About Mike Doyle

(June 5, 2025)—I'm a native New Yorker with no idea how to drive a car. I walked to Catholic elementary school in Queens, took the subway to the Bronx High School of Science, got a degree in urban planning, a dream job in public transit advocacy, and an apartment in Brownstone Brooklyn. I never thought I’d leave NYC. 

Then 9/11 happened and I moved to Chicago. The only thing harder than getting a New Yorker to move to Chicago is getting him to move back to New York. I started CHICAGO CARLESS in 2005 to make sense of my culture shock at living in another American world city that considers itself the center of the universe. 

Since then, I’ve loved and left downtown Chicago, wrestled with my Hispanic-French (and not Irish at all) heritage, became a Disney parks fanatic, became a Jew, met my partner, Ryan (above), and watched him do both of those things too, re-united with my NYC family, became part of Ryan’s Southern Illinois family…

And during the pandemic, discovered I'm autistic. Which finally explained so, so much. Now, I blog about my life through the lens of autism. There are so many amazing autistic bloggers and YouTubers to turn to for superhero tips about overcoming the anxiety-laden challenges of adult autism. 

I’m not that blogger. I have no cape. Instead, I have a life full of overwhelming stress, challenged relationships, unrealized expectations, and the feeling that I may never get it right. Like all adult autistics. Wearing all of that on my sleeve helps me make sense of it all. If you come along with me for the ride, I hope it helps you make sense of things, too.

Remember to breathe…

-Mike Doyle
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If you want to know more…

I used to be the Associate Director of the New York City Transit Riders Council. For years, I was also a nonprofit strategist and fundraiser. During Election 2006 I received public accolades from the AFL-CIO for my grassroots video interviews shot for the groundbreaking labor-rights video blog, 7 Days @ Minimum Wage. I sharpened my media skills at Chicago's nationally noted Public Narrative (formerly Community Media Workshop.) 

Since 2005, this blog has been featured numerous times by local and national media for taking a stand on civic issues, including by the great bygone bylines of Jim Romenesko, Jay Rosen, the Chicago Reader's Michael Miner, and WVON’s Cliff Kelley, and the former Chi-Town Daily News, Gapers Block, Chicagoist, and Centerstage Chicago (which called me a "born-again Chicagoan" for the depth of my love and fascination with my adopted hometown.) As well as by the still breathing Chicago Tribune (which called me 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, and Rich Miller's Capital Fax Blog.

Over the years, my writing has appeared on numerous local and national platforms, too, including the (mostly former) ChicagoNow, Kenneth Cole “Awareness” Blog, Gapers Block, Huffington Post Chicago, Time Out Chicago, and InterfaithFamily. Although my real OG credential is the turn of the millennium time I spent as the About.com Brooklyn Guide.

I was a blogger before there were bloggers.