Keep Chicagoland Moving is built on a simple rule: claims come from sources, and we tell you what they are. This page explains where our information comes from, how articles get made, and what to do when we get something wrong.
Where our information comes from
Depending on the story, we draw from public, primary sources including the City of Chicago Data Portal (building permits, business licenses, and more), Cook County assessor and clerk records, U.S. Census and American Community Survey data, transit data and public documents from the CTA, Metra, Pace, and the RTA, municipal board and plan-commission agendas and minutes from suburban villages, and reporting from Chicago-area news outlets, which we link when we rely on it.
Primary sources are the floor, not the ceiling. We also read widely — local and national news, industry coverage, city documents, neighborhood conversation — not to repeat what’s already been said, but to connect it: a zoning vote next to a ridership trend, a restaurant opening next to a neighborhood’s rental market, a budget fight next to what it actually means for your block. The goal is that every piece adds something that didn’t exist before we wrote it — a comparison, a new angle, a clearer frame, a “so what.”
How articles get made
We use modern research and content systems — including AI-assisted tools built by Omnishun — to gather, cross-check, and draft. Articles are reviewed and edited before they publish. Data-driven pieces state their source and the date the data was pulled, because numbers age.
What we don’t do
We don’t accept payment for coverage or placement in guides, and we don’t let advertisers see or shape articles. We don’t present opinion as fact — when something is our judgment call, we say so. And we don’t pretend precision we don’t have: public data has gaps and lags, and where that matters we note it.
Updates and corrections
Local information decays — restaurants close, projects stall, tax rates change. We revisit and update our most-read pieces, and date-stamp significant revisions. If you spot an error, tell us; corrections are made on the article itself. Our full policies live on the Editorial Policy & Advertising Disclosure page.
