The Thursday Dispatch - July 17, 2025

I just dropped my car off for repairs. It needs an alignment, two new tires as the front ones are worn, and maybe a little more. There’s also an issue with my front driver’s side tire where it deflates at a faster rate than the other three. This would be the same tire that had a blowout a few years ago.

I hate owning a car. I hate being in a car-dependent city where if I want to go somewhere, the most convenient way there is by car. I hate paying for maintenance. I hate dealing with other drivers. I’d be much happier being somewhere where I could get rid of my car without losing connection to people and the things I need to live.

Omaha is your textbook sprawling American city. The running joke here is “everything is a drive”. But there’s a lot of fact in that. Omaha’s population is roughly the same as Amsterdam, Netherlands, yet Omaha has six times the landmass. Mass transit is absolute shit here and the biking infrastructure also sucks. I rarely see dedicated bike lanes here.

I’ve long been jealous of some European infrastructure, especially in places like the Netherlands, or in cities like Vienna and Copenhagen. We’re talking places where bikes outnumber cars, mass transit is everywhere and efficient, and most places are fully walkable.

But here’s the thing. These places do exist in America as well. They’re never as nice and robust as their European counterparts, but they do exist. I just watched a piece on improvements on Valencia Street, which runs through the Mission District in San Francisco. There’s protected bike lanes here and Valencia is one of the longest stretches of independent businesses anywhere. It’s a great place to be.

Seattle has been making huge strides as well. Their light rail line is rapidly expanding with a goal to pretty much cover everywhere by 2032. They also made huge improvements to on-street bike infrastructure, turning Seattle into a city where you can feasibly not own a car. And trust me, with how bad traffic is there, it’s good to have alternatives.

So, if your city isn’t doing these things, it’s not because it can’t do them. It’s because it doesn’t want to. Copenhagen just got rated as the most livable city on Earth, in large part due to its city infrastructure, but also its access to affordable quality healthcare. The benefits of offering these things are self-evident. And yet, I live in Omaha, where riding my bike means I have to strategize where to ride because there’s no bike infrastructure outside of rail trails, and many people own large pickup trucks and drive them around like they’re on the fucking Autobahn.

Maybe someday, I’ll live somewhere where I can ditch my car and live peacefully. But, for now, I’ll be here trying to make the best of it.

Weekly Photo

I did the Heartland Pride Parade with my coworkers this past Saturday. It meant a lot to be out there with them this year, both as an ally, but also as someone who needs the support myself.

Weekly Links

Sonics’ possible return takes slight step forward as NBA mulls expansion - As someone who’s be awaiting the return of the SuperSonics to Seattle for 17 years, what’s more time at this point? Get it done and do it the right way.

I built an e-bike with unlimited range and tried to ride 450 miles on it… - Part two of Becca Farsace’s adventure of building a solar powered e-bike setup and biking across New York State. Well done!

Songs in the Chaos

This is my weekly list of songs that either caught my attention or came to mind this past week. I post these throughout the week on a site called Crucial Tracks, where they’re also added to a playlist on Apple Music. Feel free to follow me on either space.