Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Over the past year, WTTW News reporters have delved into stories on everything from prison conditions to the city’s complicated system for sidewalk repairs. These investigations shed new light on the financial toll of police misconduct settlements, reports of misconduct at an internationally renowned laboratory and how trash pickup complaints work (or don’t).

As the year draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of our news investigations.

Who Decides Which Chicago Sidewalks Get Repaired? Patchwork of Programs Creates Geographical Disparities

A postcard of the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Apartments, designed by Benjamin Marshall.

Adam Ballard is pictured on a cracked sidewalk in front of a beauty salon near his Pilsen home. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

Gaps in sidewalk coverage and stretches of difficult terrain can be found across the entirety of Chicago, impacting people with mobility or vision conditions, those pushing strollers, the elderly and residents accessing transportation and transit.

The city uses a patchwork of programs to maintain its sidewalks. The responsibility is split between residents, the Chicago Department of Transportation and local ward offices.

To better understand how and where sidewalks across the city get repaired, WTTW News examined data, permits and repair records and spoke with those affected by poor conditions about how sidewalks are kept in shape and what they say should be improved.

Through that analysis, it became clear that a reliance on complaints to flag needed sidewalk repairs can create greater awareness of sidewalk problems in some North Side communities than in other areas of the city. Money is also easier to find for street projects, causing many to call for greater funding for the most widely used transportation routes in the city: sidewalks.

In Five Years, Chicago Has Barely Made Progress on Its Court-Ordered Police Reforms. Here’s Why.

A police car in front of Chicago's skyline.

(Sarahbeth Maney / ProPublica)

In the five and a half years since the Chicago Police Department agreed to extensive oversight from a federal judge, there have been bursts of activity to address the brutality and civil rights violations that led to the agreement.

Court hearings: more than a hundred. Meetings: hundreds. Money: hundreds of millions in Chicago taxpayer dollars allocated to making the court-ordered reforms, known as a consent decree, a reality. But the record of actual accomplishment is meager. In fact, all told, police have fully complied with just 9% of the agreement’s requirements. And while excessive force complaints from citizens have dropped, complaints about all forms of misconduct have risen.

Sheila Bedi, an attorney who represented the coalition of police reform groups that sued the city years ago, called the faltering reform effort a “tragedy.”

A review by WTTW News and ProPublica of the efforts in Chicago since 2019 shows Bedi’s bleak view is supported by a range of assessments produced for the court and is also widely held among advocates, academics and officials following the process.

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Men in Stateville Prison Fear Ongoing Poor Conditions, Threat of Heat a Month After Man Dies in Custody

Stateville Correctional Center is pictured in a file photo. (Andrew Campbell / Capitol News Illinois)

The nailed-shut windows and broken industrial fans meant there was little ventilation inside Stateville Correctional Center. Incarcerated at Stateville in southwest suburban Crest Hill, Abdul Malik Muhammad provided that report of the situation inside the prison in a July 23 statement to WTTW News.

“Just like the buildings look sick, most prisoner here is suffering from a sick building [syndrome],” Muhammad wrote.

Men inside the facility were hoping for change after Michael Broadway, 51, died in custody on June 19, but “that’s the problem, nothing has [changed],” wrote Muhammad.

Here's more of what those at Stateville had to say in their own words. A judge's order required most of the men incarcerated there to be transferred to other facilities by the end of September.

Chicago Has Spent $4M Fighting an Accessible Housing Lawsuit — a Case That Could Block a $7M Federal Grant

The Apollo’s 2000 Theater in Little Village is being designated a Chicago landmark.

Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

The city of Chicago has spent more than $4 million as of October paying outside attorneys to fight a lawsuit that slams the city for failing to make its affordable housing program accessible.

In addition to the legal costs, the case could also jeopardize the city’s chance at millions of dollars in grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That grant cash could be a no-go because the U.S. Department of Justice has sided with the plaintiffs, who argue Chicago has never bothered to make sure its affordable housing portfolio accommodates people with disabilities.