Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumdogmillionaire
No we can't because that is not the purpose of this thread. Beside that point, your lack of knowledge of Chicago in its modern setting has grown more and more glaring as you comment more frequently. You are more of a Londoner than a Chicagoan at this point. Illinois has restaurants on it... immediately comes to mind is Star of Siam. Additionally, the truck bays and underbelliness that is that stetch of road isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just because the city hasn't made every single road into Disneyland's Main Street friendly atmosphere, doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
Additionally, your lack of historical context on what made this area so pedestrian unfriendly is even more jarring. Streeterville in that area was a no-man's land at all hours of the day during the 80s and 90s and only recently has become somewhere that people will be seen walking about after 5pm in large numbers. To ask developers to build things like the NBC Tower or Sheraton in a pedestrian friendly manner when they had no one but the people in their building walking there would have been a financial boondoggle
I'd also like to just add one other point. The stretch to Ogden isn't bad... a bit quiet and with very little retail in certain parts? Sure, but I don't see why you would want that type of urban planning anyway
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I have eaten at Star of Siam a dozen times. It was one of my dad’s favorite places for lunch. I’ve actually eaten there since I moved to London, on one of my 2-3 annual visits to Chicago. It’s west of Michigan Ave, across from the AMA building. Always has been.
I’m talking about the Streeterville portion, that tourists take to reach Navy Pier from Michigan Ave. I’ve also been to that AMC movie theater. But there’s nothing appealing about that stretch of Illinois.
The one thing that living in London for 5 years has taught me, is that they are way better at this kind of stuff in Europe.
And what is the point of a thread about “general development” if not this?
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Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
^Who would use such a pointless passageway? Lost tourists? Muggers waiting for lost tourists?
The River Esplanade is only 400 feet to the south; Illinois Street, fronted by buildings and retail shops in the proper urban manner, is 250 feet to the north. Urban pedestrians only feel safe when they perceive that a route is somehow in the view of others, like adjacent motorists. A pedestrian-only route that tucks in between blank walls and loading docks ignores everything we know about city-building.
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400 feet is a long way in an urban, pedestrian context. You see pedestrianized shopping streets separated from major traffic arteries by half that distance over here. That’s fine-grained urbanism.