What happened to the Chicago Pedway? (Bloomingdale, Washington: shops, move, homeless)

[prhill]

I remember many years ago when there were tons of shops and places to eat down there and it was always so crowded with people. But now and for a long time it is dead. No shops or anything at all and no people unless you count the homeless.

I keep hearing they want to try and make it like it used to be but so far I have seen nothing. Did businesses not make enough so they folded or something? I am surprised as it was so crowded down there all the time.

[damba]

Originally Posted by prhill

I remember many years ago when there were tons of shops and places to eat down there and it was always so crowded with people. But now and for a long time it is dead. No shops or anything at all and no people unless you count the homeless.

I keep hearing they want to try and make it like it used to be but so far I have seen nothing. Did businesses not make enough so they folded or something? I am surprised as it was so crowded down there all the time.

In typical City of Chicago fashion, it is underfunded and not so well organized (bit of a hot mess). Plus, IMNSHO they started putting more efforts into funding more visible, above ground spaces, such as the Riverwalk, which makes more sense for tourists/continuity for the Mag Mile, Lakefront spaces, etc.


Here's a brief but good walk through for those who don't ever use it/have not heard of it (many have not):


https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/9/21...strian-walkway

[deeman7]

Just reading that article made my head spin. I work downtown and I avoid it just because I have no idea where it starts and ends. The maps are awful.

[edsg25]

I realize this may be a long shot in saying such, but the loss of Marshall Field's with the Macy's conversion did nothing to make the Pedway more attractive or a better place.

[Nearwest]

I agree with deeman7. The signage (or lack of it), along with the maps make using the Pedway confusing. I worked downtown in the 1970s, and recall using it often. Particularly for walking to 2 venerable department stores: Marshall Field's and Wieboldt's. l also remember a shoe shine and shoe repair shop in the Pedway arcade.

Geoffrey Baer has done segments on Channel 11 about the Pedway, and how it has dropped from the radar screen of people who frequent the Loop.

[prhill]

Originally Posted by edsg25

I realize this may be a long shot in saying such, but the loss of Marshall Field's with the Macy's conversion did nothing to make the Pedway more attractive or a better place.

There are still people outside of the State Street Macys trying to get Fields back. And Macys was a mess with escalators and elevators not working. There is no more observation deck to view the tree in the Walnut room! The once famous holiday window displays are the same ones from last year and not very impressive.

And I actually over heard people talking in the store about how things were never like this when it was Fields. Even an actual Macys employee I was on an elevator with was saying the same things!

[TBideon]

It is sketchy as hell at the Macy's part of the pedway. Tense.

[jwaiter]

I've done the walk in the Pedway every M-F for years. I get off the Blue Line at Washington and walk the pedway east , past Macys, past the Millenial station, and to 300 E Randolph. Not sketchy (or tense) at all, it's all office workers trying to get to their office cubicles. I know most of the homeless on sight, I even know some of their names. But they are never over aggressive w their panhandling. Ive seen stores come and go, but believe me, it is still used, in rain or snow especially... much more crowded underground than at the street level.

[treemoni]

Originally Posted by prhill

There are still people outside of the State Street Macys trying to get Fields back.

Even if we got it back, things will never be the same. Macy's is like a flea market to me. DO NOT WANT.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by prhill

There are still people outside of the State Street Macys trying to get Fields back. And Macys was a mess with escalators and elevators not working. There is no more observation deck to view the tree in the Walnut room! The once famous holiday window displays are the same ones from last year and not very impressive.

And I actually over heard people talking in the store about how things were never like this when it was Fields. Even an actual Macys employee I was on an elevator with was saying the same things!

A Loop, a State Street, without Field's or Carsons: once we would have thought that very notion to be impossible.

The Macy's Inc guys were fools. They got their wish for entry into the Chicago market then shot themselves in the foot by converting Field's to Macy's. Killing off a downtown landmark and tourist attraction, allienating Chicagoans to point they avoided the red star like a plague. And why did these geniuses do so: because placing the Macy's brand name on new markets like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, etc. would work well because advertising could be be uniformed and consolidated. So from Maine to California, the same Macy's ad's could be placed in the newspaper.

Of course what you say about the quality of Field's going downhill with the conversion is every bit true. Let's not forget that Marshall Field's was a more upscale department store than Macy's, a store known for such status. If Macy's Inc wished to make a more sensible move and was hell bent in turning its Chicago property to one of its own brands, it would have converted its Field's to Bloomingdale's, not Macy's because Bloomingdales and Field's were of a similar class.

And Macy's had another move it could have made: just kept the name "Marshall Field's" on the wall, but convert the chain to Macy's in everything-but-name. Sure that would have stunk, but at least there would have been the appearance of there being a Marshall Field's.

Crazy idea? Hell no. Something like that already had happened. At the intersection of State and Randolph for that matter.

For a number of years, the newly acquired Marshall Field's was the same store as both Dayton's and Hudsons. If you looked at merchandise tags, you would have seen Marshall Field's/Daytons/Hudsons written on them. One store. Operating under different names. Of course, at one point, Dayton Hudsons said "Marshall Field's is the best....by far....brand name we have. Let's slap a Marshall Field's logo on our Twin Cities and Detroit stores and just pretend to call them 'Fields' "

Or, who knows, Macy's Inc could have decided though expanding its store base to go with three national chains: a mid-market Macy's, a trendy, upscale, somewhat more limited in scope Bloomingdale's and a high end, full service Marshall Field's. Each of those three brands offered a different niche....enough so that Macy's Inc would be justified in maintaining each of them.