Chicago business leaders say The Magnificent Mile shopping district is recovering from pandemic

The City Club of Chicago hosted a discussion Wednesday on the state of the Magnificent Mile shopping district on Michigan Avenue in River North.

[patriciakrakowiak]

I used to go shopping and eating downtown every week. I used to take the Blue line there before Covid. I always felt safe. Now with the increase in crime i stopped going there. I havent been downtown in 4 years.

[duran]

Without security, no point of wasting money there 😒

[FromMikaWithLove]

I have to pay extra money to park and in taxes when eating out while running the risk of getting robbed or stabbed. No thanks! I’ll stay in my safe suburb with free parking lots.

[bobk.]

The pandemic wasn't the problem, riots and looting are.

[Mens_Rights]

Recovering? LOL. Sure, why not?

Chicago has been a cesspool for a long time. A lot of people sort of knew this, but sentiment clouded their vision, leaving them with the false hope that things would someday get better. The anarcho-tyranny of the Lockdown Era had the virtue of being bad enough to provide clarity to so many of those who had been lacking it, by shocking them into it.

People moved on, found better lives elsewhere, and in the end, saw how very little of value they had left behind. How is Chicago going to recover from the collective realization of just how overrated it has been? Why would anybody voluntarily move back to a deep pay cut, to insanely higher prices, to smirkingly casual corruption and random nightmare violence and to a near total absence of anything that could sensibly be called "community"?

[ernestoybarra]

Meanwhile: Nearly 11 months after he was elected,  Mayor Brandon Lightfoot Johnson is still assembling his cabinet.

[mikeoutdoors]

Good luck! The perception of crime is a reality! I was born and raised in the inner city and lived there 47 years. Then moved to the southwest suburbs and never looked back. I will not set foot into Chicago ever again unless on urgent business and when I go I am packing big time!!!

[smacker]

Good luck... not unless chicago get some competent leaders

[vatorman]

Don’t let them fool you, it’s a ghost town and getting worse.

[MrGchiasson]

It's not "perception of crime"... It's " Crime"!

[donaldsmith]

When we visited Venice, Italy last year all of the expensive shops had mean looking security dudes glaring at people through the show windows. Like....Don't even think about it! Of course in Brandon's Chicago security might be arrested for apprehending shop lifters.

[tinalove]

This is just the beginning. Get used to this bew normal. People are becoming increasingly impoverished where wages are stagnant and HIGH TAXES. Theres also the traffic cameras and high city fees. People are holding on tighter to their dollar. Government policies that overwhelming support the very rich and very poor and throws the middle under the bus has consequences.

Lastly theres better stuff to buy online.

[ReRiderChi]

I haven't spent any money in the City in about 4 years now, and I live 30 minutes away

[RETRO-RANEYS-RESTORATIONS]

Not from any help from this Illinois boy

[markmicienko]

Restaurants doing outside dining have to be crazy, they are such a easy target for the bad guys, pull up rob people and take off on foot, car or DIVY . .It's gonna be a chaotic summer . .

[anchmcle]

That's what we need more tourists and migrants. Takes
30 minutes on the bus to get from one end to the other. But I get it, we need the money spilling out for the migrants.

[estancooper]

Just new stores for gyms guys to hit good luck with that chi town 😂

[Gocubsgo]

They need to change the name to criminals mile..that is a criminal haven

[johnaltobello]

All lies..it
Is the crime and cost to go there.

[randywhite]

Yea I think they renamed that the African mile