Articles - Keep Chicagoland Moving

Neighborhoods & Suburbs

Near West Side, by the Numbers: The Most New-Construction Permits of Any Area in the First Half of 2026, and the Smallest House-Price Rise of 70

The Near West Side, directly west of the Loop, had 53 new-construction permits in the first half of 2026, the most of any Chicago community area, and none of the five market signals in our analysis is active there. Its median house price rose 16 percent from 2019 to 2025, the smallest rise among the 70 areas with enough sales to compare. Rebuilt September 30, 2026 on the county’s updated sales file.

KCM Desk
August 2, 2026

Neighborhoods & Suburbs

East Garfield Park, by the Numbers: Four of Five Market Signals Active, and New-Construction Permits Up From 17 to 64

East Garfield Park, on Chicago’s West Side, is one of three community areas where four of the five market signals in our analysis are active. New-construction permits went from 17 in 2018–19 to 64 in 2024–25, and the median two-to-six-flat sold for $370,000 in 2025, up from $199,000 in 2019. Rebuilt September 30, 2026 on the county’s updated sales file.

KCM Desk
August 2, 2026

City in Motion

Before the Red Line Extension Opens, the Record: House Medians in Roseland, West Pullman and Pullman Have at Least Doubled Since 2019

Brick bungalows on a Far South Side Chicago street at golden hour with elevated rail construction cranes in the distance.

The CTA is extending the Red Line 5.5 miles to 130th Street. This page records the corridor’s house prices, permits, licenses and 95th/Dan Ryan ridership before any train runs, and lists what gets measured again when service begins. Read again September 30, 2026; the 2025 figures get a final reading in January 2027.

KCM Desk
August 1, 2026

City in Motion

No State’s Residential Electricity Prices Rose Faster Than Illinois’: Up 28 Percent in a Year, Per the Federal Table

Chicago brick two-flats with warmly lit windows at dusk, an electricity pylon and power lines catching the sunset behind.

EIA's own state table: Illinois average residential electricity went from 18.58 to 23.85 cents per kilowatt-hour, May 2025 to May 2026 - a 28 percent jump, the largest of the fifty states and DC, while the national average rose 6. Every sector paid more. The table doesn't say why, and neither do we.

KCM Desk
August 1, 2026

City in Motion

Chicago’s Red-Light Cameras Are the Quieter Program: 537,706 Violations in the Latest Year, Led by Lake Shore and Belmont

Red-light camera unit mounted on a pole above a busy Chicago intersection at golden hour, cars waiting at the stop line and pedestrians crossing.

7.1 million recorded violations since mid-2014, from a fleet that has held still: 300 cameras at about 150 intersections. The counts peaked in 2023 and have eased since - the opposite path from the speed cameras we counted this week. Lake Shore Drive and Belmont leads at 74 a day.

KCM Desk
July 30, 2026

City in Motion

Chicago’s Speed Cameras Recorded 2.6 Million Violations in the Year Through June. One Camera Averaged 415 a Day.

Gray speed-enforcement camera on a pole beside a Chicago park with a playground, a family walking past and traffic on the boulevard at golden hour.

20.6 million recorded violations since 2014. We summed all 490,578 daily camera records: the 2021 six-mph threshold nearly quadrupled the count, 2025 saw the biggest jump in cameras recording, 2026 is running 17 percent ahead - and ten locations account for three violations in ten.

KCM Desk
July 30, 2026

City in Motion

At Least 116 Chicagoland Police Agencies Have Used Flock Plate Readers. One Suburb’s Cameras Can Be Searched by 463 Organizations.

Pole-mounted license-plate-reader camera with a small solar panel beside a suburban Chicagoland main-street intersection at golden hour.

Illinois audits found border agents with access to license-plate camera data, against state law. We counted the footprint: at least 116 Chicagoland police agencies with documented Flock plate-reader use, and one suburb's own disclosure page listing 463 organizations that can search its cameras.

KCM Desk
July 29, 2026

City in Motion

New York City’s Rent Board Set 2026-27 Stabilized Increases at Zero. Illinois Law Bars Chicago From Controlling Private Rents.

Brick Chicago courtyard apartment building at golden hour, residents on a bench and a child on a tricycle in the landscaped courtyard.

New York City's rent board set 2026-27 stabilized increases at zero; a 1997 Illinois law bars Chicago from controlling private rents at all. We counted the lever Chicago does publish: 598 city-supported affordable rental developments, 29,550 listed units, a third of them senior housing.

KCM Desk
July 28, 2026

City in Motion

After a Chicago Restaurant Is Found Out of Business, a New Food Business Shows Up in Inspection Records at 56 Percent of Addresses Within Two Years

Corner storefront in a brick Chicago building at golden hour, brown paper half removed from the windows revealing a new restaurant being set up inside.

We classified 3,016 Chicago restaurant addresses where an inspector recorded an Out of Business finding since 2019. 56 percent had a newly observed food-business license within two years - and the four areas with the most emptied addresses, the Near North Side, the Loop, Lake View and the Near West Side, all sit below that rate.

KCM Desk
July 28, 2026

City in Motion

Data Centers Face Pauses and Bans Elsewhere. Chicago’s Permit File Shows $492 Million in Reported Construction Since 2015.

Brick industrial building at dusk with computer server racks visible through tall arched windows, an elevated train and the Chicago skyline behind.

Fourteen states and more than one hundred local governments have weighed pausing data centers since the start of 2026. Chicago's building-permit file shows 92 data-center permits and $492 million in reported construction cost since 2015 - including a seven-story office building cleared this July for conversion.

KCM Desk
July 28, 2026