An old, elaborate printing process called Photocrom allowed people around the world to see Chicago rise from the prairie, from Michigan Avenue to Potter Palmer's house, as the 20th century was just beginning. Read more
Archival video from the golden era of WTTW's Soundstage captures the author, cartoonist, singer-songwriter, and Wrigley hot dog vendor in the two sides of his persona, and their appeal to two very different age groups. Read more
CMAP is pushing for variable congestion pricing for express lanes on Chicago interstates. Turning your commute into arbitrage is rarely popular, but it has to be at least a bit unpopular to work—otherwise, it's hard to keep people off the roads. Read more
Two profiles of the embattled representative, one from the beginning of his political career and one from what could be the end, bookend his ambitions and evolution, and show how what's kept Junior as a local politician could also save his job. Read more
An all-star roster of architects wants the city to preserve Prentice, one of the city's surprisingly few Brutalist structures. They make an excellent case that it's of substantial historical, cultural, and engineering value... but even granting that, is it still worth it? Read more
After 17 tumultuous months running CPS, the current head announced his surprising—or not—departure yesterday. His replacement, a veteran of the Cleveland, Detroit, and New York public schools, has experience in the political tensions of a Midwestern big-city school district. Read more
After years of complex, expensive, controversial school busing to combat segregation, Boston looks to consolidate into neighborhood schools, and turns to the public for ideas. Read more
As Chicago Ideas Week asks Twitter for solutions to the city's gun-violence problem, the daily social-media life of the city continues with the smaller dramas of urbanity, such as what to do with injured baby squirrels. Read more
In 1970, Ebert was a young critic at the Sun-Times, when he came across a young singer-songwriter-mailman playing future standards at the Fifth Peg, in "out of the way" Lincoln Park. Read more
The notoriously rigorous actor surprised people with his reedy-voiced Great Emancipator, but it's actually a lot closer to what Abraham Lincoln plausibly sounded like than the profoundly silly screen Lincolns of legend. Read more
