Over the last few years, STB grown into a pretty significant site, and an essential source for people interested in transit in the Puget Sound region. Now that the site’s credibility is well established, it’s time to come clean.
The actual author of this site is me, Joey DiCarlo, pictured at right. I’m a Greenwood resident and a student at Ingraham High School. The STB bylines you’ve seen here for years have been carefully constructed identities.
And what a lot of effort it’s been! Maintaining several different email addresses, keeping track of which “writers” cover which issues, trying to develop a unique style for each… probably the hardest part was getting some of my father’s friends and coworkers to play the roles of the STB staff for the meetups and provide photos for the About Us page.
In retrospect, I don’t think all my characters were that successful. I ran out of stuff for Andrew to write and had to “retire” him. John and Martin sort of sounded alike. Ben was sometimes a bit over the top, and I never found much occasion to use Oran or Eric’s voice.
Why go through all that trouble? It’s hard to get taken seriously when you’re a 15-year old high school student blogging out of your parents’ basement. And being known as the author of a serious blog can complicate the social life of a teenager. But now, it’s time to end the facade. I think I’ve proven my credentials with my body of work on this site; I hope you’ll stay with us me as I continue to advocate for improved public transit in Seattle.
Well, I have to confess, I am your biggest fan
not sure which is funnier…the post, or “Kemper’s” reply!
Does anyone know what day it is?
Well played, Joey. Your parents apparently strongly support your activities with massive amounts of photo equipment. :)
I agree it is very hard to be passionate about something when you are in High School. I too have a fair passion for buildings and trains, and I’ve been very open about it and very mocked for it. Major props to you for maintaining this blog, it is the only way I find out about half of what is going on to feed my own passion.
Perhaps I am the only one to notice or wonder why this came out on April 1st?
April Fools perhaps?
LMAO
perhaps.
No, no, I’m on the level.
-Joey
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow if this is an April Fool joke. However, for the sake of this comment, I’m going to assume it’s not. Here’s why:
I’ve been a transit geek since age 5. I was always fascinated by bus routes and schedules. Unfortunately, I didn’t collect them in an organised fashion until about age 12, and then I threw away my whole collection at age 14 out of anger. I started collecting again soon after, though; and much of my collection is now at my childhood home that my sister inherited. Some of my views on transit are unusual; I feel that public ownership of transit systems has benefitted the suburbs at the expense of inner cities (though that seems to be changing with computerised analysis of ridership patterns).
When I was 15 years old, there was no Internet (at least for public use), and personal computers were a $3,000 business tool, not something the majority of people had for personal use. My information about out-of-town systems (I grew up in Saint Paul, MN) came from the community pages of out-of-town phone books at the public library and from travel guides. (I hate that libraries have quit stocking out-of-town directories on the grounds that you can look up numbers on the Internet. I’m about the only person most librarians have heard of that’s primarily interested in the Community Pages.) I even wrote letters to out-of-town transit systems asking for schedules, often claiming I was moving to their city.
If modern-day technology existed in 1981, I probably would have done a transit blog too. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the support of my parents like you apparently have of yours. I probably would be working in the industry as a planner now if I did, but that’s neither here nor there.
So I believe Joey’s possbily on the level here. In a way I hope he is. And if he is, I hope he has good luck finding a career in the transit industry as a planner. The transit industry could use someone like him….
To continue the “who are we and how did we get into transit and STB” thread…
I started riding Metro in junior high, one day when my parents couldn’t pick me up from school. I lived on one side of Bellevue and my school was on the other end. A year or two later I rode into Seattle for the first time on my own… and loved the 30-minute schedules, late hours, and the trolley buses. When I turned 18 I moved to Seattle and never looked back. I rode pretty much all the routes (except the peak-only ones) to see where they went, and collected all the bus schedules. But I don’t do that anymore because I have no desire to see the areas in the farthest reaches of the county, where it’s just another residential subdivision with infrequent buses. The most beautiful area was Bonney Lake (in Pierce County), although it’s been lost to sprawl now.
I don’t remember how I found STB. I never thought there were that many passionate transit fans in the area, enough for a blog to work. I’m quite happy to see that there is.
Aprils Fool’s indeed!
Ha! I knew it. Only a 15 year old with no social life blogging in his parents’ basement could know so much about transit. Great job, Joey.
and happy April Fool’s day. :-)
Oh, I wish it were true.
-Joey
Hi Joey!
As Mayor of Seattle I need people on my team with youth and enthusiasm who don’t mind padding a resume now and again for a good cause. I’d like to offer you a job as Assistant to the Secretary of Light Rail Planning and Bicycle Advocacy. If you could give me a call later this afternoon at (206) 684-4000, and just tell my secrectary that Mike said I should give him a call about this job, I’ll fit you in.
Yours Truely,
Mike McGinn Mayor aka. MMM
In your dreams, Mr. Mayor, I called dibs! Somebody has to replace this Lindblom character. Recruit ’em young, I say!
Ah yes, the bacon thickens.
Wow, now we own you, because all those appearances at monthly pub meetings were totally illegal, you drinking fool. Do our bidding forever more, or we will report you to the cops.
