(CDC / Pixabay / WTTW News illustration by Rebecca Palmore)

2020 has been a year for the history books, the sort scholars will be studying for decades to come. But having lived through it — in excruciating, breathless detail — we’ve come to realize that 2020 defies the traditional reflection that typically accompanies a year’s end.

How do you wrap up and tie a bow on a global pandemic?

You don’t.

As much as we’d like to put the whole thing in the rearview mirror, 2020 seems poised to spill over into 2021 and beyond (i.e., don’t recycle your fabric mask just yet).

But also, we love a list. So here’s our overview of the year that was — warts and all — a messy, anxiety-inducing, difficult but important collection of topics listed in an order reflective of what our readers were most drawn to on wttw.com/news.

Enjoy — and here’s to a safe, healthy and happy 2021.

No. 1:The coronavirus pandemic

People line up for a food drive in Brighton Park in April 2020. (WTTW News)

There was COVID-19, and then there was everything else.

Every angle of this story dominated our coverage in 2020, from our reporting on thefirst Chicagoan diagnosed with COVID-19through to thelatest news about vaccine distribution. We provided nuts-and-bolts information onshopping hours for senior citizensduring the stay-at-home order and thebest materials to use for DIY cloth masks. Wetook you toGov. J.B. Pritzker’s daily press briefings(and met thewoman drinking along with him) and traveled across the city and region to tell the local stories that mattered. We kept people up to speed on ever-shiftingrestrictionsand advisories and shined a light on thedisproportionate impactof the virus on Illinois’ Black and Brown residents, shared stories of resilience assmall business owners responded to the pandemic with ingenuity,and occasionally tried to lighten the mood (remembertoilet paper cakes?).

No. 2: The death of George Floydand a summer of civil unrest

Peaceful protesters take to Chicago streets on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Evan Garcia / WTTW News)

In late May, the death of George Floyd — whose last moments were spent with the knee of Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed into his neck — touched off a wave of protests in cities across the U.S.,including Chicago. Our reporters were on the scene as a peaceful march for justice evolved intothe first of several destructive nightsof violence and looting.

Surveying the aftermath, aldermen asked, “What are we going to have left in our community?” As theunrest continued throughout the summer, we offeredcontext on complicated issuessuch as activists’ calls to defund the police and their demands to remove symbols of white supremacy, chief among themstatues of Christopher Columbus. In 2021, we’ll continue to explore the systemic racism that binds these local and national stories together, along with calls for social justice, equity and peace.

No. 3: Election 2020

Sharifa Wicks-Lot, of Bronzeville, cast a vote on Election Day, Nov. 3, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. “I have two children, an 11-year-old and a 2-year-old, and I would want the best for their future in the coming years,” said Wicks-Lot, who’s been voting since she turned 18. (Evan Garcia / WTTW News)

It was an election year like no other, if only for the record number ofvotes cast by mail. Our comprehensiveVoters Guidewas a valuable resource for information about races up and down the ballot. The numbers bear out the importance of local politics coverage: Ourbreakdown of the “fair tax” amendmentand reporting onbar associations’ rankings of judicial candidateswere two of our most-read articles of the year.

No. 4: Homicide spikespurs desperate ride for #KidsLivesMatter

The “Dreadhead Cowboy” is seen on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. (Courtesy Vashon Jordan Jr. / @vashon_photo)

Weeks into his tenure asChicago’s new police superintendent,David Brown announced his version of a “moon shot”: to bring Chicago’s annual number of homicides down to fewer than 300. That was in May. By Labor Day, the city hadsurpassed 2019’s homicide totaland as of Dec. 1, more than700 homicides had occurred in 2020. A number of victims were young children, including8-year-old Dajore Wilson. To call attention to the #KidsLivesMatter movement, Adam Hollingsworth, known as the Dreadhead Cowboy,rode one of his horses onto the Dan Ryan Expressway. The circus surrounding Hollingsworth’s stunt, for which he isfacing animal cruelty charges, wound up obscuring his underlying message.

