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Old 09-21-2012, 09:13 PM
 
33 posts, read 70,566 times
Reputation: 32

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There is a ton of vacant retail space all up and down Madison and Monroe Streets, and to an extent, Washington St, between Halstead and Ashland as well as a dearth of convenience/drugstores/specialty food shops. If you live near or past Racine, there is literally no place to just go grab a soda, some chips, or emergency tampons. West loop seems to be filled with high middle income households, seems to me the right mix of businesses should thrive here. What gives?

Also, i noticed most the bars in this area are all Blackhawk bars, I know United Center is right down the street, but the Bulls play there too. With the frequently mentioned topic of segregation in Chicago, I wonder if this is a result of it or if this is something to further institutionalize it? Or is it simply a bandwagon, recency effect since they just won the cup a couple of years ago? Sort of sad to know if I want to go watch the Bulls game, all the bars by me will probably be tuned into the Blackhawks.
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Old 09-21-2012, 09:20 PM
 
3,695 posts, read 4,960,337 times
Reputation: 2069
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA-DC-CHI View Post
There is a ton of vacant retail space all up and down Madison and Monroe Streets, and to an extent, Washington St, between Halstead and Ashland as well as a dearth of convenience/drugstores/specialty food shops. If you live near or past Racine, there is literally no place to just go grab a soda, some chips, or emergency tampons. West loop seems to be filled with high middle income households, seems to me the right mix of businesses should thrive here. What gives?

Also, i noticed most the bars in this area are all Blackhawk bars, I know United Center is right down the street, but the Bulls play there too. With the frequently mentioned topic of segregation in Chicago, I wonder if this is a result of it or if this is something to further institutionalize it? Or is it simply a bandwagon, recency effect since they just won the cup a couple of years ago? Sort of sad to know if I want to go watch the Bulls game, all the bars by me will probably be tuned into the Blackhawks.
The area near united center was and still is a poor area. Around western there was a major high rise housing project. The area further east around maxwell street was nick named jew town(UIC extended into it and it was redeveloped in the 90ies) likewise not a rich area(think old run down area--basically shoping for clothing and other goods but really from another era and not well kept.). Basically much of the west side was not very yuppie friendly until the late 90ies\early 2000's and why they like to call the area west loop.

In short the area only very recently genertyfied.
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Old 09-21-2012, 09:35 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
1,988 posts, read 2,206,653 times
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There isn't enough density in the area to support retail on all of the east-west streets.

As for the bars being Blackhawks bars I have no idea why. Maybe hockey fans drink more? I go to a lot of Hawks games and the bars in the area are always packed beforehand, not sure if it is the same for the Bulls. I have been to a few Bulls games and the crowd was overwhelmingly white so I don't think it has anything to do with segregation. Most bars also have enough televisions to show both hockey and basketball games at the same time. Anytime I've been to the bars in the area during a Bulls game, they have had the game on.
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Old 09-21-2012, 09:51 PM
 
9,881 posts, read 9,483,141 times
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Go to Yelp, type in the address: Racine and Monroe, Chicago, IL and then type in restaurants, and shopping, and theres a lot of things there within .02 miles (2 blocks?). what about Tri Taylor area (Taylor St???)

Federal Express is down there on Madison and so the employees must have somewhere to go for lunch, so keep trying to look!
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Old 09-22-2012, 10:24 AM
 
Location: River North, Chicago, Illinois
4,620 posts, read 8,113,751 times
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There are two factors:

First, as Ace pointed out, there's not enough density to support all that retail. Short-sighted residents who don't have a good understanding of what forms vibrant urban neighborhoods keep blocking buildings that would help create the necessary density.

Second, it is only recently a growing neighborhood. 15 years ago it still primarily had services and businesses targeting the homeless and indigent. It takes at least a generation, if not more, for a place to become truly vibrant.
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Old 09-22-2012, 11:14 AM
 
Location: West Loop, Chicago, IL
240 posts, read 462,441 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CA-DC-CHI View Post

Also, i noticed most the bars in this area are all Blackhawk bars, I know United Center is right down the street, but the Bulls play there too. With the frequently mentioned topic of segregation in Chicago, I wonder if this is a result of it or if this is something to further institutionalize it? Or is it simply a bandwagon, recency effect since they just won the cup a couple of years ago? Sort of sad to know if I want to go watch the Bulls game, all the bars by me will probably be tuned into the Blackhawks.
Trust me, if you go into ANY of those bars, you will have no problem finding multiple TVs showing the Bulls game.
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Old 09-24-2012, 11:27 AM
 
Location: CHicago, United States
6,933 posts, read 8,455,936 times
Reputation: 3510
Supply and demand. Too much supply (retail spaces) and too little demand (not enought customers). Econ 101.
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Old 09-24-2012, 12:48 PM
 
2,329 posts, read 6,605,319 times
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Well the area near the UC was hit hard by the race riots in the 60s and has never quite recovered from that. Then factor in "urban renewal" (Medical District/United Center/Kennedy Expressway, etc) and much of the fabric which historically held that neighborhood together has been obliterated.

This sums is up:

1972


1988


1998




This area also is now suffering from overbuilding that was the result of speculative development at the very cusp of the financial crash.
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Old 09-24-2012, 01:17 PM
 
1,210 posts, read 3,048,200 times
Reputation: 651
The west loop is surprisingly car-oriented as well. The roads are pretty wide and I think a good amount of people live there for easy access to the highway/burbs.
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