City government is a machine you can measure: requests go in, crews go out, inspectors write violations, labs test the water — and much of it leaves a public record. Each analysis below reads those records in full — how long things take, what gets closed, and what sits — and this page is the front door to all of them.
Every figure computed from the analyses’ source files · updated August 21, 2026How fast does the city close what you report?
Every closed 311 request created January 2024 through June 2026, timed from creation to closure by type and by community area — graffiti requests closed in under a day at the median, abandoned-vehicle requests in about twelve days. A closed request is the record’s word, not a verified repair. Chicago on the Clock: We Timed 793,774 Service Requests, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
CDOT’s own daily file of completed patch jobs, read whole: 2,756,235 potholes filled across 239,812 jobs, a median request-to-patch of about five days this year, and every community area’s count mapped — with the completed-jobs boundary stated, because the file records work done, never work waiting. Chicago’s Patch Ledger Records 2.76 Million Potholes Filled Since 2018 — and 2026 Has Already Out-Filled All of 2025
The Water in Basement request type read whole from the 311 file: 3,783 requests on August 17, 2025, a third of all 69,852 on the twenty busiest days, July and August holding half, Austin leading all 77 areas — requests, not verified floods, and a closing clock that records status, not findings, with the city’s own lookups for checking a block. Chicago’s 69,852 Water-in-Basement 311 Requests Since 2018 Follow the Storms: One Day in August 2025 Holds 5 Percent of Them, and Twenty Days Hold a Third
The one analysis here built on another agency’s files: the Water Reclamation District’s daily TARP pumping logs summed by year, its status reports’ contract-dollar cost ledger, and its own documents moving the last reservoir stage from 2029 to 2032 — with the logs’ 18-month hole stated and nothing filled in. Chicago’s Deep Tunnel, by MWRD’s Own Records: 1.55 Trillion Gallons Pumped Back in 28 Logged Years, $3.86 Billion in Contract Dollars — and the Last Reservoir Stage Has Slipped From 2029 to 2032
The claim as commonly heard, then the district’s own one-page log: 36 reversals to the lake re-summed to 52,465.4 million gallons, 41 percent of it in the September 2008 and April 2013 storms, read beside the city’s 311 storm ledger and kept apart from it. Chicago Reversed Its River in 1900. MWRD’s Own Log Shows It Has Released Water Back Into Lake Michigan 36 Times From 1985 Through 2025 — 52.5 Billion Gallons, the Last in July 2023, None in 2024 or 2025
The rodent-complaint ledger, month by month — 44,181 complaints logged in 2025, with monthly counts peaking in the warm months. It Is Peak Rat Season in Chicago. The City’s Own Rat Ledger Tells a Better Story Than the Trophy.
Are buildings being inspected — and fixed?
Violations written fell from 106,645 in 2018 to 49,377 in 2025 while the budgeted inspector corps barely moved. Chicago Still Budgets 200 Building Inspectors. It Writes Half as Many Violations as in 2018.
The city’s own Building Code Scofflaw List: 268 cases across ten snapshots, 44 on the newest (March 2026), and buildings that have sat on it for years. The Docket: Chicago’s Building Scofflaw List, and How Long a Building Can Stay Broken
Of the 89,021 violations written in 2019 that were marked open or complied as of August 3, 2026, 42.7 percent are marked complied — 24.9 percent in Englewood, 66.6 percent on the Near North Side. A complied mark is the department’s closure record, not a verified repair. Six Years On, Which 2019 Building Violations Are Marked Complied? A Quarter in Englewood, Two-Thirds on the Near North Side
When a complaint brings a building inspector, the median visit logged three violations in 2026 through August 7 — but of the 4,309 address-days in that window (one address, one inspection date), 306 ended with ten or more violations recorded at once. When a Complaint Brings the Inspector: 306 Inspection Days This Year Logged Ten-Plus Violations at a Single Address
Matching each failed inspection to the same license’s next visit in the food-inspection file: after a fail, the next recorded visit was a Pass or Pass w/ Conditions 84.6 percent of the time, and among fails that later reached a pass the median wait was 7 days — the food-inspection file’s fast clock, set against the building-violation ledger’s slow one. We Followed 20,379 Failed Chicago Food Inspections to Each License’s Next Recorded Visit. 84.6 Percent Ended in Pass or Pass w/ Conditions.
The administrative-hearings docket at honest grain: 841,271 charge-line rows describing 144,837 cases, every one issued by Buildings despite the file’s general name — hearings collapsed to 1,755 dockets in 2020 and 2025’s 10,701 was the busiest year since 2010, with 44 percent of dockets carrying at least one imposed fine and the fine column never summed, for a reason the piece explains. Chicago’s Hearing-Docket File Holds 144,837 Ordinance Cases — Every One From the Buildings Department, and No Disposition Column
What do the beach water tests show?
