Regarding “Westfield Old Orchard celebrating 70 years” (Sept. 8): It’s good that Westfield Old Orchard has found a way to keep going. The last time I was there, it was hard to find parking. The reason so many people are buying things online is that the merchandise isn’t out there in brick-and-mortar stores. You have a size that isn’t among the fastest sellers? It isn’t out there, but you can find it online. You sew but can’t find fabric when all the chain fabric stores are gone? You can find fabric online, but when you get it, it may not be what you expected.
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So it’s a vicious circle: The stores don’t have a full selection of merchandise, so people shop online, which reduces the store’s foot traffic and sales, so it cuts back to only its top sellers or goes out of business altogether.
And then there is the eyesore that is Northbrook Court and what’s left of a mall about to be demolished (sometime?), but that’s a story for another time.
— Alice Solovy, Highland Park
Key to mall’s longevity
It was wonderful to read about Old Orchard celebrating 70 years as a vital shopping mall in Skokie. It is worth noting when many others have been closed and torn down. And for the record, no one refers to it as “Westfield Old Orchard”; it’s just Old Orchard.
It was a unique place to shop with a great variety of stores. In the early years, there was a Kroger grocery store, a Woolworths and furniture store John M. Smyth.
For decades, Edward’s restaurant was just outside the front of Marshall Field’s at a time when parking was located at the front of the store. For the record, The Fair was not a discount store. It was on a par with two other State Street department stores, Carson Pirie Scott and Wieboldt’s. In fact, there was a story in the paper that stated that Old Orchard reflected the location choices of lower-price stores on State Street, with the south end being the less pricey stores and the north end the more expensive and exclusive. By that time, Montgomery Ward was in The Fair location. Marshall Field’s demonstrated that exclusiveness, with the Fur Salon, Bridal Shop and the 28 Shop having their own separate entrances. Absolute class.
But the key to Old Orchard’s longevity is it continues to reinvent itself.
It was just 32 years ago when the mall was rebuilt, adding not only Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s but also extending the shopping area beyond the medical building. It redid the parking facing Skokie Boulevard and constructed a variety of new stores.
Old Orchard is now in the process of reinventing itself again, with a plan to add affordable housing and medical facilities as well as newer shops with recreational areas.
Hopefully, in 2056, it will be celebrating 100 years of existence.
— Judy Arkes, Chicago
AI can’t replace everyone
The news has been filled with reports of how many employees have been laid off due to artificial intelligence. Reporting on new hiring does not address a fundamental fact. In the 49 years I have been in the personalized manufacturing industry, I have seen a dearth of young people learning trades, jobs that they can do with both their hands as well as minds.
AI can’t replace artistry or personal interactions or taking a client’s personal feelings into play.
“Artificial” is the mean fact here. If you have special talents that are needed and you can communicate well, I’d suggest developing those skills, talk to people in person and turn off the computer.
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— Mark Bacharach, Leo Bachrach and Son Jewelers, Chicago
In the name of access
I support making Chicago’s lakefront accessible for all. However, with the opening this month of the George Lucas museum in California, it is appropriate to thank the Friends of the Parks for preserving some parking lots and grass south of Soldier Field from hosting this hideous museum.
Thanks seems also appropriate for making it difficult, if not impossible, to replace Soldier Field with a modern multipurpose facility.
— Anthony Carrollo, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Destroying our peace
I agree with letter writer Lise Haberman (“Unbearable noise on the drive,” Sept. 3). Some summer evenings, a cavalcade of up to 100 motorcycles goes north on DuSable Lake Shore Drive (I’m at Montrose Harbor), turns around and returns south, giving us the double decibel treatment!
There are also the souped-up cars, which are constant on the drive and, I’m sure, are exceeding legal decibel levels.
The incident of the Chicago River bridge becoming stuck because of the heat raises the issue of how a single sailboat (pleasure vehicle) has the right to inconvenience traffic for even the purported eight minutes it takes. (The bridge remained impassable for hours.) The bridge raises for sailboats in the spring and fall should only be allowed after 11 p.m. and not after 5 a.m.
— Kathye Kerchner, Chicago
Fine fireworks scofflaws
Enough with the fireworks! It’s been over two months since the Fourth of July, and there are plenty of meatheads blowing off ear-splitting fireworks. When a person commits a crime, it usually affects one person, but someone lights off these noisemakers, it affects many.
Make the fine fit the crime; $1,000 would be a good start. Start a fireworks hotline, where those bothered by the noise can report the addresses of the offenders, which can be given to the police in the appropriate area.
It is well past time that we can get a decent night’s sleep and no longer have babies cry or our dogs scared to death. It wouldn’t take much. A few publicized fines, and we could all live in peace again.
— William Stecich, Chicago
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