(Photo: Johnny Five from Short Circuit. My blog is now this many 1980s movie robots old.)

(Welcome to readers from Chicagoist, and thanks to editor Marcus Gilmer/@marcusist for the birthday wishes!)

In 2005, I launched Chicago Carless out of sheer jealousy and I’m not ashamed to admit it. My then-boyfriend, Devyn, was getting a lot of press over his former downtown Chicago photoblog, Looper. Back in New York I used to write About.com’s Brooklyn homepage. But I’d already been in Chicago for two years with no byline and it was driving me crazy. I had no idea what to write about, though, or whether anyone would bother reading my words.

I always say my best ideas come when I’m peeing (don’t know why, but it works and I’m not afraid to admit that, either.) So in June 2005 I walked out of my former State Street bathroom ready to launch a blog about life in downtown Chicago–a concept that even in 2005 still eluded many lifelong Chicagoans. The blog originally debuted as a Blogger site called Corncobber, in reference to my recently having moved into the Marina City corncobs in River North.

My first two posts were telling: I wrote a love letter to my new high-rise home and a balls-to-the-wall screed against clueless suburban tourists. The posts set an unapologetically urbanist tone that has guided my writing on Chicago Carless ever since. (If you look closely, the actual date of the first post is June 27, 2005, so this is actually a belated anniversary entry. Eh, such is life with ADHD…)

Three months later, I walked out of my bathroom with the words “Chicago Carless” ringing in my head, and decided to rebrand this blog and relaunch it as a self-hosted site. If you’ve been with me long enough, here’s a blast from the past that may look familiar: my original banner and tag line, from a photo Devyn took from atop the Hancock Center:

That banner wasn’t so long ago, but it seems ages to me now. Since 2005, the blog and I have covered a lot of ground together. The act of reflecting on my life in this city and writing about it on a regular basis helped me figure out why I moved to Chicago, how much I love the place, and what I think could stand improvement here. It has also helped me understand my strengths (like discovering how well I write) and weaknesses (not playing the Chicago game.) Most of all, it’s taught my friends their favorite phrase of the past five years: “This is off the record, right?”

In the end, I just love living in and writing about Chicago. This blog may never get me rich or famous, but as an ex-New Yorker I’m proud to wave the Windy City flag every chance I get. I’ll just never have a passenger window to attach it to. So thank you for reading my words. I hope you find value in them.

With that, here are some of the highlights of the past 12 13 months of Chicago Carless (including some of my copyrighted content originally written for Tribune Media Group’s ChicagoNow and reposted here on Carless, where it properly belongs):

Introducing the Carless Cast of Characters
It had to happen sometime. I’ve finally created a comprehensive list of the friends, colleagues, dates, and various miscreants I’ve featured here in the virtual pages of Chicago Carless for the past four years. Some of these folks are happy to be in this list. Others are not. I leave it to you to figure out who’s who.

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On Why Chicago Transit Authority President Richard Rodriguez Shouldn’t Be Driving to Work (Video)
Chicago Transit Authority president Richard Rodriguez canceled the free-car perq for dozens of high-ranking CTA managers. So why does the president of the nation’s second-largest public transit system continue to drive to work instead of riding his own agency’s buses and ‘L’ trains?

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Following Up on Chicago’s Independence Eve Violence
Yesterday’s post on alleged gang violence during Chicago’s Independence Eve fireworks generated a lot of local attention and concern. That post compared official reports of a relatively ‘peaceful’ July 3rd fireworks display with reports from the blog, Second City Cop, and several Twitter members indicating a sizable gang presence, multiple gang-related fights, numerous guns recovered, and a potential shooting in the vicinity of Buckingham Fountain. Here’s how you can help get to the bottom of things.

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Sex and the Sneakered Blogger
It’s a sad commentary on my social life when the highlight of the past week comes from sitting on the front patio of hoary Uptown gay bar Big Chicks on dollar burger night, doing Gweilo impressions of contact sheets from AsianPoses.com. On a Monday. There are reasons why I’m single. The fact that I actually had fun is probably one of them.

