How Chicago Works, by the Numbers

How 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 2026 sweeping schedule parsed whole, as a decision guide: 837 ward sections across all 50 wards, 8,545 scheduled section-sweep dates from April 1 to November 20, the median section at ten and two Ward 2 sections at 66, the city’s own side-of-street two-date convention quoted and matched in the rows — intent never converted into completed sweeps, corrections possible per the file, and the ward-section lookup linked. When Does the Street Sweeper Come? Chicago’s 2026 Schedule Holds 8,545 Section-Sweep Dates, 2,721 Still Ahead — and Two Sections Booked 66 Times

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 city’s three environmental files read by the seam their own descriptions state: the Department of Environment’s half records no resolution on any of 40,506 complaint rows and no result on any of 177,749 inspection rows; the Department of Public Health’s half records outcomes on every row but leaves half its complaints undated; inspection dates run from 1753 to 4202; and the enforcement fine column repeats within dockets and goes negative, so it is not summed. Chicago’s Environmental Complaints, Inspections and Enforcement Files Each Split at January 1, 2012 — and the Older Half of the Complaints and Inspections Files Records No Outcomes at All

The energy-benchmarking file at honest grain — one row per building per reporting year, 3,852 buildings, 2014–2023, portal last updated February 5, 2025: the 2023 placard wall is heaviest at both ends (769 four-stars, 564 zeros), 82.7 percent of covered rows filed, the average K-12 school scores 25.3 points below the average office, exactly one building records a perfect 100, and the filers sum to 637 million square feet and 4.59 million tons of reported greenhouse gas. In Chicago’s Big-Building Energy File, 769 Buildings Wear Four Stars and 564 Wear Zero — and 542 Didn’t File for 2023

The city’s alternative-fuel file read as a decision guide: 398 listed locations, 367 electric, 350 public and marked Available — but 1,043 of the 1,337 ports are Level 2, the fast lane is 46 stations and 291 ports, four ZIP codes hold 38 percent of everything, and nearly every row carries its own last-confirmed date. What the file confirms, what it cannot, and where the records live. 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

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

The separate government that runs the parks keeps a reservation ledger read here by its own labels, lanes never blended: 98.0 percent of permit rows marked Approved, athletic training as one permit row in three, an April 2020 with 59 rows, August 11.3 times January — and the most-reserved space in the file is the Garfield Park Conservatory’s show rooms. No applicant name was queried. 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

What do the air sensors read?

Open Air Chicago’s 277 non-regulatory sensors read from the program’s daily file: a median sensor-day of 9.02 micrograms of PM2.5, half of sensor-days Good and most of the rest Moderate by the file’s own AQI column, and the July 16–17, 2026 smoke days when the network-wide mean hit 133 and 168 — provider-calibrated values, UTC days, no compliance finding. Chicago’s New Air-Sensor Network, Its First 391 Days: 102,907 Sensor-Days, a Median Day Near 9 Micrograms — and Two July 2026 Days When the Network-Wide PM2.5 Mean Hit 133 and 168

The same network at hourly grain: 2,544,089 sensor-hour rows since July 2025. The PM2.5 record book belongs to July 16 and 17, 2026 (UTC) — a 486.8 μg/m³ hour in South Deering, a 737 in the NowCast-AQI column in Norwood Park — beside an ordinary record where 100-plus hours are a third of one percent of everything. Cloud-calibrated values, UTC dates, the file’s own not-for-regulatory caution kept, and no cause attributed. 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

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

The sewershed surveillance file read whole: 6,692 site-virus-week rows since February 2022, the description’s own double-counting warning obeyed, category ledgers per virus (SARS-CoV-2 with 51 Very High weeks, Influenza B with exactly one), each peak dated — Influenza A’s 37.9 in November 2022 tops the file — and concentrations never converted into illness. Chicago Reads Its Sewers Weekly: Four Viruses, Seven Sites, 237 Weeks — and Every Virus Sat at Minimal in the Newest Week on the File

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.

The retired Traffic Tracker archive read whole — 10,776,684 region-interval estimates from CTA bus GPS, 2018–2026: 3 a.m. fastest, the 4 and 5 p.m. hours tied slowest, the Loop the slowest of 29 regions and Riverdale-Hegewisch the fastest, a seven-full-year average moving inside a 0.77 mph band — and every figure an average of estimates, not a driver’s speed. Chicago Ran a Speedometer Made of Buses for Eight Years: 3 a.m. Is 7.5 mph Faster Than 4 p.m., and the Loop at 5 p.m. Averages 13.9

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 mayor’s proposed positions file read in its own three units — 27,924 annual positions, 3,241,714 budgeted hours, 794 budgeted months, never summed — beside the August employee file: police budgeted 13,727 against 12,181 on payroll, hourly-heavy departments inverting the gap, Police Officer as 31 percent of every budgeted position, and a $350,000 top salary at the aviation department, above the superintendent and the mayor. Chicago’s 2026 Budget Carries 27,924 Annual Positions. The Employee File Runs 1,546 Below It at the Police Department Alone — and the Top Budgeted Salary Belongs to the Aviation Commissioner.

