The Red Line Project was founded by Mike Reilley in January 2011 and is updated by UIC communication students. The site covers news and urban issues in Chicago neighborhoods through the lens of data reporting, multimedia, social media and mobile reporting. The site has won more than 65 national, regional and local awards.
In March 2022, the Red Line Project moved from its .org location to RedLineProject.news and underwent a major redesign by Billy O’Keefe and Reilley. The design better highlights the data visualizations and multimedia, and it provides a better user experience on desktop, laptop and mobile.
For more about how ethics drive our reporting and editing, see our principles and policies page, which was featured in this case study by Trusting News. You can read more about our reporting approach in this UIC Today article from March 2026.
If you would like to use or aggregate content on this site, please follow the guidelines in our Creative Commons 4.0 International Unported License. The Red Line Project is part of the National Community News Wire at the University of Vermont. The wire distributes college media coverage of local communities nationwide.
This site is not affiliated with the Chicago Transit Authority or the former CBS TV series “The Red Line”.