Illustration of an inspector's clipboard on a Chicago two-flat porch railing, one building on the street freshly repaired and its neighbor still weathered

Six Years On, Which 2019 Building Violations Are Marked Complied? A Quarter in Englewood, Two-Thirds on the Near North Side

Chicago wrote 89,021 building violations in 2019 that are marked open or complied today. Just 42.7 percent are marked complied - 24.9 percent in Englewood, 66.6 percent on the Near North Side. We mapped the complied share across every community area with at least 500 violations, for the 2019 and 2023 cohorts.

In 2019, Chicago building inspectors wrote 2,657 violations in Englewood that sit on the ledger today marked either complied or open, and 2,109 in the Near North Side. We read the status of every one of those files as of August 3, 2026 — more than six and a half years after even the last of them was written. On the Near North Side, 66.6 percent are marked complied. In Englewood, 24.9 percent — among the 54 community areas with at least 500 violations written that year, the lowest share of any of them. On the city’s own books, the recorded closure share at one end of that gap is well over twice the share at the other. This piece maps that gap, and it comes with a caveat we will repeat: a violation marked complied is the Department of Buildings’ closure record, not an independently verified repair, and an open one can mean a case still winding through administrative hearings or a demolition pipeline rather than a landlord who ignored the city.

Most of the 2019 ledger is still open

The 2019 violations, measured August 2026: marked complied where? Share marked complied by August 2026 · lowest and highest 5 of 54 areas with 500+ violations written in 2019 EnglewoodEnglewood: 24.9% of the 2,657 violations written in 2019 are marked complied24.9%West Garfield ParkWest Garfield Park: 25.1% of the 1,689 violations written in 2019 are marked complied25.1%South DeeringSouth Deering: 26.2% of the 541 violations written in 2019 are marked complied26.2%West EnglewoodWest Englewood: 26.5% of the 3,378 violations written in 2019 are marked complied26.5%West PullmanWest Pullman: 32.4% of the 1,522 violations written in 2019 are marked complied32.4%CITY OVERALLCITY OVERALL: 42.7% of the 89,021 violations written in 2019 are marked complied42.7%Albany ParkAlbany Park: 55.1% of the 889 violations written in 2019 are marked complied55.1%EdgewaterEdgewater: 56.6% of the 1,087 violations written in 2019 are marked complied56.6%LoopLoop: 57.7% of the 1,489 violations written in 2019 are marked complied57.7%Near South SideNear South Side: 59.7% of the 764 violations written in 2019 are marked complied59.7%Near North SideNear North Side: 66.6% of the 2,109 violations written in 2019 are marked complied66.6%

Start with the citywide number, because it is startling on its own: of the 89,021 violations written in 2019 that ended up marked either open or complied, just 42.7 percent are marked complied as of August 2026. More than half of what inspectors wrote in 2019 is still an open file. Around that middle, the spread is wide. Englewood (24.9 percent of 2,657), West Garfield Park (25.1 percent of 1,689), and West Englewood (26.5 percent of 3,378) sit at the bottom of the ranking; the Near North Side, the Near South Side, and the Loop sit at the top, each with more than 57 percent of the cohort marked complied. This is the same dataset behind our building-inspections analysis, which measured how much enforcement the city recorded doing; this piece follows what the record says happened to the violations that enforcement produced.

The map, with its gray patches

Where the ledger says complied 2019 violations marked complied by Aug 2026; gray fell under the 500-violation floor under 33%about the city’s 43%over halfover 60% Albany Park: 55.1% of 889 violations written in 2019 marked compliedArcher Heights: 317 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedArmour Square: 276 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedAshburn: 44.1% of 675 violations written in 2019 marked compliedAuburn Gresham: 38.6% of 3,234 violations written in 2019 marked compliedAustin: 41.9% of 4,652 violations written in 2019 marked compliedAvalon Park: 42.2% of 517 violations written in 2019 marked compliedAvondale: 52.8% of 1,004 violations written in 2019 marked compliedBelmont Cragin: 50.5% of 1,565 violations written in 2019 marked compliedBeverly: 398 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedBridgeport: 54.4% of 907 violations written in 2019 marked compliedBrighton Park: 55.1% of 958 violations written in 2019 marked compliedBurnside: 149 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedCalumet Heights: 442 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedChatham: 46.2% of 2,325 violations written in 2019 marked compliedChicago Lawn: 49.2% of 2,025 violations written in 2019 marked compliedClearing: 234 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedDouglas: 491 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedDunning: 34.7% of 680 violations written in 2019 marked compliedEast Garfield Park: 34.5% of 1,230 violations written in 2019 marked compliedEast Side: 476 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedEdgewater: 56.6% of 1,087 violations written in 2019 marked compliedEdison Park: 110 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedEnglewood: 24.9% of 2,657 violations written in 2019 marked compliedForest Glen: 140 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedFuller Park: 222 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedGage Park: 46.5% of 817 violations written in 2019 marked compliedGarfield Ridge: 470 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedGrand Boulevard: 34.6% of 997 violations written in 2019 marked compliedGreater Grand Crossing: 40.0% of 2,667 violations written in 2019 marked compliedHegewisch: 125 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedHermosa: 49.9% of 563 violations written in 2019 marked compliedHumboldt Park: 44.9% of 2,537 violations written in 2019 marked compliedHyde Park: 51.4% of 615 violations written in 2019 marked compliedIrving Park: 40.8% of 1,082 violations written in 2019 marked compliedJefferson Park: 340 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedKenwood: 50.5% of 517 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLake View: 48.6% of 1,526 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLincoln Park: 52.1% of 1,215 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLincoln Square: 48.9% of 565 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLogan Square: 50.0% of 1,801 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLoop: 57.7% of 1,489 violations written in 2019 marked compliedLower West Side: 35.7% of 1,062 violations written in 2019 marked compliedMcKinley Park: 423 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedMontclare: 281 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedMorgan Park: 33.4% of 623 violations written in 2019 marked compliedMount Greenwood: 178 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedNear North Side: 66.6% of 2,109 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNear South Side: 59.7% of 764 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNear West Side: 53.3% of 2,239 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNew City: 42.6% of 2,181 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNorth Center: 49.1% of 546 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNorth Lawndale: 35.1% of 2,632 violations written in 2019 marked compliedNorth Park: 263 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedNorwood Park: 327 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedOakland: 99 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedO’Hare: 147 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedPortage Park: 33.6% of 1,187 violations written in 2019 marked compliedPullman: 53.0% of 538 violations written in 2019 marked compliedRiverdale: 102 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedRogers Park: 49.9% of 1,274 violations written in 2019 marked compliedRoseland: 32.9% of 2,821 violations written in 2019 marked compliedSouth Chicago: 39.7% of 2,497 violations written in 2019 marked compliedSouth Deering: 26.2% of 541 violations written in 2019 marked compliedSouth Lawndale: 36.5% of 1,976 violations written in 2019 marked compliedSouth Shore: 44.3% of 3,886 violations written in 2019 marked compliedUptown: 42.4% of 742 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWashington Heights: 36.0% of 1,020 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWashington Park: 43.8% of 892 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Elsdon: 254 violations written in 2019 — under the 500-violation floor, so not rankedWest Englewood: 26.5% of 3,378 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Garfield Park: 25.1% of 1,689 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Lawn: 46.9% of 608 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Pullman: 32.4% of 1,522 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Ridge: 37.3% of 1,217 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWest Town: 52.5% of 2,630 violations written in 2019 marked compliedWoodlawn: 35.5% of 1,387 violations written in 2019 marked complied

