iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 2h

Doing all my busfanning and railfanning in one place today.

A Sound Transit light rail vehicle on a convention showroom floor.

A Gillig bus with Honolulu’s The Bus livery.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 5h

Drive? Run? Nah, imma bike.

Poster by the Pint Peddler for the Midnight Marathon Ride 2026.

October 10th, 11:59pm, Art Institute Steps.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 5h

Good thing Racine just got renovated, Pink Liners are going to be spending a lot of quality time there this month. www.transitchicago.com/cdot-and-cta...

A map of alternatives routes around the closed Lake Street Bridge, with Pink transferring to Blue at Racine, and Green-Harlem shuttling at Clinton to a looping Green.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Who says Illinois doesn't build transit to green space?

A grade-separated light rail line headed past some farms with tree-lined areas along their edges, and a parallel bike trail that is not grade-separated.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This sedan is carrying more lumber than most trucks ever will.

A small silver sedan with four 2x4s lain from the passenger windshield to the backseat headrest.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It's the 25th anniversary of the musical Urinetown.

People on stage signing a heroic song, as banners lifted behind them read:
"Do you hear the people pee?"
"Power to the PEEple"
"Flush the police"

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Some of these are extant corridors from when the streetcars used to run on the minor streets of Leavitt and 21st, in addition to the standard arterials of 18th, Cermak, Ashland, Damen, Western, and Blue Island.

A Chicago Surface Lines Map from 1938, focusing on the same area in Heart of Chicago, with red lines indicating street car routes.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Heart of Chicago has a healthy amount of B3-2 zoning on side streets, along with some C1-2. The arterials are still the main commercial strips, but lots of block-long pockets on minor streets have a wide variety of commercial uses.

A zoning map of Heart of Chicago on the Lower West Side.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Bypasses often give self-determinism to municipalities in Iowa, where the state's DOT severely curtails the ability to experiment on state roads with different economic strategies like street fairs and sidewalk cafes.

Winterset, Iowa, home to the bridges of Madison County, with a highway bypass around it's west and north ends.

Pella, Iowa, a historically dutch town that covered itself in fake-dutch facades, with a highway swinging widely south and west of the town proper.

Perry, Iowa, with a highway along the southern section of the town.

Fort Madison, Iowa, where the highway on the far eastern edge of town has a single intersection into town after the river bridge, and a highway in the far west doesn't come near the town.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Bypasses aren't needed to suck commercial activity out of downtown. Keokuk, IA can't have a bypass because there's a difficult-to-relocate bridge at one end. The big-lot commercial still clusters at the municipal edge.

A google map view of Keokuk, Iowa, with a highway from northwest near a Walmart Supercenter through the town's commercial corridor to a bridge in the southeast over the Mississippi River.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The pedestrian refuge island on Ashland Avenue at the intersection where Marcela Herrera died in a hit-and-run is coming along nicely.

A pedestrian refuge island on Ashland Avenue at Cullerton, under construction with cones surrounding it.

A new concrete pedestrian bump-out at the southeast corner of Ashland and Cullerton

The pedestrian island construction, seen through a traffic sign with graffiti writing “SMAN” on it.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s a little bumpy for the needle, but you can’t beat the convenience.

A CTA bus with the overhead light sign displaying “Flu Shot Here”

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Takin’ it to the streets at Meet Me On Milwaukee

People play a yard chess set in the middle of Milwaukee Avenue

People play mini golf on a raised bed in the middle of Milwaukee Avenue

People protest abortion, among other groups of pedestrians on Milwaukee Avenue

People on bikes ride past a line for Terrible Portraits.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Even worse, it’s a country music festival.

CLARK STREET LIVE
SEPTEMBER 26 & 27
On Clark
Addison to Newport
Two stages of live music
Country Rock Pop
clarkstreetlive.com

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

And just three blocks away, the ghost bike of Lisa Schalk remains at Lorel and Archer.

A white-painted bike locked to a stop sign at Lorel and Archer Avenue.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The family of Damian Gomez was also present today. Gomez, Marquez, and Herrera were all the victims of hit-and-runs on the southwest side, and none of their cases have seen charges filed.

A sign held above a crowd in front of a Wendy’s reads:
“We want justice for Damian Gomez”, featuring a picture of him and a bike rider with angelic wings

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Marquez’s daughter said, “I want everyone to know there was nothing he could have done to prevent this.” A driver blew through a red light, hit another car, and killed a man, but his family has to remind the world that he is the victim of a hit-and-run.

Marquez’s daughter speaks in front of family and onlookers next to a white-painted bike with a small Mexican flag attached.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Probably the most impactful moment of today was when a person on an e-bike pulled up at the intersection where Marquez’s ghost bike was being installed, just as @bikelaneuprising.bsky.social explained the circumstances of why we were gathered here today.

A man on an e-bike in a red jacket, waiting at the traffic light on Archer Avenue next to a crowd of people. In the middle of the crowd, a white bike adorned with flowers, and a speaker with a microphone facing the crowd.

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SideStreets @sidestreets.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Today’s ghost bike memorial for Juan Martin Marquez, at Archer and Laramie. The ghost bike is across the street from the memorial for Maria Ochoa and Ald. Tabares’s office.

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