James Pizzurro
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jamespizzurro.com
James Pizzurro
@jamespizzurro.com
160 followers 86 following 400 posts
Software engineer. Newly-minted Toronto resident by way of Baltimore, Washington DC, and parts beyond. Advocate for people-oriented places. Amateur cocktail guy. Side project: ARIES for Transit (ariesfortransit.com).
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jamespizzurro.com
And here's a link to CMTA's entire report card, which grades Baltimore on much more than just transit reliability, but also by various economic and environmental factors as well as the quantity and quality of transportation choices in the region: cmtalliance.org/report-card/
A screenshot from CMTA's webpage about their latest report card for the Central Maryland region: "...we need to reset our priorities: fully fund transit’s repair needs; run buses more frequently - implement the Bmore Bus plan now; build walkable places near transit; build high-capacity rapid transit - build the Red Line; maintain roads and highways but don’t widen them--reduce the share of transportation spending that goes to new road and highway capacity"
December 17, 2025 at 6:04 PM
jamespizzurro.com
So, how's Baltimore transit performing compared to its peer MSAs? The answer: last in headway adherence, second-to-last in schedule adherence, and middle of the pack in data integrity.

You can download our full report to CMTA here: cmtalliance.org/download/ari...
A table of all performance metrics measured—schedule adherence, headway adherence, and data integrity—per MSA, sorted alphabetically by MSA. A bar graph of schedule adherence by MSA, sorted from left to right from best to last. With only 75.9% of observed vehicle stop visits occurring between 2 minutes early and 7 minutes late of the posted schedules, Baltimore was the second worst performing MSA in our study with regards to schedule adherence. A bar graph of data integrity by MSA, sorted from left to right from best to last. Baltimore's data integrity over the four-month period was approximately 90.9%, placing it in the middle third of all MSAs studied as roughly 9% of all its scheduled trips were missing from its realtime data feeds. A bar graph of headway adherence by MSA, sorted from left to right from best to last. With only 65.5% of observed vehicle stop visits occurring within 3 minutes of scheduled headways, Baltimore ranked lowest of all the MSAs studied for headway adherence.
December 17, 2025 at 5:58 PM
jamespizzurro.com
nah i'm good thanks
A screenshot of the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page titled 'Paradox of tolerance' that reads: "The paradox of tolerance is a philosophical concept suggesting that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance. This paradox was articulated by philosopher Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), where he argued that a truly tolerant society must retain the right to deny tolerance to those who promote intolerance. Popper posited that if intolerant ideologies are allowed unchecked expression, they could exploit open society values to erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices."
December 12, 2025 at 4:21 PM
jamespizzurro.com
Also, congrats to the The Shameful Tiki Room in West Queen West on their 10th anniversary! The new location they moved to earlier this year is great and worth checking out if you haven't already. 🍹
A golden-orange tiki cocktail in a footed glass, garnished with dried citrus wheel, fresh bay leaves, and a straw, sits on a black napkin. A glowing tea light candle and colorful bar menu visible nearby, with warm ambient lighting and blurred bar background at The Shameful Tiki Room in Toronto's West Queen West neighborhood.
November 29, 2025 at 5:49 PM
jamespizzurro.com
First time at The Danforth Music Hall last night to see @thebeths.bsky.social. Great venue, great band. Thanks for making the trip up to Toronto! Looking forward to my next opportunity to see a show there and explore the area a bit more.
Concert view from the crowd at The Danforth Music Hall showing The Beths performing on stage. The stage features an artistic backdrop with botanical illustrations of vines, leaves, and flowers in warm orange and brown tones. Multiple standing lamps create intimate lighting across the stage, while spotlights shine from above. Silhouettes of concertgoers fill the foreground.
November 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
jamespizzurro.com
choose your fighter
A photo of a sign advertising different kinds of sausages for sale: "Mild Polish", "Spicy Italian", and "German". Which fighter would you choose to be on your team in a hypothetical battle of strength and wills? The world wants to know.
