About • Advertise • Archive • Contact • Search • Subscribe
Serving the Loop and Near North neighborhoods of downtown Chicago
Bluesky Facebook Nextdoor Vimeo X RSS

(Above) In this one photo are three of the most-mentioned people in Loop North News stories going back to 2007. On October 19, 2016, (left to right) former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (at microphones), 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, and Margaret Frisbie, Executive Director of Friends of the Chicago River, spoke with reporters on a part of the Chicago Riverwalk that had not yet opened. (Click on image to view larger version.)

By Steven Dahlman

30-Jan-21 – It only took 13 years, but Loop North has published 3,000 news stories.

Over the years, 37 writers have contributed 1.3 million words. If we were writing novels, we could have written 14 of them by now.

The first story was published on October 30, 2007. The 1,000th story was published on November 27, 2012. The 2,000th story, Homeless on State Street, was published on June 25, 2016.

The most-viewed story ever was a 2014 report on a shooting at The Shops of North Bridge.

What we really wanted to know was, what have we written about? If that can be determined by counting names in Loop North stories, we offer this list of people mentioned most often...

  1. Brendan Reilly – 42nd Ward Alderman

  2. Rahm Emanuel – Former Mayor of Chicago

  3. Sara Benson – President of Chicago-based Benson Stanley Realty

  4. Sam Khater – Freddie Mac Chief Economist

  5. Sean Becketti – Former Freddie Mac Chief Economist

  6. Brian Hopkins – 2nd Ward Alderman

  7. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings - University of Illinois economist

  8. Margaret Frisbie – Executive Director of Friends of the Chicago River

  9. Michael Griffin – Chicago real estate tax appeal attorney

  10. Lori Lightfoot – Mayor of Chicago

Most-used four-letter-or-more words in headlines: city, river, chicago, marina, north, condo, riverwalk, street, state, and hotel.