Our stories (At Play, Oct. 5) on Living in the Loop–and the definition of that geographic place–prompted these letters.
I think the current definition of “Loop” that people I know (most of whom work and/or live in the Loop) use is Michigan Avenue, the Chicago River and Congress Parkway.
Personally, nothing on the other side of the river will ever be considered part of the Loop, and since it should remain roughly square and built-up, nothing east of Michigan Avenue should be included, either. With those constraints, Congress makes sense since Roosevelt Road is way too south to be a serious boundary contender. Anyone who has a bigger definition than that doesn’t ever actually visit the Loop, so what do they know?
–Eric Mathiasen, Chicago
I believe in the old-school definition of the Loop as being the area downtown within the elevated tracks, meaning anything (and everything) outside of those tracks is not in the Loop, including my office at 200 W. Madison St., which is at the northwest corner of Madison and Wells overlooking the “L” tracks.
–Eddie Embach, Chicago
