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It’s Labor Day. We asked our reporters to submit the work they’re most proud of so far in 2026. As you celebrate the holiday, read a small selection of those local stories below.
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A new overlook gives visitors a panoramic view of Marian Byrnes Park’s 140 acres, a mix of woodland, wetland and slag prairie. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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One of Chicago’s most significant natural areas is also in many ways its least natural.
There are places in Marian Byrnes Park — 140 acres of woods, wetland and prairie in the Jeffery Manor community on the Southeast Side — where shovels clank against a layer of impenetrable steel slag.
Slag, a byproduct of the steelmaking process that hardens into a rock-like form, was once dumped here by the trainload, back in the days when the area’s wetlands were considered a wasteland not worth protecting.
“We’ve tried to do some planting in the slag but we can’t dig into it,” said Lauren Umek, project manager with the Chicago Park District, who’s been leading restoration work at Marian Byrnes for more than a decade.
And yet, life finds a way.
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Married couple Anthony and Andrea Vizzari own the Strip Club Photobooth Studio, located at 1702 N. Damen Ave. in Bucktown. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)
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Married couple Anthony and Andrea Vizzari, who started a business of repairing and manufacturing photo booths nearly two decades ago, opened a photo booth studio in Bucktown amid a resurgence in popularity for photo booths and vintage-style photos.
The Strip Club, 1702 N. Damen Ave., features 10 vintage analog and “digital-retro” photo booths — with the oldest working photo booth from 1946. The studio is operated by the couple’s Lyons-based company A&A Studios, which is behind many of the photo booths found at bar establishments in Chicago, such as Empty Bottle, Penny Whistle, Sleeping Village and the Game Room at Chicago Athletic Association.
The renewed interest in photo booths comes during a time when many people’s photos end up in “the cloud or the ether,” Anthony Vizzari said. He added there’s an appeal to having physical photos to put on a fridge or a mirror, for instance.
“A physical, tangible object, something to walk away with documenting that experience in the booth, especially if it’s with friends or your partner, or sometimes just yourself,” Anthony Vizzari said, “I think that goes a long way.”
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A sidewalk in Roscoe Village is pictured in an April 2024 file photo. (Jared Rutecki / WTTW News)
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Getting around Chicago can be extremely difficult for people with a disability — and not just because it’s a complicated, noisy urban environment.
In 2023, a federal judge ruled in a class action lawsuit that Chicago’s failure to make its signalized crosswalks accessible to blind and low-vision pedestrians violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act. Despite decades of cries for help — and New York City losing a similar lawsuit — the city fought the case for years, ultimately failing. Now it’s under a court-appointed monitor ensuring Chicago complies with a plan to fix the problem.
Last fall, the firm that successfully took on Chicago’s inaccessible crosswalks brought another lawsuit against the city — this time, arguing that it has long failed to properly build and maintain sidewalks, curb ramps and other key pedestrian infrastructure that people with mobility disabilities must navigate, as well as to provide accessible alternate routes when construction blocks rights of way.
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Visitors experience the “Yes We Can” installation at the Obama Presidential Center Museum. (The Obama Foundation)
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While the outside of the Obama Presidential Center is a statement, one could argue it’s what’s on the inside that counts. In June, WTTW News visited the center for a firsthand look at the exhibits, installations and everything in between.
From the moment you set foot in the John Lewis Plaza, you know this isn’t your ordinary presidential museum. And upon entering the museum’s first floor, you’re face to face with history.
Museum director Louise Bernard said creating this experience with the Obamas was a journey.
“President Obama really wanted to ensure that the story that we told was embedded in a nuanced, contextual history, that we were lifting up and illustrating the idea of on whose shoulders we stand,” Bernard said.
“As people are coming to the museum,” she continued, “they begin their journey kind of rooted in this historical storytelling.”
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The moon appears next to the Orion spacecraft. (Courtesy of NASA)
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NASA’s 10-day Artemis II mission in April showed off the rigor and precision that has made the agency a household name. With another successful mission under its belt, it’s looking like the space agency might be ready to take the next steps in human space exploration. And the public is ready to see what those steps might be.
“The wonder that exploring space brings about, I see that on people’s faces every day at my work,” said Hunter Miller, a public observing educator at the Adler Planetarium.
Artemis II was one stepping stone toward NASA’s plan of building a permanent base on the moon, where astronauts haven’t been since 1972. But in that time, a lot has changed here on Earth.
Scientists have learned from remote-piloted exploration of the universe, including space telescopes scanning outside of our own solar system. Meanwhile, private companies are expanding their presence in space.
A new era of space exploration is underway. And at this pivotal point, many are looking at the expertise, cooperation and funding that NASA needs to meet its goals.
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What's the #1 thing Chicagoans should do outside before summer is over?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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