Why should anyone continue to come to the Loop for anything anymore? There are better restaurants in Chicago’s neighborhoods, a greater selection of movies in suburban theaters and free parking for the stores in suburban malls.
Prohibitive parking fees and punitive ticketing and towing policies, coupled with frequent service reductions in public transportation, make shopping and dining in downtown Chicago an exercise in masochism. Already, the convention business is selecting sites in Rosemont and the rest of the O’Hare corridor over those in the Loop. Major employers (i.e., Sears) have left the Loop for the suburbs.
If Loop merchants don’t start putting pressure on Mayor Richard Daley and the City Council to make coming downtown a pleasant experience again, they are going to enter the next century with streets of empty real estate and a pile of rusty Denver boots.
