It's a very Zen experience, walking down the middle of NorthMichigan Avenue without being arrested.
But it's perfectly legal to stroll there, meditating deeply,while parts of of the west sidewalk are closed.
See, bustling North Michigan hasn't been well lately, thanks tothe $25 million reconstruction of the Chicago River bridge and bothlevels of the avenue from the Wrigley Building to Grand Avenue andbeyond.
First the east side of Michigan was torn up and renovated. Nowit's the west side's turn.
Some skyscrapers and shops on the west side have had onlytenuous links to civilization - temporary walkways that stretch overthe void.
Maybe by Thanksgiving everything will be renewed and reopened,better than ever. Meanwhile, magnificent people are sufferingthrough the magnificent mess at the start of the Magnificent Mile.
Most days, Henry Brown dresses like a gigantic hot dog, completewith bun, and passes out handbills on the torn-up section of MichiganAvenue.
The handbills read something like "Our burgers are fresh grounddaily with no preservatives, additives or fillers. FREE. Smallfries and drink with any burger sandwich. One per customer."
Hungry passersby don't find that hard to digest in one quickread.
Brown works for Barry Potekin of Gold Coast Dogs on StateStreet. "Till they started tearing it up," Brown says, he tarried onthe east side of Michigan, near the plaza north of the WrigleyBuilding.
"I don't pass out leaflets like I used to because it's so messedup," Brown says, and "because my fans are on the other side" of theconstruction.
"It's a different crowd now."
Brown has been working for Potekin six years, and when notpamphleteering does Gold Coast deliveries. He stores his costume inthe restaurant basement.
Hot dogs have always been red-hot sellers. But somerestaurants have been hard hit during construction.
George Kuan says business in his House of Hunan-Michigan Avenuerestaurant was down "50 percent last year" while his side, the eastside of the avenue, was out of action.
This year, with the east side renovated, his dining business is"definitely better." But "taxis and tour buses still cannot stop infront."
A block west of Michigan, at Riccardo's restaurant on Rush,owner Nick Angelos says "business is halfway down." He blames therecession and the Michigan Avenue rip-up.
For one thing, people haven't able to use the stairway fromupper Michigan Avenue. to Riccardo's. The stairway has been closedtemporarily.
And taxes, not taxis, aren't helping either.
"Sixteen years ago I paid $7,000 a year in real estate taxes onthe Riccardo building," says Angelos. "I put my bones and my bloodinto it and fixed it up. Now they're asking me for $150,000" a year.
"It's not democracy. We're in crisis. With the real estatetaxes, I'm going to have to close and get out."
At Billy Goat's on the west side of Michigan's lower level,owner Sam Sianis says "lunch business has been down. People don'tcome down for lunch because it's too far to walk. All stairs havebeen closed" from the upper level at various times.
"When they were fixing the other side, it was easier," Sianissays.
Did President Bush have trouble getting to Billy Goat's forlunch on Dec. 10?
"When Bush was here, it was open. Construction on the westside started the first of the year."
Listen, Sam, tell us again: Did Bush pay for his lunch?
"The President when he got up to leave, he took money out ofhis pocket to pay. I told him, `Mister President, because it's yourfirst time at Billy Goat, Billy Goat is going to buy you lunch. Thesecond time, you pay."
Don't try that yourselves, readers.
James Williams, confined to a wheelchair, is a familiar sighton Michigan's upper level.
Sometimes people stop to chat with him, or offer acontribution. "I've been here three or four years," he says, and hefeels he has made many friends.
What impact has construction had on any donations he mightreceive? "None," Williams says.
Williams used to favor the west side of Michigan Avenue but hecan be found on "both sides" now that the west side is a wasteland.
At the Rand McNally map and travel store on the west side, atorn-up street "definitely has had an impact" on business, saysmanager Rebecca Owen. "Luckily, the product we carry is somethingpeople will go to a little bit of trouble to get," Owen says.
And there's a bright side. "We have had an additional group ofpeople coming to see the construction," she says, "how interesting itis to see the old structure of the road."
