One city at a time, Comcast is upgrading its cable internet networks to a fast new high-speed standard, called DOCSIS 3.1. In Chicago, the launch of the tech itself seems to be fine… but finding out how much it costs, if you can sign up for it at all, has proven much harder for consumers. [More]
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Comcast Now Says It Will Offer Next-Gen Broadband In Chicago At Lower Price; You Just Have To Ask
By 8.19.16
Earlier this week, Comcast announced that it was launching its higher-speed next-generation broadband service in Chicago, but the only price it would confirm was double the lowest rate charged by Comcast in the other markets where it had already offered this service. However, Comcast has now confirmed to Consumerist that folks in Chicagoland will indeed be able to get the lower rate — if they know how to ask for it. [More]
Comcast Gives Chicago Customers Bad News: Data Caps Are Coming
By 7.7.16
The Chicago area is one of Comcast’s larger markets, but until now it has avoided being part of the cable colossus’s expanding “test” of data caps. That’s about to change, with Comcast subscribers all over the Chicagoland area getting the bad news that they will soon face limits on their monthly data usage. [More]
Hey, Chicago: Here Come The Airbnb Regulations
By 6.23.16
Airbnb will be allowed to operate in Chicago after the city council passed two measures on Wednesday that allow short-term rentals, but there will be a few restrictions on that process. [More]
After Threatening To Leave City, Chicago Will Not Require Uber, Lyft Drivers Provide Fingerprints
By 6.22.16
Earlier this week, it looked like Chicago was about to become the biggest city to require that drivers for services like Uber and Lyft provide fingerprints to check against existing criminal databases; but after intervention by the Mayor Rahm Emanuel — whose brother is an Uber investor — Chicago city leaders have approved a compromise version of these rules that kick the fingerprint can down the road for at least another six months. [More]
Chicago Officials: TSA Wait Times Have Dropped To Less Than 10 Minutes At City’s Airports
By 5.27.16
After weeks of excessively long lines at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints plagued travelers going through Chicago’s airports, the city’s officials says wait times are down to less than 10 minutes. [More]
Sears Will Close Its Oldest Operating Store, Which Opened In Chicago In 1925
By 5.6.16 — Updated: 1.4.17
Corporate cutbacks mean losing company history, and the next store on Sears Holdings’ closing list is historic: having opened in 1925, it’s the oldest still-operating store in the chain. The store, which is in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood, will begin its liquidation sale in two weeks, on May 19, and will ultimately close in August. [More]
Amazon Expands Same-Day Prime Delivery To Chicago’s South Side & The Bronx; Launches Dedicated Website
By 5.3.16
Nearly two weeks ago, Amazon was criticized when an analysis of its Prime Now two-hour delivery service found the company treated some delivery addresses within a city differently. Critics alleged that Amazon was deliberately excluding predominantly African-American neighborhoods in six major cities from the delivery service. The company has now announced plans to expand into at least some of these ZIP codes. [More]
Chicago Raises Smoking Age To 21, Exempts Feminine Hygiene Products From Sales Tax
By 3.17.16
Yesterday, the Chicago City Council voted to approve a pair of hot-button measures: One that raises the minimum age for buying cigarettes in the Windy City, and another that does away with the so-called “pink tax” or “tampon tax” on feminine hygiene products. [More]
Comcast’s Next-Gen Broadband Service Coming To 5 Cities This Year
By 2.2.16
A few weeks after flipping the switch on its first next-generation DOCSIS 3.1 modem — which can deliver speeds faster than Google Fiber over existing cable lines — Comcast is detailing plans on which markets will be the first to get access to the service. [More]
Chicago Proposes Extra Tax, Looser Regulations For Short-Term Rentals And B&Bs
By 1.14.16
Direct lodging companies like Airbnb or HomeAway compete with hotels for tourist dollars (even if hotel rooms are sometimes listed on the sites) yet at first didn’t impose lodging taxes on guests. Now some cities require it, and the listing sites collect and remit those taxes to cities. In Chicago, though, mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed an additional tax on top of that for online short-term rentals, vacation rentals, and traditional bed and breakfasts. [More]
Thousands Of Chicago Comcast Customers Could Lose HD Service Because Of Old Boxes
By 1.6.16
Comcast is just about ready to flip the switch on upgrades to its network in Chicago, but thousands of area customers could be left without HD service if they are still using older set-top cable boxes. [More]
United Airlines Flight Slides Off Chicago Runway After Landing
By 12.30.15
Winter storms have wreaked havoc on post-holiday travel this week, canceling thousands of flights across the country. Perhaps hardest hit was Chicago, where nearly half the flights in and out of the city were canceled Monday. Issues continued at O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday when a United Airlines flight slid off the runway. [More]
14 More Tiny Urban Target Stores Will Open In 2016-2017
By 12.29.15
Yes, Target is a chain of big-box stores, but the company sees its future in considerably smaller boxes. Instead of suburban stores of more than 100,000 square feet in the suburbs, all but one of the stores that Target has planned in 2016 and 2017 are small-format stores in urban areas across the country. [More]
Chicago Residents Want City To Buy Their Homes, Claiming Living Near O’Hare Airport Is A Noisy Nightmare
By 10.2.15
A group of residents living near O’Hare International Airport are suing the city of Chicago, seeking to make the city buy their homes. They claim their houses have become unlivable after a spike in jet noise from O’Hare, after a new runway opened two years ago. [More]
Another Computer Glitch Grounds American Airlines Flights
By 9.17.15
For the second time this year, American Airlines is blaming a computer glitch for grounding dozens of flights in several airports across the U.S. [More]
Chicago Sued Over 9% “Cloud Tax” On Streaming Services
By 9.14.15
Back in July, the city of Chicago started levying an unpopular new tax on its residents: cloud services, including streaming media like Netflix, suddenly cost 9% extra. Neither denizens of the Windy City nor the businesses who serve them are at all happy with this, however, and now the lawsuits have begun. [More]
