Loyola & Northwestern

uchicagoalum
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:26:41 +0000

The CTA takes more than 45 minutes late at night. You can look up the schedule for yourself.

Many 9 PM Movies get out around 11 PM. Most people who go to clubs / bars definitely leave after 11 PM. These are the two major downtown draws for students save shopping and dining, which yes, do close shop fairly early.

I hear a lot about the other neighborhoods in Chicago, but to be honest unless you are into Indie music / cheap ethnic food, there is not a whole hell of a lot to do in them. I went to two and found neither to be worth the commute. I could have done the same thing in Hyde Park. Indeed, you can find the same thing around nearly every college campus.

I am all in favor of a big box store, preferably Wal*Mart, but it is not going to happen without a major fight. If it were centrally located it would drive out too many neighborhood stores (which is of course, is the unspoken desire of the University). Coop and Hyde Park Produce would be easy kills. ACE hardware and Office Depot I think would have a hard time relying on just selling esoteric things like sandblasters and fax machines. Right now they push a lot of hammers and ink cartridges to stay solvent, which a big box could do much cheaper with a one stop shopping advantage in addition. But I think the two bigger issues would be parking lot growth pushing out some existing low income housing, as well as the sob stories of current employees who get axed.