Where to eat, what to do, and what’s worth the trip across Chicago and the suburbs. Recommendations here are editorial picks; nobody pays for placement.
Flu accounted for 8.5 percent of Chicago emergency-department visits at last season's peak, the most in nine seasons, and set the same record in every age group, 22.3 percent for school-age children. RSV usually peaks first among the youngest; COVID-19 has stayed under 3 percent since 2022.
In eight of the 16 seasons in Chicago’s laboratory records, flu first reached 10 percent of tests in December, and the earliest it got there was the week ending Nov. 12, 2022. Last season flu reached that share in the week ending Dec. 13, 2025; by two weeks earlier, 77 percent of the residents who would end the season with a recorded flu shot already had one, and 69 percent of the children.
Chicago’s immunization registry holds a flu shot on record for 153,385 children in the 2025–26 season, 29,979 fewer than four seasons earlier, and for 182,014 residents 65 and older, 20,894 more. By ZIP code the share of residents with a recorded shot runs from 16.7 percent to 40.1 percent, and 60 percent of the residents with a recorded shot last season have it dated Nov. 1 or earlier.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive, counted with aggregate queries only: 14 heat-related deaths in 2026, the most in any year since the archive began in 2014 and more than the previous high of 8 in 2019 - 11 in Chicago, eight dated July 1 to 4. It is a floor, with 547 summer deaths still pending a cause. Cold remains the larger toll: 653 cold-related deaths from 2015 through 2025 against 49 heat-related.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s case archive, counted with aggregate queries only: 788 opioid deaths in 2025, the fewest since 2015 and 60.6 percent below 2022’s 2,002, with 577 after incidents in Chicago. This year cannot be read yet: January through May sits 14 below 2025 with 71 cases pending, and 547 deaths from June through September - when the city published four overdose-increase alerts - are still pending.
The Chicago Department of Public Health’s Health Alert Network file, all 1,835 alerts analyzed by date, title and label: five alerts in 2026 whose titles begin ‘Increase in Opioid Overdoses in Chicago,’ four of them since June 3, against three in all earlier years. COVID-19 and flu labels lead the file, this year’s count by September 14 is the lowest since its stated coverage began, measles titles bunch in 2019, 2024 and 2025, and the priority label’s use changed over time.
The Park District’s beach lab file, read whole after the season: 1,898 rapid water tests at 18 beaches between May 22 and September 7, 2026, of which 57 — 3.0 percent — came back above the 1,000 CCE level the file ties to a yellow swim advisory flag. That is the second-lowest share of the rapid test’s twelve summers, behind 2023. Humboldt had nine crossings in 73 tests; North Avenue none in 107.
The Chicago Public Library’s forward calendar, read whole: 4,875 scheduled sessions at 106 location labels, 96.5 percent of them before January. Three in four are one date of a repeating series, seven in ten need no registration, 78.5 percent start before 5 p.m. - and so do seven in ten sessions labeled for adults alone. English is the only language listed on 89.5 percent; Spanish appears on 497.
Chicago’s environmental permits file, read whole: its description says the Department of Environment was fully restored May 1, 2026, yet all 591 permits issued from May 1 to September 14 carry the Department of Public Health as the collecting department. The count for that window is the most since 2021 and a third of 2010’s; yearly permits fell from 4,048 in 2012 to about 1,100.
The Chicago Park District’s own activity file, read whole: 6,977 programs starting September 1 through November 30, 2026, under 251 facility labels, 1,836 of them listed at $0 and the paid ones at a median of $25. 647 of 659 senior programs are free; 46 of 1,605 early-childhood programs are; no skating program is.
