Category Living Here

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.

Chicago’s Mid-Year Budget Moves, Read Whole: 125 Transfers Totaling $10.9 Million — the City Council Label Sits on 92 of Them at a Median of $15,000, While Three Seven-Figure Moves Carry 38 Percent

Budget binders with colored tabs on a sunlit desk by a window

OBM's quarterly transfer file read whole: 125 mid-year moves of appropriation authority totaling 10.87 million dollars across budget years 2025 and 2026 so far, each with its one-line justification quoted as filed. The City Council label sits on 92 rows at a median of 15,000 dollars; three seven-figure moves carry 38.1 percent of the money; 84.7 percent of the dollars never leave their appropriation series. Transfers move authority, not spending - and the page says so.

Chicago’s Library Year So Far, in Six Files: 77.3 Percent of Circulation Through July Sits on Lines That Aren’t Branches — Auto-Renewals Alone Are 1.9 Times All 82 Branch Lines Combined

A sunlit public library reading room with tall shelves and wooden tables

Six Chicago Public Library 2026 files read whole and side by side: 4.94 million visits through August, 8.1 million circulation items through July - 77.3 percent of them on non-branch lines led by Auto-Renewals and Downloadable Media - holds placed on online lines and filled on branch labels, 2.77 million WiFi sessions, and a label new to the visitors file already third. Each file summed to its own through-month, as filed; events, not people.

Chicago’s Ledger of Employees Who Owe It Money — 693 Weekly Snapshots Since 2011: 8,832 Owe $7.5 Million on the Latest, and One February Week the Total Jumped $3.7 Million

An open ledger book and calendar on a plain municipal office desk

Chicago's employee-indebtedness file read whole: 693 weekly snapshots since October 2011 counting how many people on city department and sister-agency payroll lines owe funds to the City. September 5, 2026: 8,832 employees owe 7.46 million dollars across 41 lines; the all-time peak, 10.78 million, came this February after a one-week 3.7 million dollar jump the file never explains. No names in the file, none here; what the debts are for is not recorded.

Chicago Floated Water Sensors at Six Beaches. All but 39 of the 16,588 Hourly Records Since 2017 Carry One Beach’s Label — Ohio Street, Whose July 2026 Averaged 73.8°F

A yellow water-quality buoy floating on sparkling blue lake water

The Park District's in-water beach sensor file read whole: 48,791 hourly records of Lake Michigan temperature, turbidity and waves since 2013 - and a record is not always a reading. Six beaches were instrumented in the mid-2010s; since 2017 all but 39 of 16,588 records carry the Ohio Street label, and its 2026 covered 98.6 percent of the summer's hours - July mean 23.2C / 73.8F. Error codes counted, extremes printed as filed, and no swimming claim: the bacteria record is a different file, linked.

Chicago’s New-Arrivals Payment Ledger, as Filed: $639.6 Million Net Across 86 Vendors — and One Vendor Holds 62.6 Percent of It

A city bus at a stop on a sunny downtown street

The city's own payment ledger for what its records call Migrant-related response costs, read whole and as filed: 4,206 lines netting 639.6 million dollars, checks October 2022 through April 2025, six funds (42 percent Corporate, 58 percent grants), 86 vendors with one - Favorite Healthcare Staffing - holding 62.6 percent of the net, and the fund-to-fund transfer bookkeeping quoted from the rows themselves. No position taken; every term the file's own.

Chicago’s TIF Decade, as the City Projects It: $9.75 Billion In, One in Five Districts Ending by 2026 — and One Anticipated to Run to 2058

A construction crane over a steel frame on a Chicago commercial corridor at dusk

The city wrote down its TIF decade: the October 2025 projections report, read whole as data. $9.75 billion of projected revenue across 108 districts, $4.42 billion of projected obligations - the biggest pointing at the CTA's Red Line extension - $2.51 billion of carried balances, one in five districts with anticipated end dates by 2026, and one anticipated to run to 2058. Projections, dated, never actuals, categories never netted.

Chicago’s Own Empty-Seats Ledger: 3,857 Vacancies on the August 31 Snapshot — and POLICE OFFICER Alone Accounts for 732

Rows of empty desks in a municipal office with tall windows

Chicago publishes its own empty-seats file monthly from its personnel system. The August 31 snapshot: 1,310 vacancy-carrying position lines, 3,857 vacancies beside 22,464 filled seats on those same lines - POLICE OFFICER alone at 732, one fire-recruit line at 166, and two-thirds of the file one empty chair at a time. No citywide rate, because the file lists only lines with vacancies - a boundary this page keeps on every number.

Chicago Reads Its Sewers Weekly: Four Viruses, Seven Sites, 237 Weeks — and Every Virus Sat at Minimal in the Newest Week on the File

A manhole cover in a sunlit brick-paved street

Since February 2022 Chicago has measured respiratory viruses in its sewers at seven sewershed sites, weekly. Read whole - 6,692 rows, 237 weeks - the file shows four very different ledgers: SARS-CoV-2 with 51 Very High weeks, Influenza B with exactly one, RSV peaking the week that straddled New Year 2024 - and every virus at Minimal in the newest week. Concentrations, never illness counts; every caveat quoted from the file itself.

What Chicago’s TIF Deals Promise, and What Their Reports Show So Far: 1,688 Jobs Projected on the 2025 Reports, 543 in the Actual Column

A mid-rise building under construction on a Chicago commercial street

The TIF annual reports now publish a deal-by-deal jobs scorecard: projections beside actuals for every subsidized redevelopment agreement. Read whole - 110 rows, 2022-2025 - the 2025 reports project 1,688 permanent jobs with 543 in the actual column so far, one agreement promised 70 jobs and reports 130, another promised zero and reports 59, and one projection reads exactly 2.5 jobs, printed as filed. Snapshots, not verdicts - and the file cuts both ways.

Chicago Measures Its Own Air Now: 286 Sensors, 2,544,089 Hourly Readings — and 96 Percent of Its 100-Plus PM2.5 Hours Landed on Two July Dates

An air-quality sensor mounted on a light pole on a hazy Chicago street

Chicago runs its own air-sensor network now: 286 sensors carrying all 77 community-area names, 2,544,089 hourly readings since July 2025, read whole. The PM2.5 record book belongs to two UTC dates - July 16 and 17, 2026, with a 486.8 microgram hour and 96 percent of every 100-plus sensor-hour ever logged - beside an ordinary record where such hours are 0.45 percent of everything. Not for regulatory purposes, says the file itself, and this page keeps every caveat.

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