This is good news if you like helping children and/or motorcycles. It's bad news if you want to drive down Western Avenue tomorrow. more ›

Nostalgic for the pre-Mapquest world? Do your dogeared city guides and abused atlases sit proudly on your bookshelves? Have we got an event for you. The citywide Festival of Maps kicks off tomorrow, and is a tribute to those simpler, flatter world guides we’d consult constantly before the internets helped us find the best non-highway crosstown routes quicker than you could say "Western Avenue." It’s the first fest of its kind, and is a collaboration... more ›

We were headed south on Western Avenue Friday night, on the way to view our fellow Chicagoista's photography opening, when we heard a familiar voice playing a song off the request lines. It was Johnny Mars, doing his first shift back at XRT since he was "squeezed out" back in 2001 (Feder). more ›

If you’re nostalgic for the caravan of moving trucks tooling around the city in late September—and really, who isn’t?—John Song and Ries Productions have an event for you. “Mobile Exhibitions” is a Humboldt Park art show on wheels, a commentary on urban evolution, and an excuse to play with balloons and piñatas. The one true sign of neighborhood gentrification is constantly debated. The new Starbucks on the corner? The Urban Outfitters next to American Apparel?... more ›

Some weeks the people of our fair city amaze us with the sheer quantity of forehead-slapping, spitting-coffee-all-over-the-keyboard stupid news items they produce, and some weeks we start to believe the town is inhabited by only Boy Scouts and PhDs. This week is one of the latter, but we managed to dig a few dumb tidbits out of ye ole RSS reader. more ›

Believe it or not, some people actually seem to get off on tragedies such as last week's London transit bombings. While the rest of us try to go about our day-to-day lives, mourning with our English counterparts and nervously eyeing bag-toting passengers near us on the L, a select few bastards out there use these unfortunate events as an opportunity to spread even more fear. What fun! Early yesterday morning, authorities shut down the CTA... more ›

While it's true that this weekend boasts two St. Patrick's Day parades, one on the north side and one on the south, experienced St. Patrick's Day celebrants know that the only one worth mentioning is that of the parade taking place in the neighborhood of Beverly. We at Chicagoist have been accused of having a north side-bias, but when it comes to where one should celebrate St. Patrick's Day, the south side rules and we... more ›

A tall, blond man posing as a health inspector has been robbing small businesses on the North Side. He flashes a health inspector badge, walks through the store, and then steals shit. This shtick has worked on 1400 block of West Fullerton Avenue, the 4800 block of North Western Avenue, the 2900 block of North Broadway Street and the 5600 block of North Ridge Avenue. He told an employee at one store that he had a gun and demanded cash from the safe. We're no health inspection experts, but we can only assume that set off some bogus radar. more ›