November 23, 2025 at 10:25 PM
jamespizzurro.com
So what are the solutions we're discussing? Traffic signal priority, left turn and parking restrictions, stop spacing adjustments, more representative on-time performance metrics (!), level boarding, standardized and higher-quality stop infrastructure, and much more. #StreetcarSummit
A room full of TTC transit riders listening to breakout group facilitators up on stage discussing what solutions their groups came up with to make Toronto's streetcars better.
November 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM
jamespizzurro.com
I'm in a packed room of ~200 transit riders spending their Sunday afternoon at @ttcriders.bsky.social's #StreetcarSummit discussing the problems Toronto's iconic streetcar system faces and proposing potential solutions with the help of transit advocates and professionals. You love to see it. 🚊
A packed room of transit advocates on break between a panelist discussion and their breakout sessions. Some folks are sitting at tables, others are standing and walking around and enjoying each other and their refreshments.
November 23, 2025 at 8:08 PM
jamespizzurro.com
towson being towson
From a recent email from the Towson Manor Village Community Association: "Finally, there is an upcoming hearing regarding the zoning use permit for 1204 Stevenson Lane. This would grant Calvert Hall College of Baltimore the right to purchase this single family home and convert it to a boarding house for their President and members of clergy. After calling a vote, our Board has written a formal letter sent to the Office of Administrative Hearings stating that we are against this permit. We support the preservation of single family residential zoning (especially one zoned for some of our best schools). We have concerns over the precedent this would set if higher education institutions are able to purchase and rezone homes in our community."
November 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
jamespizzurro.com
first toronto halloween in the books. building maintenance tried but failed to stop my decoration game with their scaffolding. mr bones greeted the children as they took way too much candy. all is well. 🎃
A photo of a Halloween-decorated front patio illuminated with dramatic orange and purple neon lighting. On the left, a fake skeleton in a checkered shirt and dark pants and shoes sits waving in the doorway while bathed in orange light. In the middle, a front door with a decorative fall wreath. On the right, a ghostly figure hangs from the wall lit in purple. Pumpkins and fake skulls and scattered leaves adorn the tiled patio floor. The entire scene is rudely interrupted by construction scaffolding overhead.
November 1, 2025 at 3:16 PM
jamespizzurro.com
It was a good day today.
A photo of the Canadian flag flying above the blue Friendship Arch with crowds of visitors gathered beneath it, with Horseshoe Falls visible in the misty background on a clear blue sky day. A photo of a red maple leaf resting on a rocky outcrop overlooking the turquoise waters and misty spray of Niagara Falls' Horseshoe Falls, with a metal railing visible in the foreground. A photo of a tour boat filled with passengers navigating the powerful turquoise and white waters directly beneath the massive Horseshoe Falls, surrounded by mist and spray. A photo of a wide view of Niagara Falls' Horseshoe Falls with birds soaring through the misty air above the cascading turquoise and white waters, and golden vegetation visible along the rocky shoreline.
October 19, 2025 at 2:46 AM
jamespizzurro.com
Oh, and that "I don't see my car" button just takes you to a different modal for...adding your car information manually. 🙃
A modal that appears in Credit Karma's mobile app when you tell it that it doesn't have information about your car, prompting you to enter the car's year, make, model, and trim/type manually, with no option to simply remove your car from your account.
September 6, 2025 at 9:14 PM
jamespizzurro.com
I sold my only car earlier this year and Credit Karma will literally not let me remove it from my account. "You must add a car," it says. Because, you know, who would ever go car-free? 🥴
A modal in the Credit Karma mobile app for Android with an unchecked checkbox for my previous car (a 2016 Toyota Corolla) and an error that appeared when I clicked the Update button in the modal that says "You must add a car."
September 6, 2025 at 9:11 PM
jamespizzurro.com
Like, y'all, you *chose* to live next to a college campus with decent transit access to and from Baltimore City. What exactly did you think you were signing up for? And what exactly are you complaining about?
The 'Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong' Simpsons meme.