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Analyzing Helen Shiller’s Response to the Uptown Riot Controversy
Yesterday afternoon, Alderman Helen Shiller posted a lengthy response on the 46th Ward website regarding the widely viewed August 13th Uptown riot video and the firestorm of controversy surrounding it. Given the gravity of the situation for Uptown residents, it’s a response worthy of a line-by-line analysis by a communications strategist. Being one, myself (how useful is that?), that’s exactly what I’ve done. Read on to learn why I think Shiller’s response doesn’t fit the crime.

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Chicago Bloggers Discuss Online Sustainability at C-BOM
On the morning of Saturday, August 29th, more than two dozen Chicago bloggers sat down to talk about the future of the local blogosphere at the C-BOM: Chicago Blogging & Online Media meetup. The invitation-only event was an opportunity for Windy City scribes to continue a discussion about community sustainability begun earlier this summer by third parties in the nonprofit and journalism communities. On Saturday, however, the bloggers finally had their say.

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Attention Deficit Deja Vu
It’s not so much paying attention that’s the problem for us ADHDers. The real impossible dream tends to be stopping ourselves form paying attention to less important tasks so we can focus on issues that really count. Like paying bills. Or taking things out of the oven. Or…what was I talking about, again?

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Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad ‘Burbs?
One of the things I shouted loudest when I first began Chicago Carless four-and-a-half years ago no longer applies. Back in mid-2005, I still carried around my New-York-native anti-surburban bias. On recent reflection, it’s time to let the suburbs have their due. At least in Chicago.

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I’m Not a Mac: Why I’m Dumping Apple After 15 Years
I never thought I’d say it, but I am a future Windows PC user and that is that. After a 15-year relationship with all things Apple, I’ve finally had it with the Steve Jobs ‘you’ll use your computer they way we tell you to use your computer’ method of customer relations. I’ve seen the world on the other side of the digital fence…and it turns out I like it better, after all.

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“Here’s a lesson from the media…”–Bill Leff, WGN Radio
Today, the host of WGN Radio’s new ChicagoNow weekend show, Bill Leff tried to teach me a ‘lesson’ by telling me I was ‘replaceable’ a minute before air time for an interview about my ChicagoNow byline. So I gave him a lesson from the blogosphere instead. As the seconds ticked down, I smiled, got up, and left to go buy my Thanksgiving turkey.

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Firony: How I was Almost the Next Chicago High-Rise Fire Headline
When you see a flash of light on your balcony followed by your cat sniffing worriedly around your windows, it’s probably a good idea to examine your outdoor outlet before leaving for a party for six hours. Or at least to examine them when you get back. Or before you go to sleep. In hindsight, boy, I wish I’d had those ideas.

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The Point of Social Media Is the Social, Not the Media
Lido’s Caffé in Oak Park, the home of a longstanding coffee klatsch that germinated on Twitter–my coffee klatsch–succumbed to the ailing economy last week. Yet in the shop’s failure is a lesson in online community–and how to translate it to real life. The coffee shop may be gone, but the friendships forged there live on.

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“Nostalgia for samsara is bullshit…”
Yearning for the return of bygone glory days in a universe that’s ever-changing is a great way to lose forward momentum. Yet, I can’t help but ponder the first day of the last decade as I resolve myself to go a bit more gently into this one. Has it really been ten years, already, since I walked down Flatbush Avenue and wondered where all the flying cars were?

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Why New Yorkers Shouldn’t Look for Sweet Home in Chicago
A recent discussion thread in the popular, urbanist City-Data Forum asked for reasons why some people shouldn’t move to Chicago. Speaking as an ex-New Yorker who very annoyingly used to measure every city by the standard of the five boroughs, I can think of eight million people who might want to consider a reason to stay home.

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Rotund, huh?
A recent step on the bathroom scale confirmed the hateful fact that my shortness of breath on long flights of stairs has been trying to tell me for awhile already: I’m heavier than I want to be. But the men I date like that in a guy. So how does a gay bear keep his dance card full when the time has come to reject his inner heifer?

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The Economic Damage of Social Media “Internships”
An improving economy is bringing new job openings for graduating collegians. Unfortunately, opportunities in the social media industry remain monopolized by a highly disingenuous job title: social media intern. It’s a title manufactured by the nonprofit sector to squeeze critically needed expertise from college students–without paying them what they’re worth.

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The ADHDeer-in-Headlights Syndrome
Sometimes an ADHDer takes a look at the responsibilities, tasks, and to-do items on their plate and freezes like a deer in oncoming headlights. When you have a brain that’s hard-wired to help you remember past failure, the hardest thing in the world can be taking a single step forward.

