Numbers for South Side streets, names for the North. Why?
We begin an investigation of a puzzling aspect of the area’s urban geography. We took a cue from an educator, whose interest got piqued during his former commute.
How many festivals is too many for Chicago?
A listener wonders if there’s too much fun for the City of Big Shoulders to lift. We head into the thick of the festival scene to find out whether the city’s hit a saturation point, or is just …
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Investigation timeline: How has Chicago’s coastline changed?
Miriam Reuter from Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood won the water-themed voting round. Her question is: “How has Chicago’s coastline changed over the decades?” We’re tracking down answers now, so …
Are mimes a solution to Chicago’s pedestrian crossing problem?
A listener asked us why more Chicago drivers don’t stop at crosswalks. Getting to the bottom of it led us to an experiment about what’s more effective: tough laws or a combo of wagging fingers, …
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ListenDo Descendants Of Native Tribes Live In Chicago?
In a word, yes. How many? That’s not so easy to answer.
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Investigation timeline: the Kennedy’s reversible highway lanes
This question from Mike Cunningham won our third Curious City voting round: “What are the rules around the reversible lanes on the Kennedy Expressway? Has the idea worked?” We’ll have updates as our …
The battle of the pastries: Doughnuts vs. cupcakes
How does a pastry trend take off?
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Another round of Curious City questions: Curious how all this works?
Within a week of Curious City’s launch, we received about 50 questions. The next week, that number almost doubled. Take a look inside the project’s inner workings.
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Question answered: Did Al Capone leave behind secret tunnels?
Curious City gets to the ‘Yes,’ ‘Maybe,’ and ‘Well, sort of’ at the bottom of listener Katie Conrad’s question. After all of our cold-calling, cajoling and suburban spelunking, the question remains.
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Behind the scenes of WBEZ’s Curious City
WBEZ’s Curious City is an experimental project and part of the national Localore initiative. Among our goals is to make the journalistic process more democratic and transparent. In that same vein, …
