The Block Club Chicago Podcast

Update: Riot Fest is leaving the Douglass Park following years of tension between festival organizers, neighbors and local officials.

Original Episode Summary:

Riot Fest is set to return to Douglass Pa…

Advocates want bird safety building requirements to be mandatory. They say small changes, like requiring developers to use materials birds can see on the first 75 feet of a building, would make a hug…

The first-term mayor defended his handling of the migrant crisis and pointed to enacted policies as proof he’s fulfilling his campaign promises in an interview with Block Club. But he’s also faced cr…

David Ross taught himself to make electric bikes while growing up in an Amish community. He’s helped make Robert’s Cycle, opened in 1935, a hub of e-bike repairs and sales.

Host - Jon Hansen

Reporter -…

As neighborhood groups and nearby restaurant owners lobbied against Clark Street Outdoor Dining program, Ald. Brendan Reilly says he was pressured to write a letter agreeing to end it or permits woul…

A report on policing alternatives looked at over 4 million 911 calls from 2022 in Chicago and in seven other cities. It found that most were unrelated to urgent safety needs, spurring calls from advo…

Local alderpeople and firefighter organizations formed a Black Fire Coalition Friday to demand the city implement policies to rectify discriminatory practices that have kept Black people from joining…

Ashley Dickson never expected to see her copper-colored prom dress again. Now, her daughter will get to wear it to her own prom.

Host - Jon Hansen

Reporters - Iridian Fierro, Francia Garcia Hernandez

Re…

After years of unanswered 311 complaints and fines ignored, the city is considering a pilot program to clear sidewalks. For inspiration, Chicago can look to Toronto, Syracuse where the cities do the …

Chicago Public Schools plans to do away with a decade-old system in which school funding was largely based on student enrollment. Instead, starting next year, each school will get a set number of sta…

Host - Jon Hansen

Guests - Quinn Myers, Max Bever

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It's been nearly a week since Election Day, and we still don't know who won the Democratic State's Attorney primary. In the meantime, so…

We get a behind the scenes tour of the archives of the Museum of Science and Industry, with curator Dr. Voula Saridakis, and find out what exactly her job is and how she ended up working at MSI. 

Host…

Nothing is the same at the apartment building where Mary Buford raised her family. The once-neglected courtyards on the side of the building are flush with grass and a rainbow of florals. In her firs…

The Democratic Primary for Cook County State's Attorney is close, 'Bring Chicago Home' is done, and Quinn Myers reports live from an uber between campaign headquarters to break it all down. Oh, and b…

The Asylum Seeker Emergency Rental Assistance Program has helped 4,600 households move into apartments. But some could soon lose their homes if they can’t find work.

Host - Jon Hansen

Reporter - Madiso…

While most associate Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with dyeing the river green and the Downtown parade, the city’s neighborhoods have storied parades of their own.

Host - Jon Hansen

Reporter…

The Chicago Teachers Union will push for teacher raises, plus more funding for special education, mental health services and sports programs as teachers negotiate the union’s first contract with Mayo…

For more than four decades, unhoused Chicagoans have called a small strip of land along the Dan Ryan Expressway in the South Loop home. While neighbors have gotten used to seeing tents, a tiny wooden…

A few years ago, Jim Bachor was hit by a “tsunami” of projects when he began filling city potholes with small mosaics. He’s since filled more than 100 potholes in Chicago with images of everything fr…

Block Club Chicago's Quinn Myers interviews Eileen O'Neill Burke, on why she thinks she should be Cook County's next State's Attorney. 

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