We look at eight building features and what each reveals about how society and urban life has changed over the years.

Engineers once compared Chicago’s soggy soil to jelly cake. How did they build a forest of skyscrapers on it?

Most aldermen almost always vote with the mayor, but that's starting to change.

In the past decade the city paid out nearly $3 million drivers whose cars were damaged by poor road conditions. Is asphalt to blame?

Political activism and businesses helped shape the city's gay neighborhood, but there's a debate about its future.

When a flight gets cancelled, it's not only travel plans that get trashed.

Was there ever a Nazi neighborhood in Chicago? In this special Curious City mini-documentary and online presentation (complete with archival photos and video), we tell the story of how an infamous neo-Nazi group settled in the Marquette Park neighborhood and used it as a home base to gain attention and promote its political agenda. The story of the group’s rise and fall on Chicago’s Southwest Side raises questions about the extent of free speech and how mainstream racism in any neighborhood can encourage hate groups.  

Scabby the Rat is now common on picket lines around the world, but the balloon started in Chicago’s historically blue-collar suburbs.

Officials say the Jane Addams Tollway will soon be faster, safer and smarter. But will it deliver?

Medical calls outnumber fire calls 20 to one in Chicago. So why does the city own so many more fire trucks than ambulances?