself sitting on a pier after a warm and lovely night with family, in silence except the water lapping on the shore, reflecting on your life, your experiences and knowing all those things make you you—a beautiful little spark in this unimaginably large universe.

Goodbye Chicago, for a couple days! Going to spend a weekend with family up in crunchy Door County as we do every year. Such a pretty day here, tho.

I didn't design this but am proud to have sorta art-directed & that we have these as an option for a farecard, adding to our library of inclusiveness, putting Black and brown and trans folks first as part of acknowledging everyone. Thanks to Steve Wallach and our graphics team for bringing it home!

This is the playbook, folks. If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away. Do not be quiet in this moment.

Long but hopefully fulfilling transit nerd thread incoming: I want to talk about that I’m super proud of, and which is a culmination of things we’ve done in the past as well as things I’ve seen elsewhere that I wanted to bring home to Chicago: New digital at RPM stations that we hope to expand!

Delete your Twitter account. Right now. Seriously. Right now.

Tell me you're really from a City of Chicago family without telling me you're from a City of Chicago family.

Big shout out to my friends Tony, Quinn, Erik and Steve at @chicagocta.bsky.social for the tour around the office and some great conversations about the power of transit to bring people together. @tonycoppoletta.com @eriktakestransit.bsky.social

If we waited until interracial marriage was popular to protect it, it would’ve been illegal until 2004.

"but we can't support trans rights, it's unpopular!" just a reminder that US approval for marriage between black and white people at the start of the civil rights movement was 4%, reaching a whopping 20% by the end of the movement it's 95% now you don't wait for popularity for a rights movement

I thought maybe this was a good time to post about something nice that I'm proud of. A new thing we've started doing at work is "bagging" long-term, out-of-service (but not to be permanently removed) bus stop signs rather than just taking them down.

I reflect upon this lake from Saugatuk and was reminded of the below series of posts. Perhaps nothing is truly forever, and perhaps neither are our problems.

JB Pritzker uses the word "invasion" to describe what Trump has planned for my city, Chicago. And that's exactly what it would be – an autocratic government trying to crush our dissent because we oppose his corruption, cruelty and incompetence. It's what dictators do.

I am upset that people are basically coronating Newsom as the opposition inheritor when we've got JB Pritizker out here in Illinois having said, since the election, that, inclusive of trans people, "a happy warrior is still a warrior, and if you come for my people you will have to come through me."

Well, I've been trying for hours to reach someone who can even tell me if they can help me or not at Verizon (VZW). Like, just tell me if I'm wasting my time on hold. I am travelling and I have no service on my new Google Pixel and it just went out as if I had no functioning sim around 3:30 EDT.

This is pretty cool for checking if where you live in Chicago has lead service lines for your water. If you do, this can help you be informed and perhaps cause to get your water tested to see if it's getting into your taps.

To Donald Trump and his administration: If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me — not time or political circumstance — from making sure you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.

I think this is absolutely true. I live in a 2-bed/bath high rise in Uptown that is historically affordable because we have tons of apts. That's changing now that Uptown is super hip but I am still fortunate enough to be able to afford this in a decent building in a diverse community.

Wealthy people will always have the nicest housing available. If you fail to build new housing, you are forcing poor people to compete with wealthier people for that existing stock. That is not working out for folks.

Chicago just... sparkles. ✨

I can't even imagine being interviewed by her. She's so amazing. One morning, maybe 20-25 years ago, my alarm clock went off to WBEZ (Chicago NPR) and I heard "welcome back to Fresh Air, with my guest Graaandmaster Flash" with a delivery only she could give and that's the day I became a member.