Even before the latest Gold Coast crash-and-grab robbery, local Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) already had been planning to meet on Monday with other city officials to discuss installing barriers on sections of Michigan Avenue and the nearby retail district.
That meeting proceeded just a few hours after an SUV smashed into the Prada store on Oak Street near State, leading to a shootout in which one police officer was shot and a suspected robber was critically wounded.
Hopkins said it’s now full-speed-ahead to get protective bollards installed in the area.
“We’re looking to expedite this,” Hopkins said.
“We have several designs of bollards that don’t look like bollards. We’re trying to make it look like it’s just part of the decorative landscape. But they’re designed to prevent vehicles from leaving the roadway, crossing the sidewalk and smashing into a storefront,” said Hopkins, whose ward includes the intersection of State and Walton, where police found one of the several vehicles robbers used Monday.
Those bollards cost about $1,000 apiece — “not expensive at all,” Hopkins said, though that doesn’t include installation. No estimate on that cost is available, he added, and the location of underground utility lines must be taken into account.
Officials are leaning toward paying for the project with money from the taxing district created to fund security improvements in the area, Hopkins said. That taxing district, known as a special service area or SSA, was approved in December 2021 by the City Council after a series of robberies of high-end stores in the area.
“We think it’s something retailers will support,” Hopkins said. “It keeps happening, targeting the stores on Oak Street and Michigan Avenue. The sooner we can get these security bollards installed, the less likely it is we’re gonna have these repeat offenses targeting the same stores.”
If nothing is done, “some of the retailers may give up on the area, and we can’t afford that,” Hopkins said. “How much does it cost to constantly repair the damage to your storefront? Even if insurance covers some of it, at some point they’re gonna stop covering it because it happens with such frequency.”
Also in Monday’s meeting were officials from the Magnificent Mile Association, the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Department of Transportation.
“There’s a justification for at least some measure of public dollars because Oak Street in particular — but Michigan Avenue also — generates a significant amount of sales tax because it is a desirable retail destination,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins and his fellow downtown council member Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) had initially blocked the creation of that taxing district, complaining that the approval process was rushed and truncated, and that a “significant portion” of the money generated by the tax hike would go toward “salary, contracts, personnel and other operating expenses.”
Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot argued at the time that commercial properties fronting the Magnificent Mile were “hurting” after a dramatic drop-off in sales and foot traffic and that Hopkins and Reilly were wrong to stop those businesses from taxing themselves to shore up their defenses.
As passed, the special service district has a three-year duration. The service tax applies only to commercial buildings within the district boundaries. That tax will not exceed 0.05% a year on the equalized assessed value of the taxable property.
It was expected to bring in about $742,000 a year, with about $472,000 of that going toward public safety initiatives.
Reilly could not be reached for comment about Monday’s incident and security meeting.