9,524 lab tests of beach water since 2021: about 5 percent hit the advisory threshold, and the gap between the best and worst beaches is seven-fold. The Yellow Flag Flies 7 Times as Often at One Chicago Beach as at Another
What do the mosquito traps find?
The city’s own trap-pool tests across twenty seasons — 3,894 positives since 2007, the 2026 surge charted week by week, and the live season compared only on a matched window. Pool tests, never human cases, and the page draws no line from one to the other. West Nile Season Is Surging in Chicago’s Trap Ledger: 187 Positive Pools So Far, the Fourth-Most at This Point in Twenty Seasons
When do police-reported crashes turn deadly?
Every police-reported crash from 2019 through the analysis’s July 2026 retrieval, by hour: the most crashes come in the afternoon, but the deadliest odds come in the dark. Chicago’s Crashes Peak at 3 p.m. The Odds of Dying in One Peak at 3 a.m.
Where does the money go?
Ten payee names received 30 cents of every contract dollar Chicago paid in 2025, nearly the same share as 2019 — and the $4.94 billion the city moved as direct vouchers sits outside that comparison, because the file’s own summarization drops those rows from earlier years. Chicago Paid $5.72 Billion on Contracts in 2025. Ten Payee Names Took 30 Cents of Every Dollar — Barely Changed From 2019.
Overtime fell from $523.0 million in 2023 to $467.7 million in 2025 while total payroll grew, and the number of employees collecting $100,000 or more in overtime pay went from 365 to 199 — a bill spread across 24,687 recipients, with the top 100 taking 2.9 cents of every overtime dollar. Chicago’s Overtime Bill Fell Two Years Running, to $467.7 Million in 2025. The $100,000-Overtime Club Nearly Halved.
The city’s own employee file, counted row by row with no employee named: 53 percent of positions sit in two departments, the most common job title in city government is Police Officer at 24.7 percent of the entire roster, part-time work barely exists, and salaried and hourly positions cluster in almost entirely different departments. Police and Fire Hold 16,960 of Chicago’s 31,768 City Positions — More Than Half the Roster
The city’s own ARPA ledger, joined to its program-names file: $1,859,400,552 of the $1,886,591,388 Treasury grant expended as of the July 31 refresh, every dollar showing as obligated, and $27.2 million left across 22 program lines — the largest balance on the CARE alternative-response program — with Treasury’s December 31, 2026 expenditure deadline reported as Treasury’s rule. Chicago Has Spent 98.6 Percent of Its $1.89 Billion ARPA Grant. $27.2 Million Remained on July 31.
The city’s quarterly lobbyist-compensation disclosures, summed as filed: $15.0 million reported for January–June 2026 periods, the largest first half in a file that opens in 2014 and peaked at $27.4 million in 2024 — with the identical-amount co-filing ambiguity quantified as an upper bound, never smoothed. Chicago’s Lobbying-Pay Ledger Since 2014: the $15.0 Million First Half of 2026 Is Its Largest
The TIF annual reports read as data: 121 districts’ special funds held $3.05 billion at the end of the 2024 report year, more than double the 2017 reports’ $1.42 billion in a roster that shrank from 144 districts — with the year’s $1.25 billion increment, $515 million in itemized expenditures, and the biggest funds ranked, all from the reports’ own figures. Chicago’s TIF Funds Held $3.05 Billion in the 2024 Reports — More Than Double 2017, in Fewer Districts
The Investment Committee’s own decision file, 2019–2024: 1,515 approvals carrying $4.48 billion of the $4.95 billion asked, the Red Line Extension’s $950 million the largest single ask — and a recorded-outcome set that holds approvals, holds, and referrals, never a denial. The 2025–26 request file, which records no outcomes, is read separately. Chicago’s TIF Committee Recorded 1,698 Decisions in Six Years. Its Outcome Categories Contain No Denial.
