Knowledge Base
Tutorials, guides, and videos to using Chicago Cityscape
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Version 1.0, last updated May 19, 2021
Chicago Cityscape, LLC, encourages members to use its real estate information platform frequently to find and extract information about properties in Cook County. The platform, which operates as a website, a database, and an API, is used by hundreds of people each day and we ask that members abide by these guidelines to keep the platform performing well for everyone.
Anyone who accesses the platform is a "user", and those who have paid subscription fees are considered "members". Most information requires a Cityscape account to access, and it is free to create a Cityscape account. Users who create a free Cityscape account are given access to the features available to the "Cityscape Neighbor" tier.
Chicago Cityscape has various use and membership levels that provide varying degrees of access to information. Information takes the form of data and exclusive insights.
Tiers that require membership (which requires a paid subscription) are:
Chicago Cityscape provides standard customer and technical support to all users. Inquiries that are made through our customer support channel (via the red button or contact us links) will receive a response within 24 hours. Inquiries from members take priority over non-members.
We encourage requests for new or modified features, and we will discuss these with members before potentially adding them to our work plan. We may require a one-time fee to create the feature.
Your "Cityscape account" is for your use only. You may not share your "Cityscape account" credentials or access with anyone else. Each "Cityscape account" must have its own membership, whether individually or as one of multiple "seats" in a group membership that has a single payer.
Each membership tier has different pricing that is subject to change without notice, and may be discounted temporarily at any time. Whenever a new recurring (not fixed-length) membership begins, the pricing is good for 12 subsequent months for a monthly-recurring membership and 1 year for an annual membership.
Chicago Cityscape does not currently have a discount policy for non-profit organizations or elected officials.
Journalists and reporters who are based in Illinois and write about property, small businesses, neighborhood and economic development, and housing can request a free Cityscape Real Estate Pro membership. We request that applicants send 2-3 examples of salient reporting. The Chicago Cityscape staff reserves the right to deny applicants access to the free Cityscape Real Estate Pro membership for any reason. However, an applicant can appeal the denial to the Cityscape advisory board through the regular customer support channel.
Chicago Cityscape uses Stripe to accept and process payments. Credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers are accepted forms of payment. Users who want to pay by check must request and receive permission to do so. We will ask for a minimum 6-month payment and we may have specific delivery instructions to ensure timely receipt.
Please see our separate refund policy.
Most data shown in tables and maps is downloadable, and there is no limit to the number of times members can download the data using the visual interface buttons provided on the website. Downloading through any other means is not allowed.
Some information is not downloadable, including the MAPSCorps-provided data in the "Amenities & Social Infrastructure" section of Address Snapshot and Place Snapshot. The MAPSCorps data will not be included when a user clicks one of the visual download buttons in this section.
Scraping the Chicago Cityscape website is not allowed.
Chicago Cityscape has several public and private Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Users may not use, access, or reverse engineer, any of the private APIs that power many of the platform's features.
The public API is documented on Chicago Cityscape's Github repository and can be accessed by anyone with a valid API key. API keys are available to every Cityscape Real Estate Pro member, and those who subscribe to the API independently of any membership.
When using data in a publication, project, or paper, members should cite the creator of the data and appended with a phrase such as "[data from SOURCE] as provided by Chicago Cityscape" or "[data from SOURCE] via Chicago Cityscape". Chicago Cityscape cites its sources on the "Sources" page.
Chicago Cityscape makes every effort for every feature to be available 100 percent of the time, but this is not guaranteed.