Art by Spacey_Nood

Urbanism

This special interest is the most succint answer to the question: “How did you end up in Chicago, anyways?” After spending my whole life in various suburbs and disappointing cities, the appeal of a city built for me to accessibly *experience* it was irresistable.

A No-Brainer

Urbanism is one of those ideologies that feels much harder to explain than to demonstrate. If you don’t live in a city with some level of urbanism baked into it, it’s hard to understand why people would be passionate about Transit, Bike Lanes, Housing, and Street Design.
It is difficult to describe the pleasant comfort of being able to walk to the grocery store, passing local businesses and community spaces along the way. Having amenities within reach without needing to drive a car. It reduces friction and makes connecting to your physical space easier.

Activism

Urbanist activism is straightforward and generally very focused. Urban development is inherently political, involving city and state bureacracies and systems. Each of which has some level of public involvement. The key is knowing what and when things are happening, and then simply showing up!
I’ve even “showed up” by just sending my Alderman (city councilor) an email in support of a new building proposal in my area.

The activism can be pretty fun though. My friends and I recently went to a party celebrating the departure of a Terrible transit agency head at a barcade. Drew some fursona art on the mini-shuffleboard they had there :3

Biking

Now living in Chicago, I’m an avid biker. But I think like many Americans, I didn’t really have much of an opportunity earlier in life due to the suburbs being what they are.
After childhood bike rides I never touched a bike until my family won one in a contest at our gym and I took it to college with me.

Biking on campus ruled.

Bike parking on campus sucked. (It got stolen)

Bikes

Currently I’ve got two bikes: My 3-speed Fyxation Pixel 3 and my Vvolt Centauri 2 E-Bike. I started with the Pixel 3, and then two years later got the E-Bike.

Pixel 3

I love this bike. I spent a good amount of time with a local friend, checking out a cool local bike shop and getting this bike mailed to and built there! Immediately put on a chain guard, rack, and better saddle.

This thing is so zippy and nice. It’s my first bike since college, and not a lot has changed but one big thing are the availability of internal gear hubs. I have the Shimano Nexus 3-speed, and unlike a traditional derailleur, I can change gears without pedaling.
Riding 3rd gear up to a stop sign, stopping, and switching to 1st gear before starting up again. It’s so convenient! Very worth the trade of not having many more gears.

Springing for a 3-speed in Chicago was a pretty dang easy choice too. The topography here pretty comfortably fits within just those 3 gears.

Centauri 2

I imagine that most folks buy e-bikes because they have a specific need. Or perhaps they live in a hilly city that makes biking tricky…
Amidst my many-months of research for my e-bike I think I struggled to try and justify it but I ultimately concluded that I just *wanted* it. It’s a cool toy and useful vehicle that I just wanted for “sometimes!”

Bike Communities/Activism

This is an area I’m still very new to, but want to get more involved with. In 2023 I did a few bike jams¹ but haven’t had the chance lately…The whole appeal of Urbanism and Biking to me is *community*, and bike jams are a super easy way to get into that.

As of 2025, a huge topic of urbanist discussion in Chicago is what’s going on with DuSable LakeShore Drive–a nasty huge North-South highway running right along Lake Michigan. The highway is due for repaving, so this is an opportunity to reshape it into something more than just 8 lanes of car traffic (e.g. bike lanes, a train/tram, burying it underground…)
Unfortunately the state DoT has been pretty resistant to that. One bike jam I went to recently was a rally up at a Truman College to support a more transit + pedestrian-forward redesign. Very cool! Something I need to do much more with :3 Truman College Rally for Lake Shore Drive Redesign | August 8, 2024