No. 5: Climate change

Boulders have replaced beaches in some places along the lakefront as part of the city’s efforts to mitigate shoreline damage. (WTTW News)

In the earliest months of 2020, theglobal crisisthat had everyone’s attention wasclimate change. After Chicago’slakefront was poundedby a January storm, City Council passed a resolutiondeclaring a climate emergency— a largelysymbolic act. Thoughshunted to the back burnerby the coronavirus, climate change refused to be ignored. Chicago experienced itswettest May in history, notched summerlake temperatures 10 degrees higherthan 2019, saw a tornado touch down in August during afreak derecho storm, and tallied arecord string of uncommonly warm daysin November. Though Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed achief sustainability officerin June, the city still lacks a Department of the Environment.

No. 6: A high notefor Illinois

Dispensary 33 in Andersonville. (WTTW News)

It’s easy to forget that 2020 started out on a high note: Jan. 1 marked thelegalization of recreational marijuanain Illinois. Ourmap of dispensary locationswas a huge hit with readers, but that was nothing compared with the foot traffic at the dispensaries themselves.First-day sales of pottopped $3 million, and cannabis tax revenue has been the rare financial bright spot for the state, adding more $150 million to Illinois’ coffers. Still,complaints have persisted about a lack of equityin the state’s system for awarding dispensary licenses. A round of licenses that was to have been awarded in fall 2020 is in limbo while the stateretools the process.

No. 7: Environmental justice

Protesters gather near the Logan Square home of Mayor Lori Lightfoot to voice their opposition to General Iron’s plans to move to the Southeast Side on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. (Annemarie Mannion / WTTW News)

Chicago’shistory of industrial pollutioncontinues to hauntneighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides, from abotched coal plant demolitionthat blanketed Little Village in a plume of dust, to anexplosion at a metal-shredding facilitythat heightened concerns over the operation’s move from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side. The fact that these events occurred during a respiratory pandemic added urgency toactivists’ calls for environmental justice. Their message to officials: “Stop treating our neighborhoods like thecity’s dumping ground.”

No. 8: The revolving door of corruption

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaks to the media outside his Ravenswood Manor home on Feb. 19, 2020, a day after his 14-year sentence was cut short by President Donald Trump. (Matt Masterson / WTTW News)

It feels like years ago, but it was in fact February 2020 when President Donald Trumpcommuted the sentence of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was serving time in federal prison after being convicted on charges of, among other things, attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama. As Illinois closed the book on one corruption scandal, another reared its ugly head.ComEd was hit with bribery charges, with a trail leading to powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan. Madiganhas denied any wrongdoing, but the state’sRepublican Party made hay with the corruption angle during the November election. This is another story we’ll be following closely in 2021.

No. 9: Redefining landmarks

The former home of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave. in Chicago’s Woodlawn community. (WTTW News)

Chicago’s historic preservation movement has come a long way from the days of saving grand old buildings designed by architecture’sgrand old lions. In 2020, we wrote about aSouth Side working-class watering hole headed for city landmark status, the building’s owners declaring, “It’s no less significantjust because it’s at 94th Street and Ewing.” And the year’s most high-profile preservation story was notSeptember’s reopening of the massive old Cook County Hospital, transformed into a Hyatt hotel and office space, but the push to landmark a nondescript three-flat in Woodlawn. The one-timehome of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, characterized as “modest architecturally, but of monumental historic and memorial significance,” is poised to be declared a landmark in early 2021. Plans are to turn the building into an international heritage pilgrimage site.

No. 10: Natureto the rescue

A red-tailed hawk, perched outside Jewel-Osco, 3400 N. Western Ave., on Nov. 21, 2020. (WTTW News)

If there was a winner in 2020, it was nature, as people rediscovered the beauty and simple pleasures to be found outdoors. A record number of visitors flocked to Chicago-area forest preserves, birdwatching earned legions of new fans and there was, for once, plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers. Our coverage of urban nature likewise gave readers a break from the seemigly endless scroll of doom and gloom. Folks were intrigued by the notion ofconverting lawn to prairie, awed by thenew comet NEOWISEand rooted for the lonelyblack bear roaming Illinoisin search of a mate. We even tried to set the record straight on the so-called Christmas star. Thanks, Mother Nature. We needed you more than ever this year.

Contact Patty Wetli:@pattywetli| (773) 509-5623 |[email protected]