Briefly Noted: Sweet Home Chicago
This morning my wife picked up on this series of three comments at Wirepoints, offering a glimpse of the current state of life on what used to be Chicago’s Magnificent Mile:
Upon opening the Oak Tree in the the original Bloomingdale’s in Chicago, thirty odd years ago at 900 Michigan Avenue, I was offered the prime space, looking south down Michigan Avenue from the top of the Mall. Now, this remarkable retail space, 7,000 square feet, is occupied by a used ladies clothing store ! Parking still a bargain though… only $30 for three hours ! And the tourists have vanished !
Whatever happened to ‘Three Strikes & You’re Out ? Chicago, a breeding ground for criminality !
Having operated a number of restaurants in Chicago over the past five decades, I fully appreciate and value my exit from this shit hole city. Never could I have imagined the random crime, the street thugs and the lawlessness that takes place every day. The Gold Coast, where I most recently operated a 300 seat restaurant @ 900 Michigan Avenue, has become a ‘dead mans zone’, where just going to your car has become a risky proposition. And my customers have either abandoned Chicago for warmed/safer climes or just avoid shopping, strolling and enjoying their lives. Game-Set-Match !
Remarkably, Chicago voters—more than half of the 30% or so of the eligible population who bothered to turn out—just voted for more of the same. Or maybe worse.
Coincidentally, Thomas Lifson picks up on life—and death—in Chicago today, and how it got to this point:
By Thomas Lifson
The Democrats’ war on “the war on drugs” has new casualty in Chicago. Convinced that the higher rate of incarceration for drug offenses African Americans experience is proof of racism and has nothing to do with different patterns of behavior, then-President Obama commuted the life sentence of Alton Mills. After his third felony conviction, this time for trafficking cocaine, Mills had received a life sentence.
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[Senator] Durbin lionized Mills as a “victim” on the Senate floor.
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Follow the link for the sad details. The actual victim was sleeping in the back seat of a car that passed Mills in his car. He took umbrage and fired into the first car, killing the woman in her sleep.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/crime-seattle-is-so-bad-that-postal-service/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crime-seattle-is-so-bad-that-postal-service
Crime in Seattle is So Bad That the Postal Service Had to Pause Deliveries For Entire Area
In my small neighborhood in Tennessee, the tags on the vehicles buying homes since the blue state exodus began have been from Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, and California. Ran into a lady at the bank a few months ago who told me she was from Washington state and that she and her husband were building a new home here - they were exhausted with the leftwing politics. Anecdotal no doubt, but it is even more obvious when you drive by the businesses that rent U-Hauls here and the lots are full. Many of the escapees, however, are seemingly well off with RVs and multiple POVs who can afford to engage a commercial moving company.