When I read this, I was so stunned–my heroes all condensed into one little yuppie kid with a laptop!–that I dropped my iPhone. It hit my steering wheel, and then ended up under the gas pedal. Luckily, the I-5 traffic is slow enough that I was able to reach down, pick it up, finish reading the post, and reply to it (as you can see) without a hitch. Whew! Anyway, don’t worry Joey, one more year and you’ll get your driver’s license and this whole blog will be a distant memory. Gotta go: just enough road to finish my coffee, read “Morning Fizz”, and get to work…
Joey,
What have you done!!
Our family is dishonored forever by your duplicity.
Margaret and I will have to discuss punishment tonight, but I can say for sure that you can forget about the iPad.
— Dad
P.S. Was Sahara helping you on this?
[deleted, ad-hominem]
Joey, my man! Hey, let’s talk, I’ve got a vision for this blog and you should be a part of it. I can bring my sponsor int– I mean, ah, my SPONSORS. I can bring my sponsors into this deal and we can make this website more efficient! Imagine: 60 character previews of each post on the main page without the clutter of the full post, a verification process to ensure you actually would like to see the post, and then a 3-click process to bring up a steady-scrolling text box with the content of the post. Efficient!
And perhaps we can go a different direction with this blog, discussing how making our roads more efficient will do away with the need for transit! We should probably rename it to something like Puget Sound Regional Road Efficiency Blog
Give me a shout, I’ve been given the go-ahead by my sponsor to extend this offer to you.
K.Wall
This almost as good an idea as the vision line. What a genius you are.
While we’re confessing things, I’m both Bernie and Wells.
and I’m Norman.
Fess up Joey, You were Norman and all the time, and probably Bailo and his freinds. What a rip. Go to your closet, and just talk to yourself!
And to think I wasted so much ink entertaining you, plus that little Snow Job story you wrote cost me the election.
That explains all the voices in my head! My name is Matt Wells and I’m a blogaholic.
On a serious note: Bus RAPID Transit
How hard was it being John Bailo? It must have been hard for a transit geek to write those comments about turning Seattle into an exurb. “
MustMust notMust recommend things that will do the opposite of what they claim to do.”No wonder Norman never new about roads, I knew he was a transit geek.
Knew, KNEW.
Needless to say, I am not surprised. This is particularly true when one follows this blog and reads all about the spoon-fed info from Seattle’s social engineers all of which shows the level of understanding of a high school freshman with no foundation – the perfect liberal!!
Joey, let’s hope you grow up to become a successful contributor to the greater Puget Sound. Operative word – contributor, using your skills to benefit the private sector, rather than being a parasite, applying those skills to sucking the life out of the rest of us in the name of Government!!
…I can’t tell if this is a troll or not.
Just shut up Ben, or I’ll have to delete you, I mean me for trolling, so that I can then reply to a previously deleted comment from a prior thread last week. I’m getting another headache.
Joey
I don’t know…
That photo looks as though it could be Galen’s doppelganger…
Yes,
Galen was kind enough to donate a photo to the cause.
Ah, to protect Joey’s identity and preserve his anonymity…
Very kind, Galen!
Wait –
What is wrong with being 15? I was in my second year at Cambridge then.
Well, I guess “We’re betraying everything we ever stood for” was becoming a cliche, as April Fools’ jokes go.
What’s next, Joey—you think we should give up on rail transit and expand our roadways instead? :P
Following the Enders Game series pattern of fake identities on the blogosphere: world domination.
LOL, I love this April fool’s joke. Really funny for me considering I started blogging a year ago when I actually 15 (seriously). Well done Joey!
The masterstroke was Joey’s two different avatars on that street film, “The Beginning of Something Big”. Blog Genius. Soldier of the One.
Makes me wonder what other April Fool’s ideas the minds at STB considered but ultimately rejected…
“March Link Ridership Numbers In – Average of 1 (Norman), Peak of 2 (Norman + John Bailo), Peak Adjusted for John Bailo’s Multiple Personalities = near infinite”
“UW Cancels Montlake Crosswalk – Crossing from UW Link Station to Anywhere Useful Now Touted as World’s Largest Frogger Simulator”
“Sound Transit Adds Surrey Downs Link Station”
ROFL!
Love the comments from Kemper and the Mayor.
And Sherwin/Joey as well.
But hey, kids are getting into transit these days! Crazy kids.
On the internet, you could even be a dog! If I have to take a bong rip every 30 seconds or elsWoof Woofwoofwoof! BARK!
Joey,
I was both thrilled to find this out, and utterly shocked. I started blogging on the STB just months ago, and I had no idea that the creator was about the same age as I. I’m 16, and I thought I was the only teen passionate about this topic of rail and rapid transit. Obviously, I was wrong.
For two years, I lived in Japan where I used the subway and commuter rail almost every day – at least every week. We moved here to Seattle three years ago, and was disgusted by Seattle’s incovenient and embarrasing public transportation infrastructure. I soon became a huge advocate for rail, and created a vision of Seattle’s subway system in 2050 or so on adobe-photoshop (I have yet to send that to Mayors and city councils region-wide). I have been closely following the STB ever since, and I am thrilled that other teens have the same passion. :)
You have inspired me. Thank you.
Andrew