(May 25, 2010)–A progressive blogger, writer, and communications strategist once christened a “born-again Chicagoan” by Centerstage Chicago, Mike always says the only New Yorkers who don’t love Chicago are the ones who haven’t been here. A native Gothamite, Mike fell hard for the shores of Lake Michigan in January 2003 and has made his home in the undisputed cultural capital of the middle of America ever since, including five years in the architecturally historic yet socially infamous Marina City. He spends his time writing about life in Chicago and trying to figure out his place in it.

Since founding CHICAGO CARLESS in 2005, Mike and his blog have waded loudly into city controversies regarding Chicago’s public realm, helping to win the removal of ill-conceived homeland security cameras installed atop Millennium Park’s Crown Fountain and the redrafting of erroneous wayfinding signage throughout Macy’s State Street, widening the debate on neighborhood noise in downtown Chicago and the Chicago Children’s Museum’s planned move to Grant Park, giving Chicagoans an insider’s perspective on Marina City’s Gary Kimmel scandal, and motivating the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to monitor the Chicago Transit Authority’s 2008 holiday crackdown on homeless riders. In March 2009, Mike was the featured guest on the nationally acclaimed LGBT news-and-features podcast, Feast of Fools for his coverage of alleged price-gouging by Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee.

From May 2009 through February 2010, Mike also scribed Chicagosphere, the blog-roundup column of the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow group-blogging project (those posts now live on Chicago Carless, here.) His Chicago Carless examination of substandard conditions for rank-and-file bloggers at ChicagoNow during his tenure there (“The Past Imperfect of ChicagoNow“)  remains the most-discussed topic ever on Chicago’s homegrown headline news site, Windy Citizen. Mike has also served as a contributing blogger to Huffington Post Chicago, the regional news-and-features blog, Gapers Block, and until its premature demise in March 2010, the Kenneth Cole Awearness Blog.

Mike honed his media chops at Chicago’s grassroots Community Media Workshop and is a regular contributor to the Workshop’s annual Chicagoland media guide, Getting On the Air, Online & into Print. He has been featured numerous times in local and national media for his blogging on civic and social-justice issues including Poynter’s Romenesko, Jay Rosen, the Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner, the Chicago Tribune (which called him a “Newsmaker of the Week” in September 2006), the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, Time Out Chicago, the Detroit News, NBC 5 Chicago, Chicago Public Radio, WBBM Newsradio, the WVON Cliff Kelley Show, the Chi-Town Daily News, Centerstage Chicago, Gapers Block, Chicagoist, and Rich Miller’s Capital Fax Blog.

Mike is also a committed progressive online organizer who has done messaging, strategy work, blogging, and online outreach for community groups, nonprofits, and labor unions in Chicago and at the national level. During Election 2006, Mike received public accolades from the AFL-CIO and Roseanne Barr for his grassroots video interviews shot for the groundbreaking video blog, 7 Days @ Minimum Wage. The project, conceived by Washington, DC-based progressive PR firm Massey Media–with Mike’s “Jessica” interview as its centerpiece (part one, part two)–helped win minimum wage increases in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.

Before coming to Chicago, Mike spent four years on the central staff of the New York City Transit Riders Council, two of them as associate director. He is a trainer urban planner and a lifelong, committed transit rider. Mike fully intends to go to his grave like Studs Terkel before him, a happily carpet-bagging ex-New Yorker in Chicago with no idea how to drive a car. In pursuit of his goal, Mike has refused to learn to drive for 39 years.

And counting.

Email me: mikedoyleblogger (at) gmail (dot) com