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.

8 Chicago Height Records, by the Record: The City That Raised Its Streets, a Footprint File Where Two Stories Is King — and a Stories Column That Tops Out at 110

Brick two-flats in the foreground with the Chicago skyline rising behind

Chicago's height story, with receipts: the streets themselves were raised four to five feet on average in the 1850s, a building among the world's first skyscrapers went up - and came down - at LaSalle and Adams, the Willis Tower held the world title for nearly 25 years, and the city's own footprint file crowns a different king: two stories, 198,439 times. Eight vertical records, every one traceable.

Does Chicago’s Alt-Fuel File Mean a Plug Is Always Near? 350 Public Electric Stations, Just 291 Fast Ports — and the Columns That Decide

An electric car plugged into a public charging station on a Chicago street at dusk

Chicago's alternative-fuel file lists 398 stations, and the short answer is direct: 350 public electric stations marked Available, 283 of them posted 24 hours. The longer answer lives in the columns - 1,043 Level 2 ports against just 291 fast ports, 26 network labels, four ZIP codes holding 38 percent of everything, and a last-confirmed date on nearly every row. A decision-guide read of the whole file.

Chicago Has 1,937 Legislated Parking Zones. The Median One Is Two Block-Sides Long — and 1,382 Segments Hold Zone Rights With No Signs for Their Zone

A Chicago side street lined with parked cars and a parking sign pole

Why does your block need a permit while the next street over doesn't? Chicago's residential permit parking is assembled from 1,937 active zones created by City Council legislation - and the file runs small: the median zone is two block-sides, 238 zones are a single segment, zone 383 sprawls to 653. One in seven active segments is an unsigned buffer where permit rights exist without that zone's signs, 17 percent of zone-street pairs cover one side only, and 503 segments sit rescinded. Prices and rules live with the City Clerk.

Chicago Deep Dish, by the Record: Born Fall 1943, With a Creator the Reference Work Never Names — and 2,445 Active Licenses With PIZZ in the Name

A deep dish pizza in a steel pan with a slice being lifted

Seven things about Chicago deep dish, each traced to a named source: a fall 1943 birth per the Encyclopedia of Chicago, an origin Uno's page credits to Ike Sewell while the reference work names three partners and no inventor, a 600-degree recipe, pizza in Chicago since the 1890s, a first Lou Malnati's that opened in Lincolnwood on St. Patrick's Day 1971, a Gino's East opened by two taxi drivers and a partner - and 2,445 active licenses with PIZZ in the name, counted by us. No pizza is ranked; no restaurant is recommended.

7 Things Under Chicago, by the Record: Raised Streets, a Freight-Tunnel Flood — and Tunnels 300 Feet Down

An old underground freight tunnel with rail tracks receding into darkness

Seven things under Chicago, each traced to a named record: streets raised four to five feet on average in the 1850s, buildings lifted one owner at a time, a forgotten freight-tunnel network that flooded the Loop with 250 million gallons of river water in 1992, a Pedway linking more than 40 blocks, a separate government's 110 miles of tunnels up to 300 feet down, and the 811 file that logs what diggers hit. Every quote verified against its source; every figure of ours labeled.

The Park District’s Event File Is Three Calendars in One: 96,765 Permit Rows, 40,553 Administrative Reservations, 5,048 Venue Rentals — and 13 Rows Marked Denied Since 2012

A Chicago lakefront park lawn with picnic tables on a summer morning

The Chicago Park District - a separate government from the city - keeps a reservation ledger of 142,366 rows, 2012 into future-dated 2026 bookings. Read by its own labels it is three calendars: 96,765 permit rows (98 percent marked Approved; 13 denial-labeled rows in fifteen years), 40,553 administrative reservations, and 5,048 venue rentals, 1,867 of them weddings. Athletic training is one permit row in three, and the most-reserved space in the file is a greenhouse. No applicant name was queried.

11 of Chicago’s Most Haunted Places: The Stories as They’re Told — and What the Record Shows at Each of Them

Wrought-iron cemetery gates at dusk with mist, old monuments and a hazy Chicago skyline beyond

The eleven places where Chicago's ghost stories are told, each set against the record: the Iroquois fire's 602 dead per the city library, the Eastland's 844 per the historical society, the Park District's own page on the tomb in Lincoln Park, Jane Addams's firsthand 1916 account of the Devil Baby, five city-landmark buildings - and no ghost in any record this page reviewed. Every quoted sentence checked against its source page.

Every Chicago Lakefront Beach, Ranked by Advisory-Level Water Tests

Clear water at a Chicago lakefront beach on a summer morning

North Avenue Beach has the cleanest water-test record on Chicago's lakefront - 1.4 percent of its lab tests since 2021 at or above the swim-advisory action level - while 63rd Street sits at 10.3 percent, seven times that share. All 17 lakefront beaches ranked from the city's own 9,524 lab results, with Humboldt's inland lagoon counted apart.

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