Blue marks areas where a higher share of 2019’s violations is marked complied; the pale orange band across parts of the South and West sides marks areas where fewer than a third are. Gray areas had fewer than 500 violations written in 2019, so a rate there would rest on too few cases to rank fairly, and we leave them unranked rather than rank them on thin numbers. We report what the records show and take no position on where anyone should live.

The 2023 cohort ranks differently

Run the same arithmetic on violations written in 2023 and the citywide share lands at 42.8 percent complied — essentially identical to the 2019 cohort’s 42.7, even though the 2019 files have had roughly four extra years to close. We read that with care, because the two cohorts are different mixes of buildings and violation types, and enforcement volume fell by half between them, so the comparison cannot say what happens to any individual file. What it does say is narrower and still striking: four extra years of aging left the 2019 cohort’s complied share no higher than the 2023 cohort’s.

The geography shifted as well. The lowest complied share in the 2023 cohort belongs not to a South Side area but to Irving Park on the Northwest Side (26.9 percent of 546 violations), with Portage Park just behind it. And East Garfield Park — whose western neighbor ranked second-lowest on the 2019 cohort — posts one of the five highest shares in the 2023 cohort, 57.0 percent of 645. The 2019 pattern tilts against the South and West sides; the 2023 pattern, still young, does not simply repeat it.

What an open file does and does not mean

It bears repeating in full: COMPLIED is the department’s record that a violation was resolved, and OPEN is the absence of that record. An open file can mean an ignored order, but it can also mean a case in administrative hearings, a building in the demolition pipeline, or paperwork that never caught up with a repair that actually happened. What the geography shows is not which neighborhoods fixed their buildings — it shows where the city’s enforcement process reaches a recorded conclusion and where it has not. Our scofflaw-list analysis follows the buildings the city itself flags as the worst of these open files, and our 311 timing analysis found the same neighborhoods waiting longest for other city services. The violation ledger adds a third layer to that picture: after the inspector leaves, the follow-through has a geography too.

How we counted

  • Violations: City of Chicago Building Violations (22u3-xenr), pulled August 3, 2026. Cohorts are violations grouped by the year they were written (2019 and 2023), with each violation’s status read as of the pull date.
  • The rate: complied share = COMPLIED ÷ (COMPLIED + OPEN). Violations marked NO ENTRY — the inspector could not get in — are excluded from the denominator; there were 259 in the 2019 cohort and 138 in 2023, and we report them here rather than fold them in.
  • Neighborhoods: the dataset carries no community-area column, so we mapped its boundary tag to community areas using the City’s 311 Service Requests (v6vf-nfxy; requests created January 1 through August 3, 2026, pulled August 3, 2026), which carries both fields on every row; for each of the 77 tags, at least 97.5 percent of the 311 requests carrying that tag carry the same community-area number, so each tag is assigned to that area. Rows without a usable tag (134 in 2019, 128 in 2023) are dropped.
  • The floor: areas with fewer than 500 violations in a cohort are excluded from rankings (54 areas ranked for 2019, 38 for 2023) and shown gray on the map.
  • What this is not: a measure of building conditions or repair quality. COMPLIED is the department’s closure record, not a verified fix; OPEN includes cases in hearings or demolition proceedings.

Computed by KCM Desk from records current to August 3, 2026; published August 3, 2026. If you spot an error, corrections come first.

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