1. Inside the Chicago Police Department’s Secret Budget
CPD brings in millions every year, outside its public budget, through civil forfeiture. That comes in small amounts—but often, those amounts aren’t small to those it’s taken from. The Reader gets the data.
2. How the Cubs Stack Up Within Baseball History
By one way of looking at it, they’re the sixth-best team of all time (and the five ahead of them did pretty well in the playoffs). Fangraphs puts them in their proper place.
3. The New Bohemia
A poet, a photographer, a filmmaker, and lots of musicians—all in their teens and 20s—are giving Chicago a creative renaissance. Chicago magazine profiles our up-and-coming artists.
4. Chicago’s Struggling Schools Made Wall Street $110 Million from $763 Million in Bonds
CPS was desperate for money. Desperation comes at a cost. The Wall Street Journal looks at their books.
5. Historic Houses and Homesteads in Old Norwood Park
It’s near the city border, but it has some of its oldest homes, including its oldest—the 1833 Noble-Seymour-Crippen House—and some of its best Italianate and Victorian architecture. Chicago Patterns photographs its fascinating visual history.
6. Chicago Prep Star Shot Six Times This Month Ready to Return
A senior running back—and swimmer, diver, and water polo player—at Chicago Vocational wasn’t supposed to play again. In a couple weeks he was back at school, and plans to be on the basketball team in December. The Sun-Times profiles Everett Henderson Jr.
7. Theo Epstein Will Be Paid Well After Agreeing to an Extension, But He’s Still a Bargain
Ten million a year is a lot, but it’s still less than 115 major-league players are paid. Is that the next competitive advantage? ESPN makes the case.
8. From Rails to Trails: The Economic Impact of Chicago’s Repurposed Railways
It’s not just the 606: property values tend to increase within a quarter-mile of a bike path. WBEZ analyzes the changes they bring.
9. RIP Agnes Nixon, the Legendary Creator of One Life to Live and All My Children
The soap-opera writer began her TV career in the birthplace of the genre: in Chicago, on the radio. Chicago magazine pays tribute.
10. I Never Worry About Being Shot in Chicago. After All, I’m White.
The media (and candidates) stoke fear of the city as a whole. The truth is much more nuanced, dependent on not just geography but skin color. Longtime resident Edward McClelland explains for the Washington Post.