The personnel system’s monthly vacancy roster, read at its own boundary: 1,310 position lines that each carry at least one empty seat, so no citywide rate is possible or attempted. Police hold 1,393 of the 3,857 vacancies, one police-officer line reads 7,395 positions with 401 empty, Public Health’s listed lines run 42 percent vacant — and two-thirds of the file is one empty chair at a time. Chicago’s Own Empty-Seats Ledger: 3,857 Vacancies on the August 31 Snapshot — and POLICE OFFICER Alone Accounts for 732

The adopted book read line by line against the proposal, units never mixed: the entire annual-position difference is +51 across eight departments and sums exactly, the library takes 46 positions and 52,497 of the 61,760 added hours, police pass through untouched at 13,727, and the dollar book moves 0.22 percent. Between Proposal and Ordinance, Chicago’s 2026 Position Book Moved by 51 — and 46 of the 51 Went to the Library

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 own payment ledger for what its records call Migrant-related response costs, read whole and as filed: $639,604,049.42 net on 4,206 lines with checks from October 2022 through April 2025, 42 percent on the Corporate Fund and 58 on grants, Favorite Healthcare Staffing at 62.6 percent of the net, and the fund-to-fund transfer bookkeeping quoted from the rows themselves — every term the file’s own, no position taken. Chicago’s New-Arrivals Payment Ledger, as Filed: $639.6 Million Net Across 86 Vendors — and One Vendor Holds 62.6 Percent of It

The Park District’s in-water sensor file read whole: 48,791 hourly readings of Lake Michigan temperature, turbidity and waves since 2013, a six-beach network narrowed to one label since 2017, and a 2026 season the surviving sensor covered for 98.6 percent of its window’s hours — July mean 23.2°C. Extremes printed as filed, error codes counted, and the fit-for-swimming question left to the bacteria lab file it links. Chicago Floated Water Sensors at Six Beaches. All but 39 of the 16,588 Readings Since 2017 Carry One Beach’s Label — Ohio Street, Whose July 2026 Averaged 73.8°F

Revenue’s weekly count of employees on city-department and sister-agency payroll lines who owe funds to the City, read whole across 693 snapshots: $7,456,679.40 owed by 8,832 on September 5, 2026, the all-time peak of $10.78 million this February, the CTA line at 19.5 percent of its headcount, 13 lines at zero — counts and sums as filed, no names in the file and none here, and what the debts are for never recorded. 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

Six CPL 2026 files read whole and side by side, each to its own through-month: 4.94 million visits through August (a label new to the visitors file already third), 8.1 million circulation items through July with 77.3 percent on non-branch lines, holds placed on online lines and filled on branch labels, 2.77 million WiFi sessions — events, never people, and no cross-file joins. 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

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

The annual reports’ deal-by-deal jobs scorecard at honest grain: 110 agreement-year rows, summed within report years only because 35 of 50 agreements recur. The 2025 reports project 1,688 permanent jobs with 543 in the actual column so far; one agreement promised 70 and reports 130, another promised zero and reports 59, one projection reads exactly 2.5 jobs — and every actual is a snapshot, never a verdict. 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

The October 2025 ten-year projections report read whole as data: $9.75 billion of projected revenue across 108 districts (Kinzie Industrial Corridor’s $1.54 billion leads), $4.42 billion of projected obligations topped by the CTA’s Red Line construction IGA, $2.51 billion of carried balances, 22 districts with anticipated end dates by 2026 — categories never netted, projections never actuals, every figure dated to the report. 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

The TIF-funded building-improvement program’s completed file, read whole and exactly: $158.3 million paid on $311.4 million of project costs, a $55,331 median grant, 70 community areas and 121 TIF districts, 2012 the busiest year and 2025 the biggest in dollars — with the file’s own jobs columns labeled aspirational, a word this page keeps. No applicant name is printed. Chicago’s Small Business Improvement Fund Has Paid $158 Million Across 2,260 Projects (Median Project Share: 60 Percent) — and Its Jobs Columns Say Aspirational

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 Department of Finance’s taxpayer rolls, counted and never quoted: Ground Transportation leads at 10,299 registrations, the amusement family runs five distinct labels including one for social media, 6,947 registrations list out-of-state addresses across 62 state codes, and no rate appears — the city’s own tax list is the lookup. The Register Behind the Weird Lines on Your Chicago Receipt: 41,940 Tax Registrations, 35 Labels — and Two Labels With One Registrant Each

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 residential permit-parking file read whole: 10,392 block-side segments in 1,937 active zones created by Council legislation — 238 zones one segment long, zone 383 at 653, one in seven segments an unsigned buffer where permit rights exist without that zone’s signs, 17 percent of zone-street pairs covering one side only, and 503 segments rescinded. The legislation, not the metal, is the zone. 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

