Stories by Erica Gunderson

It’s not so glamorous anymore, but there was a time when people clamored to enjoy the novelty of eating fast food from the comfort of their cars. Geoffrey Baer serves up some fast food history with a side of super signs in this week’s Ask Geoffrey.

Friday marks the start of Black Restaurant Week, a nationwide showcase of Black-owned restaurants now in its fifth year. Here’s a look at what to expect.

The gleaming skyline that makes Chicago an architectural wonder is primarily made up of office towers. But those glassy marvels have been largely empty since March. A look at the prospects for downtown commercial real estate.

Hundreds of protesters gathered near Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Logan Square home late Saturday, continuing calls to defund the police, end police presence in Chicago Public Schools and implement remote learning in the fall amid the pandemic.

Married musicians and educators Yakini Ajanaku and Jean-Paul Coffy kicked off the daily concert series in March as a way to help their block stay connected through the long days of quarantine due to COVID-19. 

They’re rare now, but rooftop water tanks once stood sentinel atop every large building in the city, keeping them safe from threat of fire.

A look back at Chicago’s deadly heat wave — and how it compares to the coronavirus pandemic — with Eric Klinenberg, author of the 2002 book, “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.”

When Diane McCoy Lee was named “Top Teen in Public Housing” in a 1962 Chicago Housing Authority contest, she was a straight-A student. But just a few years later, she was a college dropout in an abusive marriage.

On Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood, reflections on race and racism adorn bright yellow ribbons that rustle in the breeze across from Facility, the creative space and gallery behind a community-based art project.

Geoffrey Baer has the scoop on some Chicago ice cream history.

After a long spring indoors, many kids are ready to get back outside. But the pandemic means this year, the boys and girls of summer are practicing social distancing along with catching and hitting.

If you’ve ever marveled at archive footage of old Chicago in a WTTW documentary, chances are good it came from Walt Keevil’s north suburban basement.

This spring, Chicago saw record rainfall for the third May in a row – and with it, the return of flooded streets, parks and basements. A new analysis finds many more Chicago properties are at risk of flooding than previously thought.

Geoffrey Baer shares the story of a clash between women’s suffragists and anti-lynching activists.

As parents begin returning to the office amid the coronavirus pandemic, a glaring problem awaits them: child care. And for many Illinois families, COVID-19 made an already difficult situation even worse.

Longtime viewers might remember a time when for one wild week a year, they could buy everything from spark plugs to mink coats right here at our studios. Geoffrey Baer revisits that era.

It’s been 95 long days since the treadmills and weight benches of Chicago’s fitness centers fell silent thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this Friday, gyms in Illinois will be allowed to reopen.

Internet access has been a lifeline for those staying at home. But for the 18% of Illinoisans without a broadband internet subscription, that lifeline is cut off. We discuss ideas for ensuring internet equity.

As Latino communities scramble to understand why the coronavirus has hit them so hard, they’re calling upon elected officials to do more to help reverse the trend of rising infection rates.

The new WTTW-produced PBS series “Prehistoric Road Trip” is a project more than two billion years in the making. Host Emily Graslie tells us about the show.

For many people, calling the police to handle everything from noise complaints to neighbor disputes is a reflexive response. But for some, a troubled history with police makes calling 911 a difficult choice. 

As those of us who are accustomed to sniffling, coughing and sneezing our way through spring and summer already know, it’s allergy season. But during a pandemic, those coughs could signal something more than a high pollen count.

Sports fans, the countdown can finally begin. As the country takes its first steps out of a coronavirus-induced slumber, plans for the re-emergence of pro sports are surfacing. 

Just about every teenager gets safe-driving tips from their parents when they get their first driver’s license. But for black teens, the freedom and independence that comes with driving necessitates an added conversation.

As images of police brutality and cities on fire saturate the media, keeping kids in the dark may not be an option. Here are tips for talking to children about difficult topics.

How Chicago communities came together to push past tensions that were feeding a racial divide.