I'm Traveling to Downtown Chicago This Weekend I Need Freeper Insight On How Things Are

I unfortunately never got to hear Gail Smith. I saw Patricia Barber their several times. I literally lived right behind it on Magnolia Street in a converted hotel.

Well, I made it back in one piece. I think everyone for posting some advice.

I’d say for the most part, everyone is right about the current situation in Chicago.

You are either in denial that there’s a problem or you’re realistic about it.

I was downtown, right off Chestnut and Rush. Here are my observations.

1. Many restaurants, hotels and shops are closed, and probably permanently. Macy’s is gone, Hyatt on Chicago gone, restaurants on Pearson gone. Ra, my favorite sushi bar...gone. Bistroc Zinc gone. Flowers still adorn the city but not as brilliant and overwhelming as before. The City definitely lacks the class of the Daly’s when you had the decorated cows downtown.
2. I don’t think I’ve ever seen unrented commercial property on Michigan Ave or close to it.
3. Chicago Police NOT ARMED SECURITY are in the stores on Michigan Ave. I wonder who is paying for that, I would think the city considering the expense the shops payed from all the looting last year.
4. You enter the stores one by one. They take your name and phone number.
5. The world’s largest Starbucks 5 floors limits the number of people who can go in at a time. This is good, as when you eventually get in, you’re not rushed and pushing your way thru people, and you can enjoy the store, but it’s a sign of the times, where it’s no more people coming and going as they please.
6. If you’ve read 1984, you will be cognizant to the fact that with increased police surveillance of our lives, we are approaching the inevitable point to where robots will be marking where we are 24/7. No doubt the people spending millions of dollars to have their great view of Lake Michigan will gladly give up this freedom, so they’ll be sure that their neighbor is in check, but the fact is, one day they’re going to wake up and find themselves being the ones under surveillance too. More about this later.
7. The city has less tourists, but a lot more young people, but overall the streets have less people, I suspect because more people are working at home.
I can recall during the Daly and Rahm Emmanuel periods you had loads of tourists downtown. You had those cows decorated infant of the shops. People walking were shoulder to shoulder even during the winter time.
8. No way do you take the blue and red lines. Saturday night around 10 PM, fireworks were going on at Navy Pier, while police and ambulances were running continuously down Michigan Ave. There was a stabbing at the Hotel Allegro about 5 blocks from me.
9. 2 days before I arrived, a local news caster was doing a quick report on Chicago violence when, during live footage, a young gangbanger came up behind her, flashed his guns and pranced away.
(Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEnPmPGF4aY )
10. A lot of crazies going up and down the streets. You sense that there’s a thinly cloaked anger among the young people. For example, around 9 am there’s this bard chested light skinned black man, dribbling a basketball down the sidewalk on Michigan, I watched as he’d get as close as he could to the people walking by trying to engage them, and if they looked at him, he’d dribble right in their face, then dart away. You sense that if anyone provokes him, he’s going to throw the ball in their face. The guy constantly dribbled up and down the street. I. thought there’s nothing you can do with this bully with a basketball.
11. I’d say, if you live downtown you are not going to safely venture our walking more than five blocks East or West of Michigan, and I doubt more than a mile either way from Water Tower.
12. If you’re going out at night to any of the blues bars, restaurants etc you better dress down more than dress up. I had jeans on with a tuxedo jacket going into Le Colonial, but later, I put on Doc Marten hiking boots, and a black shirt and a baseball cap and ventured off to Kingston Mines.
13. I used to hate taking a taxi in Chicago. The cabbies were usually abrupt, over charge you etc. Uber is now the only game in town, and it’s really made travel easy. You call for an Uber and they’re right there within 4 minutes or less. I’m sure the cabs like it too, as they’re not getting gouged by the city for fees.
14. As long as democrats are running this city, it’s going to be a toilet. Not as bad as Detroit, but it’s going there.

I can go on and on, and I’ll answer any questions people have.

Glad you made it there and back okay. I'm sorry it lived down to our expectations.

4. You enter the stores one by one. They take your name and phone number.

WT*.

More on that please. Hoe many shops are doing that? Any idea what happens if you refuse? Tell them you're Herman Munster abd live on 1313 Mockingbird Lane?

There are security guards all over Water Tower, but in the little high end shops on Michigan Ave, such a Gucci and Louis Vuitton, Nike and others, you are greeted by Chicago Police. A shop staff takes your name and phone number and enters it into her lap top. You’re then allowed to browse the store.

On a Memorial Day Weekend I’d expect to see ore people, esp foreigners like Japanese, Koreans etc. Not so.

On Rush street, all the outdoors restaurants were full, like Tavern on Rush, Carmines etc.

I found myself calling a restaurant for a reservation and then told that they’re booked, but I can go to the website and reserve a table for another time.

I found that you were best off reserving a table for dining, by going to the website.

Like I said in my summary, limiting the number of people in a store, eg like the large Starbucks on Michigan Ave. was a good thing, because once you got in, there were fewer people with you.

I don’t see anything changing with the city until the politics change, and that won’t be happening for a long long time if ever.

I sense a thinly cloaked layer of anger among young people esp young blacks downtown. It’s like everyone is in their own world, and not cognizant of others around them. People seem more rude than polite.

I mentioned the shirtless guy dribbling a basketball in your face on the sidewalks of Michigan Ave. He looked like he was taunting, just hoping someone was going to interact with him. The beggars were not in abundance as I’ve seen before, and few people sleeping in the streets.

No mounted police.

One instance bothered me.

We waited about 20 minutes Monday around 745 am to get into the Starbuck’s Roastery, supposedly the largest Starbucks in the world, 5 floors.

We went straight to one of the quick lines to order coffee. At the head of the line were two college aged black kids who I thought were ordering coffee etc. After about 10 minutes, yes ten minutes, I realized that they were still talking with the cashier. I thought they had some huge order. No, just two coffees and roll of some sort.

IOWs, they were just oblivious to the rest of us behind them waiting to order. People, esp the young ones, seemed more rude, but maybe that’s me.

Sounds like NYC about a year or so ago - thankfully things are relatively back to normal in terms of healthy street life. Also - no more vax cards, social distancing or mandatory masking (although many people still wear the worthless things anyway). I remember this time last year how empty many of the streets were and all the name taking and tracing requirements at restaurants - now although there are not as many commuters, restaurants, museums and theaters are full. Now if only the city can do something about the crazies in the subways - the wife carries mace and has had some close calls.