The deal side of TIF, read whole: 767 council-approved redevelopment and intergovernmental agreements since 1986, led by the Red Line Extension’s $959 million and the Red and Purple Modernization’s $622 million, with The 78’s $424.9 million leading 2026 — and only 30 percent of agreements carrying a completion-certificate date. Approvals, never disbursements. Chicago Has Approved $6.46 Billion in TIF Deal Subsidies Since 1986 — and the Two Biggest Went to the CTA
Sixteen adopted budget ordinances, 2011–2026, assembled into one read: totals up 115 percent to $18.67 billion, the salaries account’s share down from 29 percent to 19 — and the one department label in every file, Finance General, nearly tripled to $8.19 billion of pension, bond, and benefit lines. Authorizations, never spending. One Department Name Survives All Sixteen of Chicago’s Budget Ordinances: Finance General, Now 44 Percent of the Appropriations
The 75-year meter concession read from the documents the city posts — the Council office’s audited true-up ledger, the operator’s own filed statements, and the agreement’s February 2084 endpoint — including the December 2025 agreement by the operator’s owners to sell their interests, awaiting Council action as of the audit’s April 2026 cutoff. Chicago’s Parking-Meter Deal, From the Documents: $1.15 Billion Up Front in 2009, $161 Million in True-Up Payments Through 2024 — and the Owners Have Agreed to Sell
The 99-year Skyway concession from the city’s posted documents and the owners’ own filings: $1.83 billion in January 2005, $446.3 million of it refunding Skyway bonds, three reserve funds whose schedules show two drawn to $134,000 and $4,000 by mid-2016, $11,977,992 in deal fees, and $1,441,818,000 still unrecognized at the end of 2025 — with control of the concessionaire changed twice since and the city’s posted record stopping at its 2016 approval. Chicago’s Skyway Lease, From the Documents: $1.83 Billion Up Front in 2005, Two of Three Reserve Funds Drawn Near Zero by 2016, and $1.44 Billion Still Being Counted Through 2103
What does the city permit on its streets?
The transportation department’s whole application ledger, counted by distinct application number: 1,801,871 applications across eleven permit types, from public-way openings to dumpsters — 985,144 of them marked Open at the August 2026 retrieval, including 62 percent of the applications started in 2016. Chicago’s Transportation-Permit File Holds 1.8 Million Applications. More Than Half Are Marked Open.
The transportation department’s filming-permit file, counted at the application grain the file’s own location rows would otherwise quadruple: 26,307 applications since 2013, volumes still below 2019, and since 2021 a fee ledger where most of what is calculated is waived — with no reason recorded in the file. Chicago Has Waived Nearly Two-Thirds of Its Calculated Filming-Permit Fees Since 2021 — $5.66 Million of $8.78 Million
The 811 hit ledger read at honest grain — 62,897 notice rows describing 14,508 hit reports — with gas service leading the struck-facility mentions, Peoples Gas-owned facilities in 43 percent of reports, and reports never mistaken for verified strikes. Chicago’s 811 File Holds 14,508 Utility-Hit Reports Since 2015. Gas Leads — and 846 Reports Record What Was Hit as UNKNOWN.
CDOT’s truck-limit file read in full: 1,713 posted height restrictions, the fourteen lowest ranked with every tie listed in full, 590 posted below 13 feet 6, and the Loop and Near West Side tied at 134 postings apiece — posted signs, never measured structures. The Lowest Posted Clearance in Chicago’s Truck-Limit File Is 9 Feet 8 Inches — and One in Three Postings Sits Below 13 Feet 6
How busy are the library branches?
Branch visits ran 18 percent below 2019 and branch checkouts 29 percent below, while checkouts the system logs as downloadable media grew from 1.84 million to 4.54 million — a 15-year, branch-by-branch panel assembled from thirty of the library’s own datasets. Chicago’s Library Branches Logged 6.6 Million Visits in 2025, 18 Percent Below 2019. Nine of 67 Branches Beat Their 2019 Count.
Who is licensed to carry passengers?
The passenger-vehicle register read whole: 16,329 records across nine types from taxis to horse-drawn carriages, fewer than half ACTIVE, active liveries ahead of active taxis 4,621 to 2,679, and exactly 14 active electric vehicles — every status counted as the file records it, meanings not guessed. More of Chicago’s Taxi License Records Sit at VIOLATION Than ACTIVE — 3,518 to 2,679, in the City’s Own Register
What happened to sidewalk cafés and taverns?
Chicago permitted 1,169 sidewalk cafés for 2025 against 1,192 in 2019 — but the Loop holds 108 where it held 144, a band of North Side areas runs above its 2019 count, and barely half of 2019’s cafés reappear on a 2025 permit under the same owner account at the same site. Chicago’s Sidewalk Cafés Are Nearly Back to Their 2019 Count. The Loop Is at 75 Percent.
The license file shows 1,386 premises holding an active tavern license on July 1, 2003 and 758 on July 1, 2026 — a slide spread across two decades — while premises licensed for package goods went from 1,005 to 1,053 and have outnumbered licensed taverns every July since 2013. Chicago Had 1,386 Licensed Taverns in 2003. This July It Has 758.
How this hub works
Every figure on this page is computed from the same source files the analyses use, committed alongside them — the city’s public 311, building-violation, beach-lab, payment, payroll, license, disclosure and permit files among them — and each analysis links its source datasets directly and documents its own methods, windows and caveats. This page is rebuilt from those same files when analyses are updated; the date above is its last rebuild. If you spot an error, corrections come first.