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In Defense of CTA “Doomsday”
Today, at long last, comes the day Chicagoans have dreaded in one guise or another since the bad old era of the Blagojevich regime: CTA ‘Doomsday’. As Windy City bus and ‘L’ service gets curtailed across the board, you might be surprised to learn I welcome the event with open arms. Here’s why.

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The Past Imperfect of ChicagoNow
You can’t run a 21st-century blog network at the speed of a 19th-century newspaper. I wish someone would tell the Chicago Tribune. Here’s how institutional lethargy, inadequate tools, inscrutable navigation, and newsroom pushback make it hard to be a successful ChicagoNow blogger. (This post has now officially become the top-rated Windy Citizen story of all time.)

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How Android Won Me Away from iPhone (Video)
When I replaced my Apple Macbook with a Windows 7 laptop, my cell phone was sure to be the next Apple item to go.  Last week, I replaced my Apple iPhone 3G with a Google Android phone. Here’s why I did it, why I think Android is the better smartphone platform, and a look at what I did with my former 3G. Think: hammer…

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Moving on from Marina City
I am no longer a resident of Marina City. At the verge of 40, my life goals when I moved downtown five years ago just don’t match up with who I want to be in the next chapter of my life. So I’ve given up my high-rise home in order to get my feet back on the ground. In every way possible.

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Why I’m Here: My 9/11 Story Told for the StoryCorps September 11th Initiative (Audio)
On May 21st, I was blessed with the unexpected opportunity to be interviewed by the nonprofit oral-history project, StoryCorps. I visited their mobile recording studio, temporarily parked in Pilsen…and told my 9/11 story for the national September 11th Initiative. From StoryCorps, here is my recorded remembrance of the day that changed my life and, ultimately, brought me to Chicago.

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The Status Quo Versus the Local Blogger
In Chicago, how people feel privately about the status quo and what they say about it in public are rarely the same. That applies to Chicago’s blogosphere, too. In a new-media space where dissent makes people run for cover, how can local bloggers hope to make change happen?

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“The archives will remain online”: The Troubling History of Geoff Dougherty
Media entrepreneur Geoff Dougherty ran two multimedia news ventures into the ground. Now, the embattled Chicago Reader has hired him as associate publisher. Maybe they didn’t read his press. Here’s a look at the track record the Reader’s new owners may have missed.

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I have reposted all eighty-odd Chicagosphere entries from May 2009 onwards for which I hold copyright in my main Blog World channel, mostly under the Chicago Blog News and Blog & Social Media Tips categories. You can also use the Search function to find legacy Chicagosphere posts, and all have been clearly labeled at the top of each post.

Just like when they moved the headstones from the graveyard in Poltergeist but left the bodies behind, comments have not been brought along from Chicagosphere. They will, however, remain live on Chicagosphere for as long as ChicagoNow chooses to keep the blog up. I will continue to write about the Chicago blogosphere, blog news, and the social-media space here on Chicago Carless, as I’ve been doing for some time. You can read more about my experience at ChicagoNow in today’s companion post: The Past Imperfect of Chicago Now.

And on a side note, congratulations to former ChicagoNow community manager Fernando Diaz (@thefuturewasnow) on becoming the new managing editor of Hoy, the Spanish-language daily newspaper of the Chicago Tribune.

Most smart-phone owners will never admit it in public, but there’s a reason so many iPhones accidentally end up floating in toilet water of the unsavory variety. If there’s a Wifi signal to be had, chances are smart-phone owners aren’t reading a magazine in the john these days. Or on the bus, at the dentist’s office, or bored in the back of the bar, for that matter.

And there’s no sense in not marketing to a hidden market. So today I join 2008 (because I really should have rolled this out sooner) in introducing the mobile version of Chicago Carless. If you have my blog bookmarked, now browsing it on an iPhone, Android, or other web-enabled smart phone will bring up a speedy, pared down mobile version that’s a lot easier to read and explore on a smaller screen.

