Video Gaming in Chicago's 42nd Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

Early maps showed little but lake north of the Chicago River and east of Michigan Avenue. William B. Ogden found the family's land along the river swampy, bought large tracts there anyway in the 1830s, and brought the city's first railroad to the Near North Side in 1848. Sand and silt that gathered at the river's mouth, nicknamed the Sands, drew squatters. George Streeter stranded a boat there in 1886 and claimed the land; a court ruled the claims invalid in 1918, and the neighborhood is still called Streeterville. South of the river, the elevated rail loop completed in 1897 tied downtown to the neighborhoods, and as the Civil War ended Potter Palmer shifted retail from Lake Street to State Street. Charred rubble from the Great Fire of 1871 was dumped along the shore, the first of many landfill additions to what became Grant Park, where citizens had lobbied in 1835 to keep the lakefront open. The Michigan Avenue Bridge opened in 1920 and fostered a luxury shopping district on North Michigan Avenue, and investors built high-rise apartment buildings and hotels in the eastern Near North Side. In the 1980s, River North became a center for art galleries.

The area today

Ald. Brendan Reilly represents the 42nd Ward. The City lists a City Hall office at 121 N. LaSalle St., Room 200, and no separate ward office. Reilly was first elected in 2007 after defeating former Ald. Burt Natarus, and Block Club Chicago reports no opponent in four reelection bids. The ward runs through the Loop and the Near North Side, taking in parts of River North and Streeterville, along with Millennium Park, part of Grant Park and Navy Pier. Clark/Lake is served by six CTA lines: Purple, Blue, Pink, Green, Brown and Orange. A 2015 NBC Chicago ward profile names tourism as the ward's economic engine, citing Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park and the Art Institute. Theatergoers and visitors keep the Loop and North Michigan Avenue busy.

Bars and restaurants here

If your room is in the Loop, the Chicago Loop Alliance describes a trade of business lunches and pre-theater crowds rushing to make curtain call, with restaurants offering pre-theater menus and faster service. North of the river, the Near North Side's commercial corridor grew up around Clark Street, between the lakefront and the industrial river. On North Michigan Avenue and in Streeterville, the Magnificent Mile Association promotes the district as a destination for shopping, dining and tourism.