This is an especially rugged time for Manouchehr Shabahang, whoowns Shabahang Persian Carpets on the east side of Michigan. "Itdefinitely affects our business," he says of the mess.
"I lost money last year," Shabahang says. "This is a touristarea and a lot of tourists didn't bother to come to this side becauseit was uncomfortable. Now this side is clear and we get some of thetraffic from the other side. It's better for us."
Policeman Dominic LaCalamita helps keep traffic running throughMichigan Avenue's war zone.
One problem: "Cab drivers stop in the middle of the street topick people up, or let them out right in the middle of the block."
LaCalamita finds that people confronted with constructionconfusion on the west side generally are "accepting it more than theydid on the other side, because they tore it up much faster on thewest side. They started Jan. 6. They're really working."
Barbers on both sides of Michigan are holding their own,trimwise. Roberto Cordova co-owns the barbershop in the east side'sEquitable Building with Vito Citrano.
"It was a little harder for our friends to come see us" when theeast side was torn up, says Cordova. "But they struggled through it.We're all happy because it's so nice now. We had a whole year ofthat.
"You kind of don't get new customers" during reconstruction, headmits. But now his rebuilt east side "looks nicer. There's a bigdifference."
Joe Gambino says haircut numbers in his west side WrigleyBuilding Barber Shop haven't been affected by the mess. But "peoplecomplain they have to go a little further, go down the street moreand come up."
Sue McKenna also works in the Wrigley Building, with theIllinois Insurance Information Service. She says when workmen weretearing up the avenue's east side, "for two whole days they had thelarge ball that breaks up the concrete, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. By the endof the day my head was rocking with the ball.
"I didn't remember how annoying and distracting it was till theydid it on the west side."
Sy Handwerker feels kind of shellshocked in the east side'sEquitable Building. "We have survived about two years ofconstruction," says Handwerker, president of the Hanlen Organizationpublic relations firm.
"Before they tore up the street, they tore up the plaza, andbefore that they tore up the entire lobby," Handwerker says. "It'sbeen like a war zone here for a long, long time.
"People were always getting lost. We told them they had to walkover to the other side of the street to get across the bridge." Nowthey must use Handwerker's side of the street to cross the river.
Kroch's and Brentano's bookstore on the west side keeps itsrevolving front door securely locked because there's now a dropoffbeyond it. But customers can use a side lobby door.
"Yes, business has gone down some," says Kroch's assistantmanager Bette Popik. "But not as bad as we thought it would. Ithink probably because we have so many restaurants on this side.People still come to pick up their McDonald's.
Kroch's is where many Boul Mich denizens pick up the ChicagoReader on Thursday. But now the huge newspaper stack vanishes earlybecause the weekly can't be delivered easily.
"The Reader guy only delivers one load versus two. He has tocome up through the dock area."
Still, nobody can stop a reader, lower case. "We've had threeor four autograph parties" at Kroch's since the avenue became rubbleand thin air on the west side. At one party, Popik says, poet G.E.Murray autographed and sold more than 125 copies of his book Walkingthe Blind Dog.
Homemade signs abound on Michigan Avenue. Many of the largeplywood boards that separate people and gaping holes have cryptic,interconnected messages written on them. One reads, "Nobody hasRECORDS!!!
Another reads, "Shutup. . . ! I think I hear the secretary."
Still further on: "Screenwriters. Have parts of your scriptsshown up in commercials."
And then, "Who are YOU to script people off? (ugly worms)."
And so it goes, sometimes alternating with signs that read,"Bridge CLOSED. Use east side."
Somewhere out there is an unhappy writer. But aren't allwriters unhappy?
Though the scheduled date for completion of Michigan Avenuereconstruction is Thanksgiving week, things may be wrapped up sooner.
"We anticipate that the bridge and roadway on the west side willbe completed sometime in September," says Russell Salzman, executivedirector of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association.
"And then they will finish the southeast leaf of the bridge.There's an early finish clause, substantial enough that I'm toldcontractors are duly motivated.
"Our association is planning a rather significant event thatwill be a major kickoff to the Christmas season, opening the gatewayto the Mile."
And that's the situation on Michigan Avenue, Zen and now.
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