Video Gaming Terminals in 60601 (Loop, Chicago)

History

The Loop is Community Area 32; its name apparently began with the cable-car turnaround and was later extended to the ring of elevated tracks completed in 1897. East of Michigan Avenue the story is the railroad: in 1852 the City granted lakefront land to the Illinois Central in exchange for a breakwater, and by 1856 freight terminals and a track complex filled the ground. Along the river, Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago proposed a multi-level roadway in place of the South Water Street produce market; the Plan Commission under Charles H. Wacker cleared it, construction was fully underway by 1925, and the double-decked drive took Wacker's name. The same decade hung the marquees on State and Randolph: the Chicago Theatre went up in 1921, the Oriental and the Palace in 1926. In 1966 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the railroad could build above its tracks; the air rights were sold, and One Illinois Center, from the master plan by Mies van der Rohe's office, opened in 1970. The rail land east of it held a nine-hole golf course from 1994 to 2001 and became Lakeshore East from 2002, while the rail lines and parking lots between Randolph and Monroe became the 24.5-acre Millennium Park, opened in July 2004.

The area today

This ZIP runs roughly from the river south to Randolph and from LaSalle east to the lake: the Randolph Street theaters, the Randolph edge of Millennium Park, Wacker Drive, Illinois Center and the Lakeshore East towers residents call the New Eastside. Randolph is the theater row a 1984 tax-increment district rebuilt: the Chicago Theatre, a Chicago Landmark since 1983; the Nederlander (the old Oriental) and the Cadillac Palace, reopened in 1998 and 1999; and the Goodman, on Dearborn since 2000. Below Wacker the Riverwalk runs 1.25 miles from Lake Street to the lakefront, with cruise boats docking between Michigan and Columbus. The Red Line stops at Lake, the Blue Line and the Loop elevated at Clark/Lake, and Metra Electric and South Shore trains stop at Millennium Station on Michigan; State/Lake is closed for rebuilding into 2029, so riders use Clark/Lake or Washington/Wabash.

Bars and restaurants here

If your room is on Randolph or State near the theaters, you run on curtain time. The Loop Alliance describes a district that feeds business lunches and pre-theater crowds rushing to make curtain, and it points to pre-theater menus with faster service. On Wacker and Michigan the trade is hotel guests, Illinois Center office workers and the cruise-boat line, and in season the Riverwalk below you, where the City's Riverwalk vendors include a winery, a beer-and-cider garden, bars and a kayak outfitter, with vendor space at the Marina between State and Dearborn. In Lakeshore East the customers are the residents of the towers, walking down to the rooms at their base.