Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
^ I agree, but there is no doubt that these will poach tenants from the Loop. It’s already started. The problem is, the central Loop is still the most well served by transit. So if your going to expand the office zones, we need better transit connections. And still nobody is taking about this. We need the Clinton Subway and something akin to the Times Sq/Grand Central Station shuttle in New York
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Because its so well served, I dont see major tenants with hundreds or thousands of employees leaving the Loop any time soon. I feel that the West Loop/Fulton Market will remain more of a niche office market, with smaller tenants and fewer employees. It won't realistically be able to sustain more than that. It will compliment the Loop, rather than rival it.
The Clinton Street subway would be a huge help with transit connections. The best aspect of it is that it would create a huge underground Loop for the Blue Line, allowing the Forest Park and O'Hare branches to split into 2 separate lines (which would loop around the Congess/Dearborn/Lake/Clinton 'superloop', much like the Orange, Brown, Purple and Pink lines currently do on the elevated Loop). This will allow the CTA to balance out the two lines. Currently, the O'Hare branch has packed trains while the Forest Park branch runs a bunch of empty trains. The CTA can then focus more train service for the Northwest Side and the airport, as opposed to the underused west side line, which has duplicate service with the Green line half a mile to the north.