Colin B Photography, Bensenville, IL (2026)

04/16/2026

Loved ones gathered for a balloon release for Eric Billups, 16, in Woodlawn Thursday afternoon. Billups was fatally shot at the bus stop at 6300 S. Stony Island Ave. near his school, Hyde Park Academy High School, after class yesterday. Billups was the school’s third student loss recently. Two teens from the school were killed in separate hit-and-runs last month.

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
4/16/26

Woodlawn, Chicago
for with Maxwell Evans

04/15/2026

A failed attempt to overturn Mayor Brandon Johnson’s veto on a vote to overturn One Fair Wage. A zoning chair was finally named after a months long impasse. There was much more news, too.

Here is today’s batch of City Council black and white photos. .

Read all about today’s news from City Hall at blockclubchicago.org
4/15/26

Loop, Chicago
for with

04/13/2026

STORY: Fathom, A Q***r Cocktail Bar From The Team Behind Dorothy, Opens In Lakeview

Whitney LaMora and Zoe Schor said their focus is on creating a more casual, accessible neighborhood bar that will host events and community pop-ups.

The team behind one of Chicago’s most popular le***an cocktail bars has opened a q***r-focused one in Lakeview.

Fathom, 1622 W. Belmont Ave., a cocktail lounge from Whitney LaMora and Zoe Schor, opened last week. LaMora and Schor, who co-own Dorothy in Ukrainian Village, said the new space builds on what they’ve learned running a destination-style lounge but in a more central, accessible location.

The pair have spent years experimenting with what a q***r bar can be, from hosting immersive theater to silent book clubs. Fathom is a chance to apply those lessons in a more accessible, high-traffic part of the city, they said.

The result is a space they hope feels intentional and easygoing, where customers can drop in after work or stay late into the night.

“We really wanted to make a comfortable neighborhood bar first,” Schor said. “It’s a neighborhood bar, but the aesthetic feels more coastal than Chicago. You get to walk in and be removed from your immediate day-to-day, from whatever work troubles you have or things that are bothering you, and just transport yourself into this coastal environment.”

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
4/9/26

for with

04/09/2026

STREETERVILLE — Things are getting a lot brighter in the former home of the Signature Room.

Crews are replacing the nearly 60-year-old original windows on the 95th and 96th floors of the former John Hancock building, which is now known just by its address, 875 N. Michigan Ave.

More than 200 windowpanes — each weighing about 350 pounds — are being installed as the former restaurant and bar space, now gutted, becomes part of an expanded observation deck and 14,000-square-foot private event space. The attraction will be the city’s only multistory observation deck and will include a three-story atrium when it opens in mid-2027.

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
4/8/26

for

04/03/2026

Via Crucis Unites Little Village After Challenging Year

This year’s procession was filled with prayers for immigrants, many of whom are “carrying the pain” caused by the federal government’s immigration crackdown, religious leaders said.

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
4/3/26

Little Village, Chicago
for with

04/01/2026

NEAR WEST SIDE — Anjanette Young no longer lives in the Hermitage Avenue apartment where, in 2019, a police raid changed her life and sparked outrage across the city. But the remnants of that day remain — physically and emotionally.

The door to Young’s former apartment still carries dents and scuffs from the botched raid that left her standing naked and pleading her innocence to a room full of officers. Seven years later, Young said that healing is still an everyday journey for her.

“Before the raid, strength was kind of like you fight through adversity as best as you can, and you keep going — that whole strong Black woman mentality,” Young told Block Club. “Resilience [after the raid] looked like finding my way, navigating through the complexities of trauma in my own way, and finding my own path forward.”

That path forward includes Young’s book, “Past the Pain: How to Emerge from Trauma with Purpose,” which was released last month.

The book tackles the raid and its impact on the city and Young’s life, including her journey to becoming an advocate for police search reforms and a mentor to other victims of wrongful police raids.

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org
3/27/26

for with

03/27/2026

STORY: Chicagoans Pay Respects To Fallen Firefighter Michael Altman At Visitation

The Ashburn chapel was packed with family, friends, first responders, city leaders and other officials mourning Altman, 32. His wife gave birth to a baby girl the same day.

Altman, 32, died last week from injuries he sustained while battling an apartment fire March 16 in Rogers Park. The firefighter fell through the floor into a basement room that was “fully on fire.”

Police have charged a man with murder and arson, saying he set fire to a mattress in the building’s basement, leading to the blaze that Altman was responding to.

A funeral for Altman was slated for Friday morning, but it was postponed after Altman’s wife, Nora, went into labor.

Family confirmed Thursday that Nora Altman gave birth to a baby girl named Evelyn Rose. Altman and his wife also have a young son.

Fire Department Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said the entire department is “wrapping their arms” around the Altmans, acknowledging it was a “bittersweet” day between the birth of Altman’s daughter and his visitation.

There is no date yet for Altman’s rescheduled funeral, Nance-Holt said.