September 5, 2025 at 5:14 PM
jamespizzurro.com
The best way for my councillor @chrismoise.ca to discourage folks riding a bike or scooter from doing so on our sidewalks is to do more to install an expansive and well-connected bike network throughout our ward and beyond.

These decals, like blocking replies and quote posts, are not a good look.
Toronto City Councillor Chris Moise kneels on a city sidewalk, using a yellow tool to install a circular decal that reads "PLEASE WALK YOUR BIKE OR SCOOTER" with an image of a person walking a bike. Two additional images show the decal in place and Moise standing nearby. The post announces the installation of these decals across Ward 13 to improve pedestrian safety in high-traffic areas.
July 29, 2025 at 10:29 PM
jamespizzurro.com
Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦
A nighttime photo from Toronto's waterfront of red and white fireworks going off over the water, with a reflection in the water, from left to right, of red and white and red stripes vaguely in the same layout as the Canadian flag.
July 2, 2025 at 4:31 AM
jamespizzurro.com
can't help but see headlines like these and assume any safety fears about e-bikes are due in part to the normalization of speeding car drivers
A screenshot of the headline of an article from CityNews Toronto of "Speeding e-bike riders stir safety fears on Toronto streets"
May 29, 2025 at 6:16 PM
jamespizzurro.com
incredibly beautiful day
A photo from Riverdale Park East facing downtown Toronto on a clear day. The photo shows a large green field with people relaxing and walking, a baseball diamond, and a running track. In the background, modern high-rise buildings dominate the skyline, including the CN Tower visible near the center-right. A mix of spring foliage and open sky frame the scene, evoking a peaceful urban park setting.
May 10, 2025 at 9:56 PM
jamespizzurro.com
Mr. Bones' Wild Ride meme (source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mr-bones-wild-ride)
April 7, 2025 at 2:50 PM
jamespizzurro.com
chatgpt did a great job sketching out how I should be using forearm straps to move a large piece of furniture this morning 🧐
A simple black-and-white line drawing shows two people using forearm lifting straps to carry a tall kitchen island down a staircase. One person is positioned at the top of the stairs, the other at the bottom. The kitchen island is upright, with cabinet doors and an open shelf visible. The straps are hanging loosely from each person such that they aren't actually being used at all, and so the two people are effectively just carrying the furniture without any help from the forearm straps they're wearing. 🙃
April 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM
jamespizzurro.com
stay thirsty my friends
A screenshot from Fidelity of a financial market summary displaying the closing values and percentage changes for major U.S. stock indices, commodities, bonds, and Bitcoin. Stock Indices: * Dow Jones: 38,314.86 (-2,231.07, -5.50%) * Nasdaq: 15,587.79 (-962.82, -5.82%) * S&P 500: 5,074.08 (-322.44, -5.97%) Commodities & Bonds: * Crude Oil: 62.32 (-6.92%) * Gold: 3,056.10 (-2.10%) * US 10-Year Treasury Yield: 39.85 (-1.73%) Bitcoin: 84,073.89 (+1.55%) All stock indices are in decline, with notable drops in Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500. Commodities like crude oil and gold have also decreased, while Bitcoin shows a slight increase. The U.S. markets are closed.
April 4, 2025 at 10:21 PM
jamespizzurro.com
i don't always check the current value of my portfolio positons after a historically bad trading day, but when i do, i prefer dos equis
the dos equis guy meme
April 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
jamespizzurro.com
no it's not
A screenshot of a headline of Jalopnik article that reads "The Pedal-Powered Shweeb Monorail Pod Is The Future Of Public Transit In A More Fun Alternate Universe".
March 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
jamespizzurro.com
we all float down here
March 14, 2025 at 8:13 PM
jamespizzurro.com
current status: 👌
A photo of me lounging on a beach chair with my legs crossed, looking out at the turquoise ocean under a clear blue sky. In my hand, I’m holding a tall glass of Cuba Libre with a straw. The sand stretches out in front of me, and a sign stands in the distance, slightly blurred. I'm wearing tropical-patterned swim shorts, fully embracing the relaxed beach vibes.
February 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM