I was just there. Walked for miles all over the city including the Mag Mile. (Note to Donald: It's the Magnificent Mile, not the Miracle Mile) It was just a bunch of tourists shopping and wandering and eating and drinking as per usual. Great city to visit.
It is important to say, when viewing the overall statistics, that Chicago, while it does have much to commend it, is a very violent city by Toronto standards.
Toronto is pacing for a historic low in homicides this year, (based on the last 50 or so years).......with a homicide rate likely in the range of 1.4 per 100,000. Our recent historical averages would be closer to 2.6
Chicago has also seen a significant decline in homicides year over year...........but is still running a homicide rate of 7.0 this year (as of June) a rate 5x that of Toronto.
They've been up close to 8x in the recent past.
Still......on violent crime, Chicago is trending positively.
Also worth saying, of course, is that most of the violent crime in Chicago is not downtown, or in the north end, but pockets of the south and west sides which is where most of the poverty can be found, and relatively few of the tourists.
In respect of the Magnificent Mile there is indeed inordinately high retail vacancy, but that too is trending favourably. Vacancy peaked in 2021 at ~30% and is currently at ~25% and continues to trend positively with new lease uptake.
Chicago's overall retail vacancy rate is 4.7%, which is above Toronto's, but well below national U.S. numbers in the 5.5% to 6% range.