1. Lead Paint Poisons Poor Chicagoans as City Spends Millions Less on Cleanup
Small doses can cause behavioral and learning problems, but the city has few resources—and few people—to deal with the problem. The Tribune investigates.
2. The Polk Family’s Quest for a Better Life
After her husband was killed, a woman from impoverished Bellwood found hope in affluent DuPage County. The New York Times follows their path.
3. The Most Diverse Cities Are Often the Most Segregated
Chicago is the seventh most diverse city in America, and its most segregated. FiveThirtyEight parses the numbers.
4. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa on Being a Young, Gay, Latino Alderman
At 26, he’s the city’s youngest alderman. And he found out he won through Facebook. Chicago sits down with the 35th Ward’s new representative.
5. Life in the Shadow of Indiana’s Steel Mills
Photographer David Schalliol has been documenting the diverging fates of Whiting and East Chicago, just over the state line. Satellite talks with Schalliol about his project.
6. Theaster Gates: “I’m hoping Swiss bankers will bail out my flooded South Side Bank in the name of art”
A local artist with a worldwide profile, he’s trying to leverage his reknown back home. The Guardian checks in on his progress.
7. “Factory of the Future” Opens on Chicago’s South Side
Method Products will make cleaning supplies in a LEED Platinum-certified building in the same neighborhood where Pullman once made railcars. The Huffington Post visits the 150,000-square-foot plant and its giant wind turbine.
8. A Political Education
Bernie Sanders, longtime senator and now presidential candidate, began his political life at the University of Chicago. Rick Perlstein profiles his rise in the University of Chicago Magazine.
9. Uptown’s Moment As a “Hillbilly Heaven”
Parallelling the Great Migration, rural whites from Appalachia came to Chicago after World War II. But why did they settle in Uptown? WBEZ traces their movement.
10. What’s Happened to Chicago’s Haring?
The legendary artist created a giant mural with CPS students shortly before his death. The pieces of it are scattered, and much of it is missing. The Chicago Reader tracks it down.