Chicago’s lakefront is famously open and free. So why is a prime section of Montrose Beach roped off every summer? Because it’s for the birds. Literally. The piping plovers. WTTW News explains.

Along the Chicago lakefront is a strip of land that was once home to a small airport called Meigs Field. That was until one March 2003 morning when the city awoke to find Mayor Richard M. Daley had the airport bulldozed in the middle of the night. WTTW News explains.

Tax-increment financing wasn’t invented in Chicago, but former Mayor Richard M. Daley perfected it as he worked to transform Mud City into a gleaming metropolis.

Chicago is home to a plateful of iconic foods. But more than anything else, Chicago is known for its hot dogs and its pizza. WTTW News explains.

For four decades, Chicago has held the designation of a sanctuary city — but what does it mean, and how has Chicago’s status endured? WTTW News explains.

Whenever there’s talk about how to curb gun violence, two words often come up: assault weapons. Illinois is one of 10 states — plus Washington, D.C. — with a so-called assault weapons ban on the books. WTTW News Explains what that ban does. 

To this day, Chicagoans live in a fairly segregated city. And that segregation didn’t happen by coincidence but by design. WTTW News Explains how redlining worked in Chicago.

Every four years, residents of Chicago’s 50 wards pick their representative on the City Council. They are officially known as alderpeople. But what exactly do they do?

Chicago has a reputation as the City of Big Shoulders. For rough-and-tumble politics. And for having a lot of crime, despite strict gun laws. But what are those laws? WTTW News explains.

In case you haven’t heard, the cicadas are coming, and things are about to get loud. WTTW News explains.

Chicago is set to host the Democratic National Convention this summer. It will be the city’s 27th time hosting a national political convention. Chicago conventions have been some of the most memorable, raucous and consequential in American history.

There’s no more iconic Chicago St. Patrick’s Day tradition than dyeing the Chicago River green.

Chicago is a city of firsts — everything from the first Ferris wheel to the first brownie and the world’s very first skyscraper. WTTW News explains.

Every winter, Chicago stands divided around a practice commonly known as “dibs” – when car owners use janky household objects to reserve their precious shoveled-out parking spaces. So how did it begin? 

As you travel a ways west from the lake in Chicago, it’s hard not to notice clusters of north-south streets that all start with the same letters – K, L, M, N, O. What gives? WTTW News Explains.

You may have heard Chicago has a pension problem … to the tune of more than $35 billion of debt. Pensions affect nearly everyone — even if you’re not a public employee. Taxpayers have already been footing the bill to alleviate the pension debt.