The mobile version of Chicago Carless includes all of the blog’s content, pages, and archives, and will let you easily comment on posts, share posts via email and Twitter, and contact me. Plus, you can toggle the mobile version on and off at any time via a switch at the bottom of the page. I’m using Brave New Code’s nifty, free, and steadily updated WPtouch Wordpress widget to accomplish all of this out of the box. A bit more control of the layout of the mobile categories page would be nice, but considering how easy this was to roll out, I’m not complaining.

If you read my site or would like to read my site on the go from a smart phone, I invite you to go check it out! And please let me know what you think.

Today I’m officially announcing the newly redesigned Chicago Carless. The new design–this blog’s third since debuting in June 2005–is an adaptation of the powerful, image-friendly magazine-style theme, Mimbo. (The change was inspired by the recent redesign of the thought-provoking personal blog, Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind.) I invite readers–especially those who read Carless via my RSS and email feeds–to come take a look around the new site and let me know in the comment thread what you think of the new set-up.

First and foremost, this third version of Chicago Carless now features six main channels to help individual readers better delve into the content in which they’re most interested. The new homepage features these channels in the navigation bar (with nifty dropdowns), and shows recent posts in each channel in the left sidebar. All topic categories are now grouped within these new channels, which include:

• ADHD Life: A home for my well-received posts about my life experience with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder;
• Chicago Way: Almost everything I write that has to do with living in Chicago and Chicago politics, history, architecture, and related lore;
• CTA Blues: All content related to CTA service–or lack thereof–as well as Metra, Pace, Amtrak, driving, and walking around the Windy City;
• Daybook: A home for my memoir posts–find love, sex, dating, spirit, my backstory, and the Tuesday night coffee gang in this channel;
• Media Social: My observations about the blogosphere, social media, and traditional media, as well as a home for all cross-posts and promos from current and previous bylines that I’ve written for other websites; and
• Technology: Including my “I’m Not a Mac” series–the chronicle of my ongoing migration away from the Apple Mac computing platform–as well as other tech-related posts.

In addition, the homepage is much shorter and more manageable now, featuring attractive thumbnails and brief summaries for new and recent posts instead of a long scroll of entire entries. The Recent Comments widget in the right sidebar has also been improved, now grouping comments according to the post to which they belong. And the Search and Subscribe functions have been simplified and grouped together atop the right sidebar (mouse over the buttons to see what each subscription option is for.)

Commenting now requires registration on the site and the submission of a verifiable email address and here I humbly ask the patience of my readers. This is an automated process that readers only have to do one time. I choose to enable registrations after much forethought. The new requirement will allow me to better reach out to commenters and should help generate a stronger sense of community here on Carless. Equally important, it will help guard against spam and anonymous verbal attacks on Yours Truly, other commenters, and public officials about whom I write. I expect the readers who will find registration most onerous will be such anonymous trollers who fear putting their email address where there mouths are. I‘m going to put this one back on hold for now, but I’d love to hear reader comments about the idea.

[Update, 2/13/10: Please see the comment thread, oddly enough, for the current status of commenting.]

Another, more obvious addition to the site (you can tell me whether they’re an improvement or not) are ad widgets. After nearly five years of keeping Chicago Carless non-commercial, I think it’s fair to finally explore revenue options for the more than 500 posts that I’ve written here.

You’ll notice an ad box in the right sidebar and another one atop the comment thread of each post. At the moment, I’m using Chitika search-based ads in the sidebar, alternating with an Amazon affiliate ad for readers who arrive on the site through bookmarks instead of search, and another Amazon affiliate ad in posts. This will likely change as I find my footing with blog ads.

And for those who constantly ask me, I’ve finally written an answer as best as I can give one to explain Why I Write Chicago Carless.

Finally, a technical note. Adopting the Mimbo theme has necessitated that I re-edit each and every post on Chicago Carless to ensure that thumbnails and summaries work the “Mimbo” way. So far, I’ve fixed posts dating back to September 2008. Earlier posts will unfortunately have a broken design container at the very top of the page. Scroll down–the post in its entirety is there below. I’m trying to edit 30 to 50 posts a day and will report on my progress in the comment thread. I hope to all archived posts “fixed” by the end of the month.

So…what do you think?

Chicago Carless is currently under renovation. I apologize in advance for any wonky things that happen when you visit the site in the meanwhile. I should have all the kinks worked out of the new template by week’s end soon. (And isn’t it a nifty one?) You can find progress updates in the comment thread of this post. Thanks for your patience!