Since 2005, AREA has published a biannual journal with high-quality writing by experts and non-experts alike on urban issues that range from public art and architecture and the history of political organizing to transit, housing, and public schools in Chicago. Drawing upon these strengths, AREA launches Grid City, a multimedia blog on urban planning in Chicago that invites participation from a diverse group of writers and media makers. Grid City is AREA's first foray into more intensive web publishing, providing expanded and faster-paced coverage and including text, photo, and video of topics related to AREA's core interests. Grid City provides an informed, opinionated, and diverse view of planning issues in Chicago, weaving together the perspectives of art and architecture, grassroots community politics, and public policy.

Daniel Tucker, project manager, is a cultural and political organizer in Chicago. Over the last ten years, he has initiated a number of large-scale local campaigns and events. He is a past editor of AREA Chicago, a print/online publication dedicated to researching and networking local social and cultural movements in Chicago. He organizes AREA's irregular Infrastructure lecture series dealing with self-organized and informal communication infrastructures and has previously coorganized one installment of the annual VersionFest new media festival and Discount Cinema experimental video series. His writings have appeared in H-Art magazine (Belgium), Chicago Journal, and the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, and he has lectured widely about the intersections of art and politics. Farm Together Now: Communities Across the U.S. Bringing Food and Ideas to Your Plate, a book he coauthored with Amy Franceschini, was published by Chronicle Books in 2010.

Founded in 2005, AREA Chicago supports the work of people and organizations building a socially just city. AREA actively gathers, produces, and shares knowledge about local culture and politics. Its newspaper, website, and events create relationships and sustain community through art, research, education, and activism.