Are Chicago’s Green Roofs Really Working?
WBEZ Listener Jenn Lawrence asked about one of the city’s highest-profile green initiatives. Does ‘The City on The Prairie’ still want prairies on our roofs?
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Commuters count on the South Side, read on the North?
If Chicago streets are messing with our directional skills, can historians come to the rescue? Curious City takes on a question posed by Mark Sheldon about why Chicago’s sensible numbered streets …
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What determines the quality of parks and playgrounds?
Our latest Curious City question comes from a woman who noticed that a park across town was bigger and better than her own.
Is Salt Mined Under Chicago?
If not, what’s up with that Umbrella Girl on Elston?
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Finding Chicago’s first maps
A reader wondered how Chicago’s coastline has changed over the decades. We look at the earliest maps of Chicago to get us closer to an answer.
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The logic behind the Kennedy’s reversible lanes
We deploy two video teams to capture the complex operation of reversing the lanes, keeping traffic flowing (most of the time) and the highways safe.
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ListenNumbers 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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