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

The four city pension funds from the city’s own 2025 financial report and the funds’ own valuations: $14.20 billion held against $50.63 billion of liability, $36.43 billion short and 28.1 percent funded on the city’s basis; $2.85 billion paid in by the city in 2025 against $2.87 billion paid out; ten years of contributions beside the actuaries’ figures (64.5 percent of the determined amounts, 2016–2025); why the same funds also read 28.15, 26.08, 26.66 and 21.65 percent; and the actuaries’ own projections of 50 percent no sooner than 2043. Chicago’s Pensions, as the Documents State Them: $14.2 Billion Held Against $50.6 Billion of Pension Liability at the End of 2025, 28 Percent Funded — and No Fund Projected to Pass 50 Percent Before 2043 on the Schedule State Law Sets

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 request side of the digging story, at honest grain: one dig ticket fans out to about a dozen utility notices, so ticket counts are per-year distincts — 191,071 in 2023, the file’s busiest — while the notification ledger runs to 18,091,229 rows. Peoples Gas takes one notice in four, the City itself ranks second among 75 notified names, 223,074 rows carry the no-show label, and emergencies are 2.8 percent of everything. Before a Shovel Touches Chicago Ground, the Notices Fly: 18,091,229 Utility Notifications Since 2018 — and the City Is the Second-Most-Notified Name on Its Own 811 List

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 moratorium file at honest grain — 36,508 protected street segments since 1998, counted as segments and never miles: 14,093 active on 993 streets, the ordinance’s doubled permit fees quoted, 2023 the biggest start year in the file, exactly three rows labeled No Digging — and a Churchill Street moratorium running to the year 2207, printed as filed. Chicago Keeps a Do-Not-Dig List: 14,093 Active Street Moratoriums, Doubled Permit Fees After Repaving — and One Stretch Protected Until 2207

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

The inspection appointment book read whole: 7.3 bookings per vehicle with RETEST alone 29 percent of the file, FAILED shares of decided results at 44.8 percent for liveries, 33.8 for taxis, 18.4 for ambulances, Toyota on 78 percent of rows, 578 wheelchair-accessible taxis — and one RETEST dated July 15, 2098, marked PASSED, printed as filed. Chicago’s Vehicle-Inspection Lane: 38,647 Appointments for 5,330 Cabs, Liveries and Ambulances, a 34 Percent FAILED Share — and One Taxi Booked for 2098

Every recorded medallion transfer since 2007 — 5,729 closings: the median positive-price sale fell 98.3 percent from its 2013 peak, recorded transfers nearly stopped (21 in 2015) before prices gave way, one medallion went from $380,000 to $12,000 in the same file, 166 $0 transfers are counted apart from every price figure — and the most frequent seller name in the ledger is the city’s own business-affairs department. Chicago’s Taxi Medallions, Sale by Recorded Sale: A $357,000 Median in 2013, $6,000 in 2026 — and the File’s Most Frequent Seller Is the City Itself

The meter and the app, computed by the identical formula on the city’s own trip files, landed 3.4 cents apart in June 2026 — but 81 cents of the taxi dollar is metered fare while almost 35 cents of the rideshare dollar sits on the additional-charges line. The taxi mile is up 9.3 percent since 2024 on shorter, slower trips; two airport-area community areas supply a fifth of pickups; about 2,900 cabs are working; and cash tips all but never reach the record. In June 2026, a Chicago Taxi Mile Cost $4.17 and a Rideshare Mile $4.21 — and the Fare Dollar Split Opposite Ways

The driver side of the taxi files: 29,935 license records read with the name and sex columns never selected — 941 DENIED and 254 REVOKED counted as printed, 44 percent of active licenses issued since 2022 with 2023 the biggest minting year on the register, half of active records listing addresses outside Chicago, 149 active pedicab chauffeurs, 161 horse-drawn rows with zero active — and roughly three licensed taxi drivers for every active taxi vehicle license, each file dated. Chicago’s Chauffeur Register Holds More Expired Licenses Than Active Ones — 13,758 to 13,274 — and Its Oldest Active License Record Was Issued in 1965

The other driver register: 12,014,008 driver-month rows the companies report under ordinance, read at honest grain — 6.5 driver records per active chauffeur license, 32.3 percent of the June 2026 roster at zero trips, 29.5 percent flagged as driving for more than one company, 57.9 percent starting within twelve months, 40.9 percent listing Chicago addresses — and every row, without exception, classified Independent Contractor. Chicago’s Rideshare Roster: 86,195 Driver Records in June 2026, Little More Than Half Its 2017 Peak — and a Third of Them Recorded Zero Trips

The car itself, from 12,862,175 vehicle-month rows: Toyota 31,763 of 97,695, the seven most common models all Toyotas, Black over Silver by 168, median model year 2020 with the register running 2009 to 2027, a zero-trip third under the file’s own eligibility definition, one in five cars reported by more than one company — and 11,500 more vehicle records than driver records in the same month’s reports. What Car Will Your Ride Be? Chicago’s Rideshare Register Lists 97,695 Vehicles for June 2026 — One in Three a Toyota, and Black Beats Silver by 168 Cars

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.