Rahm Emanuel Talks Comprehensive, National Gun Control… or 'Criminal Access'

By Whet Moser

While he's pushing gun control at the local level, the mayor is encouraging Congress to pass legislation, a couple days before the President is expected to announce a plan... and Emanuel's strategy looks a lot like the one he engineered in 1994. Read more

City to Add Another $33 Million to Its Police-Settlement Bill

By Whet Moser

It's a massive amount of money compared to other cities, but sadly typical when it comes to Chicago's recent history of legal settlements, which are far out of proportion to major American cities. And it's not just the CPD. Read more

RIP Aaron Swartz

By Whet Moser

The young Highland Park native was an Internet prodigy, beginning with his work on developing RSS when he was only 14 years old. Driven by an idealistic commitment to open data, Swartz connected an extraordinary number of people together, both on and offline, and changing how we look at the Web from a technological and moral perspective. Read more

Want to Start One of the Best Bars in Chicago? Build Along a Diagonal Street

By Whet Moser

Location, location, location: if our guide to the city's best bars is any indication, one thing many of them share, whether dive or cocktail lounge or neighborhood haunt, is a location on or near one of the city's diagonal corridors. Read more

Does Segregation Make a City More Vulnerable to Crime?

By Whet Moser

A model of crime contagion suggests that heavy segregation by income—and segregating the rich from the poor with a middle-class buffer—is worse for city crime levels than a mix of neighborhoods. Read more

Could Rahm Emanuel's Push For Gun Control Work? Perhaps at the Margins

By Whet Moser

Despite the city and state's court defeats over gun control, the mayor is making an explicit push to tighten the city's laws, and is likely to target assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Read more

National Climate Assessment Predicts Less Frost, More Hot Days and Heat Waves for Future Chicago

By Whet Moser

A new report from the United States Global Change research program looks at the U.S. and climate change over the rest of the century, projecting hotter hot days, wetter winters, more 100-degree days, and deadly heat waves along the lines of 1995. Read more

Long Reads on Chicago's Transition From a 'Managerial State' to an 'Entrepreneurial State'

By Whet Moser

The city continues to embrace public-private partnerships, as the mayor fills out the infrastructure trust and Midway-privatization boards. It's an old story—and expect more, especially if tax-free muni bonds disappear. Read more

Good News in Chicago Data

By Whet Moser

The Sun-Times picks up the well-regarded crime-tracking site Homicide Watch, plans on expanding it to Chicago; a look at city-owned vacant property (there's a lot of it), and more Read more

The Alternate-Universe Chicago In Which Our Craziest Unbuilt Buildings Exist

By Whet Moser

Some of Chicago's great unbuilt buildings are as remarkable as the ones that make up its skyline. What would happen if Harry Weese's Lake Michigan Islands, the Sears Tower on its side, and a Tribune Tower in the shape of a giant classical column shared downtown? Read more

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