Aug 15

Aug 15 Odds and Ends I

Chicago, Architecture, Street, Urban Landscapes, Windows

“Odds and ends, odds and ends
Lost time is not found again.”

— Odds and Ends, Bob Dylan and the Band, The Basement Tapes (1967/1975 and Bootlegged Times In Between)

If you live in Chicago, the big story this week was last Sunday’s looting rampage. It has been decades since I regularly watched the 10 PM local news (the days of John McCullough WTMJ), but I checked in Sunday night to see whether Mayor Lightfoot was going to shutdown the lakefront following weekend parties on Montrose Beach. No news about looting. When I woke at 5:30 AM, I read the Tribune’s headline, and immediately turned on the local news. The helicopter hovering above the Best Buy on Clybourn showed people still carrying goods out of the store. As word spread, the City was in shock.

On Tuesday, I headed downtown. Michigan Avenue was largely empty, with many storefronts boarded up. I overhead a security guard at Water Tower Place tell an onlooker that the looters had made it to the sixth floor of Macys. Yesterday, it was announced that Macys would not be renewing its lease. While the decision was apparently made back in February, any effort on the Mayor’s part to talk Macys out of closing that store is now largely hopeless. I can only wonder whether other retailers will leave the Loop, Michigan Avenue, Oak Street, and the Clybourn retail corridor. Adding to the general despair: Six days before the looting, four men jumped out of two cars on Oak Street in the late afternoon, pulled out guns, and proceeded to gun down Chicago rapper FBG Duck in a Mob-style hit while he waited in line to enter a luxury children’s luxury clothes store. Duck died instantly, but two others survived their wounds. A precursor to the weekend then ahead.

I have given a lot of thought to those two incidents while walking around the city. I have two observations. The looters have misplaced priorities. I don’t condone looting, but this obsession with luxury-branded goods is pathetic. I’ve never been into most of the stores that were looted, and most people I know, haven’t, either. If I were forced to steal, I would hit a food store. Instead of stealing a Christian Louboutin handbag, I would steal something for my kids at the Michigan Avenue Disney store, which by all appearances, was untouched.

That brings me to my second observation. If I were a brand manager, I’d spend time asking myself why some stores were looted while others weren’t. St. John, Tom Ford, and Ermenegildo Zegna were unscathed. Why? Are those weak brand identities?

The looting certainly hasn’t helped the downtown shopping districts recover from the Covid-19 lockdown that was lifted in June. The streets are empty at noon on workdays and on the weekends. Does that mean office worker are still working at home, or are they confining themselves to the relatively safe confines of their cubicles? Possibly, they are bringing bag lunches. It the level of visible activity remains low, I expect we will see a lot of supporting businesses close, like restaurants and notions shops.

As I walk around other neighborhoods, I see restaurants that are supposedly open, but nobody is seated inside. There are signs in what seems like every third window advertising retail space for rent. The local boutiques are shuttering their doors. The City may be open for business, but no one seems to be buying or eating.

But life does go on. General Iron Industries will soon be moving its location south of the City after numerous complaints from the well-to-do who occupy new housing surrounding its current site along the river, but for the time being, it is still busy processing our scrap waste. Even when we are stuck at home, we produce plenty of garbage.

As for me, after ten weeks away from my cameras, I am back on the streets. I started with two-hour walks, but I am now driving to locations farther afield. Always with a mask on. I never sunk into a depression over the collective calamity that has befallen us, but I must admit, I am in a much better mood with my cameras in hand.

What follows are the odds and ends from my photo walks. Some are excellent images. Others document our current state. Today I will be out looking for evidence of a functioning Post Office.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It]