“I just want to thank Chicago, Chicagoland, all the schools that came out along the route when we went to the funeral home, and even today, when they were bringing [Altman] here,” Nance-Holt said. “We’re so grateful for all the support and love. We can feel it.”

Inside the Ashburn church, a long line of mourners waited to pay their respects.

Among them were Andrea and Tim Barker, who knew Altman’s family through their son. The Mount Greenwood couple said Altman’s death was “shocking.”

“I can’t imagine what his family, what his wife has been going through,” Andrea Barker said. “I don’t think there’s really anything anyone can say to comfort people going through tragedy like this, but I think it says a lot that there are so many people here trying.”

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org

3/26/26

for with

An enormous thank you to the Altman family and the Chicago Fire Department for trusting me to be there as the pool still camera during the visitation yesterday.

03/25/2026

As the city unveiled the snowplow renamed ‘Abolish ICE’ this morning, federal agents continued to be assigned to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport by President Trump for what he sees as a way to help move along long security lines that have grown lengthy during the partial government shutdown affecting TSA. Agents also continue to conduct immigration enforcement in and around Chicago, though less so than during Operation Midway Blitz.

Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled the newly renamed plow on Wednesday at a Ukrainian Village Streets and Sanitation facility, one month after “Abolish ICE” came in first in the city’s annual snowplow naming contest.

While the contest has been around for four years, this is the first time a top winner has been explicitly political. Six snowplows in total will be renamed this year.

The city received 13,300 name entries, and 39,000 voters took part in this year’s competition — a record for both, according to the Streets and Sanitation department. “Abolish ICE” and other anti-ICE names made up nearly 80 percent of all submissions, Block Club previously reported.

While Mayor Brandon Johnson was speaking at the unveiling event this morning, a man started shouting at the mayor, making several references to Sheridan Gorman, the Loyola University student who was killed last week, allegedly by a Venezuelan migrant.

“You’re making a joke out of Sheridan Gorman,” the man yelled. “Shame on you.”

Jose Medina, 25, was charged with Gorman’s murder on Sunday. Police said he killed Gorman early Thursday as she hung out with friends along the Rogers Park lakefront in a crime that has shocked the school community and neighbors. Medina is a Venezuelan national who was apprehended by Border Patrol in 2023 but let into the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

All photos from the morning of 3/25/26.

Read more at blockclubchicago.org

O’Hare Airport and Ukrainian Village, Chicago
for with

03/18/2026

We’re back at City Hall, where the City Council voted today to freeze future increases of the “subminimum wage” for tipped workers following concerns from some restaurant owners and employees. But, Mayor Brandon Johnson may veto the measure. There was much more news, too.

Here is today’s batch of City Council black and white photos. .

Read all about today’s news from City Hall at blockclubchicago.org
3/18/26

Loop, Chicago
for with

03/17/2026

The only beef of the day was the pounds of corned beef sliced up for lunch on St. Patrick’s Day as local candidates greeted voters, diners and their own opponents as voters took to the polls for the primary elections Tuesday.

Patrons donned “I voted!” stickers and shook hands with candidates in between bites of their lunch in the time-honored tradition at the South Loop establishment.

The lunch line extended well past the main doors for most of the midday rush as the two local traditions of St. Patrick’s Day and going to Manny’s on Election Day collided.

See more coverage at blockclubchicago.org
3/17/26

South Loop, Chicago
for

03/16/2026

STORY: Green Chartreuse, An Ancient Elixir Made By French Monks, Captivates Chicago Drinkers

Remedy in Bucktown has carved out a niche as the second-leading seller of the complex liqueur among U.S. bars. Chartreuse soared in popularity during the pandemic.

BUCKTOWN — Glide up to the bar at Bucktown’s unassuming Remedy at the right time and you can observe the shift change. The happy-hour crowd drawn by the bar’s skylight-fed natural brightness shifts into the dedicated faction of regulars who hold down the nights.

In both cases, you’re likely to a see lot of drinkers clutching an emerald-hued herbal spirit called Green Chartreuse. Made in limited quantities by a cloistered order of Catholic monks in the French mountains, a bottle of the naturally green liqueur fetches a high price at the liquor store — if you can even find it.

Availability is less of an issue for bars. Among them, Remedy, 1910 N Milwaukee Ave., stands — almost — alone as the second-leading seller by volume of Green Chartreuse in the United States.

“Green Chartreuse is a just great story, beginning to end,” said Sarah Becan, the Chicago-based author and illustrator of the upcoming, “Let’s Make Cocktails!” “The Carthusian order was founded around the Battle of Hastings. Hundreds of years later, some nobleman brings them the recipe for an ‘elixir of life’ and they spend over a century deciphering it.

“When they finally start delivering it to nearby towns in the mid-1700s on the back of a donkey, people like the flavor so much they decide that it’s not medicine, it’s recreational.”

Read the full story at blockclubchicago.org

3/10/26
for with

Colin B Photography

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