Scout Report readers with a penchant for urban transportation (past and present) will find much to catch their attention while visiting the Chicago "L" site. Created by transportation history guru and expert Graham Garfield, this site provides videos, historical and contemporary photographs, essays, and other items related to Chicago's elevated transit system. Under the "What's New" banner,...

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has long had an ambitious public art program. This handy 62-page guidebook provides interested parties and tourists with a complete listing of these works. Not surprisingly, the works are arranged by elevated line and by stop. The guide starts with providing information about works on the Brown Line, which is a great place to begin. It's a real treat to start...

Crain's Chicago Business is the go-to site for the latest information on business matters in the Windy City. They also do a nice job of covering other topics, such as culinary adventures, public policy, and architecture. On its homepage, visitors can read over Headline stories (some are available at no cost, some require registration) or browse a list of the Most Popular stories as well. Visitors...

Are you interested in improving civic culture and knowledge with apps? If so, you will be delighted to learn about the Open City site. The Open City folks are a group of programmers, citizen activists, and policy types that create apps with open data in order "to improve transparency and understanding of our government." Chicagoans can stop by the Merchandise Mart to meet up and work with Open...