My most recent bus read was the autobiography of OG Detroit activist, Grace Lee Boggs. Come to think of it, it was the bus read before last; I finished Home last week. (I’m currently experiencing some rather extreme Toni Morrison withdrawal and am still carrying it around in my bag.) I digress. Among the many […]
The current temperature in Montgomery, AL: 39 degrees. (To Bus Nerd’s down-south fam: My condolences.) It is just now occurring to me how ridiculously courageous it is to start a bus boycott in December.* Shoot, just getting to church (which is only a mile north of us) on foot last Sunday in the pouring, freezing […]
Earlier this month, the four of us spent a week in Detroit (aka, my city-in-law), combining a work conference for me with a visit home (including a celebration of his childhood church’s 75th anniversary) for Bus Nerd. Per usual, I spent much of the visit indulging my Rosa Parks obsession, which included dragging everyone (including […]
It’s been four years since I brought my sweet girl into the world—and home on the 4. Yesterday, I was in a nostalgic mood, so I reread my post from her first birthday. People, my baby has been around. In her first year of life, my child has ridden the following routes: 1, 2, 3, […]
Back in May, Bus Nerd’s mama (aka my Gail) gave him a subscription to a Detroit city magazine for his birthday. (As you might already know, the man is rather partial to his hometown.) In last month’s issue, there was a profile of an artist who makes replicas of old-school Detroit bus scrolls. On the […]
Not necessarily. From my latest for Grist: Cities have a bad reputation with parents, for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest: crime. Ask the average suburban parents why they’ve chosen to raise their family far away from the urban core, and chances are good the topic will come up early in the conversation. […]
PODCAST Remember is a podcast about building community. I talk to guests about ways we can build connected, resilient, inclusive, interdependent communities to help us tackle our nation’s — and our world’s — most pressing problems. You can find all of the Remember episodes on Soundcloud, Stitcher, and iTunes. Latest episode: Jill Mangaliman — Coming […]
• One Bus Away, the user-friendly version of MyBus, won “Best Use of Technology in the Government, Nonprofit, or Educational Sector” at the Washington Technology Institute Association awards earlier this month. A fancy tech award is nice and all, but OBA also receives all kinds of love on the streets. If I had a nickel […]
Earlier this month, I celebrated my car-free anniversary. As of March 5th (or was it the 6th?), I’m officially seven years in. It’s been an eventful seven years. I bought a home, got married, lost my beloved mother to cancer, and had two children. Navigating so many major life events without a car in a […]
On Monday, 2/8, PBS will debut a cool documentary. Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. [The film] examines how Detroit–battered by the fallout of the automotive industry, and a bleak example of the social/economic failures that occur from having a transportation system that relies so heavily on private automobiles as the primary mode of mobility–may […]