Writing about cities
My friend and her son cross the lagoon on their bike in Humboldt Park, Chicago.
Other views of the park:
“Angry geese in Humboldt Park. They were really hissing.” Photo by Joshua Koonce.
“A lovely gravel path by a lagoon in Humboldt Park.” Photo by Eric Rogers.
My calendar, I guess.
And tried to go kayaking yesterday with Erehwon staff, but arrived too late.
From the “Hang In There” gallery opening at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport. I don’t know what this is about.
I created a website a couple months ago where my intention is to create a single place where people can get good advice on installing bike parking wherever it’s needed. The advice includes what kind of bike rack to choose and where to put it.
Visit Simple Bike Parking – Helping make bike parking a simple affair.
Distance is the key to effective and usable bike parking. Notice the bike racks in the foreground – no one’s using them after the one’s next to the train station entrance were installed (by me, actually).
The website’s not even closer to being finished. Steven Can Plan, now GRID, and my part-time work doing bike parking consulting with Active Transportation Alliance for Cook County schools has taken priority. It’s also meant as a “calling card” for people to hire me to consult them on their bike parking needs.
The Chicago Transit Authority released the Train Tracker API to developers with little fanfare. But it’s some high-quality stuff. At least this guy thinks the documentation is excellent*:
“Dear CTA: please give whoever wrote the Train Tracker API docs a medal, or a pony, or something. Thanks.” Original tweet by cieslak.
I think they got the message. You can bet they asked for the pony.
*I haven’t taken a look at the Train Tracker API documentation, but I did review the Trademark/Branding Guidelines for developers. It’s very clear how you should and shouldn’t use the CTA name and service marks and graphics. I also had a sneak preview in December 2010 of the Train Tracker website, to give user feedback. I was shocked and impressed to find that it worked on my Samsung Slash, a remarkably dumb phone that happens to be able to run Opera Mini (see photo below). The API wasn’t available until June 2011.
John Greenfield and I have teamed up to bring you closer to the sustainable transportation issues and culture that matters to Chicagoans and Illinoisans.
We’ll both continue writing for our respective blogs when it doesn’t fit the theme of Grid.