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Tiffany Chu

@tchu88

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🐕 designer + urbanist
🌏 on a creative travel sabbatical in 2026
🚂 recovering city chief of staff, startup ceo
📍 boston / seattle

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As a kid I went back to Taiwan every summer break and we’d shuffle back and forth between family homes in the rural south, rarely stepping foot in a major city. Coming back as an adult, 20 years later, has been fascinating to see both the pace of change and realize the civic details that make this island unique.

📚 Recommended reading that made my trip better:
- Taiwan Travelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi
- The Translator’s Daughter: A Memoir, by Grace Loh Prasad
- The Daybreak Project: Voices of the Sunflower Movement, by New Bloom and Brian Hioe taken in 台灣 by @tchu88

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5 months ago

I kept a running notes doc of all the civic things I was inspired by during our time in Japan. From the very big civic infrastructure to the very small delightful details, my reaction ranged from pleasantly tickled to mind-blown on a daily basis. Here’s a visual roundup of a few observations. (FYI I am simplifying a lot and may be missing nuance - if you know more please share.) Posting in case they might spark ideas elsewhere 💡 taken in 日本 by @tchu88

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7 months ago

Last week, I wrapped up my time as Chief of Staff to @mayorwu. It’s hard to put into words how meaningful it’s been to work in public service at the local level and help make Boston a home for everyone. Looking back on our first term, here’s what I’m especially proud of:

- Reached the lowest level of gun violence on record
- Recruited the largest, most diverse classes of police officers; ended arbitration as a way to avoid discipline for the worst offenses; required all patrol officers to wear nametags
- Upzoned downtown for the 1st time in decades; launched an office-to-residential conversion program with 1000+ units in the pipeline
- Cut pothole repair time to <2 days; repaved 200 streets per year
- Hit 96% on-time performance for school buses
- Created a long-term facilities plan based on data; made the tough decision to begin closing/consolidating schools to right-size the district
- Partnered with philanthropy to make 23 of Boston’s leading museums & cultural institutions free for all school-aged kids
- Broke ground on a professional athletic facility for BPS students via a first-of-a-kind public private partnership with @nwsl
- Doubled the # of trees planted on our streets
- Maintained AAA bond rating
- Decommissioned our last on-premises computer server; launched 311 modernization & permitting reform; drafted the first city guidelines for generative AI
- Established our People Operations team - separating HR from Finance - to better support our 19,000-person workforce with professional development, performance reviews, transit & bikeshare benefits, and a stronger culture of appreciation
- Defended democracy before Congress and showed the world what it looks like to celebrate cities
- Won our election by a historic landslide of 49 points (72% to 23%)

Thank you to @wutrain + our entire team for the opportunity of a lifetime to work alongside you and learn from you these past 4 years. I found so many unexpected, rewarding parallels between building a startup and helping run a city in a mayor’s first term. What’s next for me: I’ll be taking a year off to travel with Reed, and I’m excited to see what the next chapter brings after that. taken in Boston, Massachusetts by @tchu88

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10 months ago

The last stop on our around the world trip was a week in England’s Lake District. Charm and surprise around every corner. Happy we traveled for 9 months and also happy to be heading home :)

📷: @jessebarnes206 taken in Satterthwaite, Lake District by @tchu88

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18 days ago

Catching up on some travel backlog. Last month I went back to Copenhagen for the first time since studying architecture there 17 years ago. Ran around the lakes, jumped into the harbor, biked everywhere, and reunited with old friends. This city is why I study and work in cities ❤️

Many photo credits 📸: @rduecyg taken in Copenhagen, Denmark by @tchu88

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a month ago

Spanish summer, sunset eclipse 🌙

📍Santander, Cantabria

Smoke trees in San Sebastián

Momo just wants to be a boat pup 🥹

Fresh eggs for lunch 📍La Cabañuca, Suesa

Learning Mariano’s spanish tortilla recipe

The last supper ⛈️📍Meruelo

📍Platja de Sant Elm, Mallorca

family dinner 📍Port d’Andratx

📍Mirador d’en Ricardo Roca

Miley learning to swim!

📍Catedral-Basílica de Santa María, Palma

Miró mural and staying cool on the terrace

Lovely trees and critical shade in Palma 🥵

Very communicative design for a public fountain

Proud of our structural umbrella setup!

Camping out early

Sound on for the reactions 😭

Totality

How often does a complete solar eclipse transform into a sunset? taken in Playa de Berria by @tchu88

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2 months ago

Back at one of my favorite buildings in the world.
5 million Danish bricks polished to look like silk. taken in Grundtvigs Kirke by @tchu88

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2 months ago

Civic thoughts from Istanbul. Miss traveling by ferry as my main mode of transport. Thanks to @sophiacyan for being the best host. Content consumed along the way:

🎧 the Empire World History podcast season 2, Ottoman Empire (starts episode 21)
📕 The Passenger: Turkey (Europa Editions)
📺 the Kedi documentary, shoutout @momomissouri
📕 Istanbul memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk (anything by Orhan Pamuk) taken in Galata, Beyoğlu by @tchu88

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2 months ago

We’ve been seeing some incredible Roman & Byzantine mosaics during our travels so we took a class here in Istanbul. This week we learned the basics of andamento, cut tessarae tiles, and experimented with stone and smalti glass. The process kind of feels like designing your own puzzle from scratch but then also trying to complete it at the same time. Very time-intensive and surprisingly meditative - the hours go by fast.

Thanks to @gozde.tolan @istanbulschoolofmosaic for being a great teacher. Pretty wild that such an ancient art form still has so many modern applications today.

📸: @ugur_ongel 🙏 taken in Moda, Istanbul, Turkey by @tchu88

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2 months ago

Turkish food is amazing 😍
also getting votes for the chicken breast dessert!! taken in Moda, Istanbul, Turkey by @tchu88

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3 months ago

Took the train north to Switzerland and felt a tangible change once we crossed the border. We visited friends in the mountains so spent time in 2 cantons this trip, Ticino (Italian-speaking) and Valais (French/German). Loved the organization, the cleanliness, the attention to detail.

Also learned the rules of Swiss fondue, survived a 7-leg public transit adventure from Lugano to Grimentz, and hiked to everything! Merci beaucoup to @lesharoundtheworld and @vincentpretre7 for the warmest alpine hospitality 🏔️ taken in Brè-Aldesago by @tchu88

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3 months ago

Observations from the last two months. Just scratching the surface of all the city building contributions here - forums, aqueducts, amphitheaters, baths, inventing concrete, the list goes on. Add in some chaos, the crazy diversity of regions, everything under construction… Italy 🤗🇮🇹

📚 Books that made my trip better:
- Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Passenger: Rome published by Europa Editions
- Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
- My Brilliant Friend + the rest of the Neapolitan stories by Elena Ferrante taken in Monopoli, Puglia by @tchu88

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3 months ago