Logging onto this app is like logging into a parallel universe, the universe where everyone reads the news

The sidewalk on this section of 55th St is so bad that the wheelchair users have decamped to the bike lane.

This is transit's biggest structural challenge: all of its costs for users are marginal, whereas with a car most of the costs are fixed (acquisition, registration, etc.). One strategy is to increase marginal costs for cars (tolls, parking, gas) and shift some transit costs to fixed (monthly pass).

"Local safe streets advocate not sure what to complain about after finding a cleared sidewalk and unplowed road on morning run."

The building housing that combination Petco/Walgreens was formerly the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, an early megachurch and pioneer in ministry by radio broadcast fromthevault.wheaton.edu/2022/06/01/j...

This is 1911 and 2025, Clark and Barry in Lakeview

It's hard to express how much more pleasant rail travel is thank air travel.

Madison... I am begging you to build out an S-bahn system.

Indianapolis... I am begging you to build out an S-Bahn system.

Miraculously, the Waymo discourse is even worse. The cars are not Mechanical Turks. Have you ever seen one on the streets? Driven next to one? I do this four times a day. You've never met a driver half as capable as a Waymo. The company sucks. Whatever. Regulate it. The technology is amazing.

(daft punk One More Time voice) Auld Lang Syne

We’re bombing Nigeria now?

Bike sized elevator with on-floor bike parking just outside your apartment door.

Lake forever, problems for now

The Christmas Song has South Side roots - cowritten by Mel Torme (55th & Ellis), the definitive version by Nat Cole (40th & Vincennes) youtu.be/c-RXKcc0sZs?...

hello milwaukee and chicago

It's true that this is wild to watch. DOJ's social account — and, likely, DOJ — is being run no differently than an online-sleuthing account. (Or, more accurately, an online grift account cannibalizing others' online-sleuthing.)

Also: majority of roads in most Blue States are in rural Red-voting areas. Cut off road money to Illinois, and watch Downstate fall to pieces.

16mm scenes shot circa 1956 at the Silvestri Art Manufacturing Co. factory in Chicago, from our Frank Koza Collection. Watch the whole reel here! collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

A YouTuber visualized a redesign of Elston & Ashland, and this looks like a dream - protected bike lane, shorter cross walks, and clearer no more chaotic intersection youtube.com/shorts/YWQyz...

The point I wish got emphasized more is that the big winners from congestion pricing are *people who urgently need to drive*. Because they are ones that travel times really matter for. I always thought that instead of congestion pricing it should be called "free streets" - free from other cars.

I have thought the AI bubble* was covering underlying weakness in the economy and said so, Pearkes has a bunch of numbers here they suggests I was wrong. And he is that kind of analyst so you should listen to him. * I believe AI and adjacent services are oversold not useless.

The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees 🧵

8am-6pm are insane hours for a restaurant. Open 10 hours but still miss prime time for both breakfast and dinner. Also “NITE SPOT”

POV you are applying for a liquor license in the City of Chicago.

The first cop we've fired in 18 months and it's for legal weed?

An unmarked, marked, or beaconed crosswalk is malpractice on a 4-lane high speed road. You have to add grade separation (bridge/tunnel), time separation (traffic signal), or narrow the road to one lane per direction and add a refuge island. Otherwise people die!

The best streets don't have sidewalks.

I am back at Broadview ICE Processing Center with a court order declaring that we have the right to conduct oversight.   I am inside with Reps Davis, Garcia, and Jackson. I will share more details shortly.

At IndyGo, we hear a lot of questions about why our buses come in bunches sometimes. Now, as in 1940, things often happen beyond our control. Since 1940 though, we’ve implemented bus lanes, Transit Signal Priority, off board fare payment, and level boarding to increase reliability.

With progressive like these, who needs conservatives?

New from me! Chicago has far too many bus stops to provide efficient service for its riders—nearly twice the national standard. I reimagined what Chicago's bus network could do to make it look like its peers. citythatworks.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

UPDATE: in point of fact there is not an innocent explanation for this.

this year, I kept a "Read" pile to go with my "To Read" piles, and I highly recommend doing this, it was very motivating

It's kind of interesting how few cities have city center check-in facilities with dedicated (connection guaranteed) transport to the airport by bus or train.

Waymo’s ongoing service shutdown in SF offers ten lessons on fragility, resilience, scalability, and public trust. 🧵

- Dedicated lanes - Signal priority - All door boarding - More doors - Active dispatching from terminals - Active headway management on long routes that bunch You could run more service on the same headcount if you did any or all of these things.

Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year

We didn’t fix the problem.

The NY TWU turned opposed congestion pricing as well. Really seems like they're laser-focused on extracting the rents they can from a static or declining system rather than participating in a positive-sum program to expand transit service to more New Yorkers

But that alone can't change that sometimes technology makes a job obsolete. We need to take care of people during the transition, but no industry can keep a job around just because it used to be necessary. See e.g. elevator operators—or that before automatic doors, needing a conductor at every door

As a business owner, it's VERY hard to break up with ULINE. I've tried. There are some things we just cannot effectively source elsewhere. One time I even decided to pay a premium to get paper bags somewhere else. They were just ULINE branded bags being re-sold at markup.

5 feet is too narrow for an urban sidewalk

we did it!! ☀️📈📈📈📈☀️

Refined sugar is a marvelous innovation that unfortunately appears to be killing us.

Average Japanese movie about fascism: "At least their hearts were in the right place." Average German movie about fascism: "In the end, aren't we all the victims here?" Average Italian movie about fascism: Look, these guys were all a bunch of perverted idiots, ok?

Need this at Critical Mass

who wore it better

This building really went extra on the floor plate construction.