Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
There are still 4 million New Yorkers with access to a car. Those folks have easier access to an IKEA, already, than Chicagoans with a car. We really should have a conventional store closer to the city... maybe not at a prime downtown spot like The 78 (where it was originally proposed) but certainly in an industrial corridor somewhere.
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Just because it's in the same city doesn't mean it's more convenient by any mode of transit, including a car, to anywhere in Chicago. Red Hook is more central than what the Chicago area has, sure, but it doesn't mean much depending on where you're coming from. If you were living in the middle of the Bronx (say by the Bronx Zoo), that's still over a 17 mile journey by car, except the way you'd get there is definitely worse traffic than from a NW neighborhood to Schaumburg or a south side area to Naperville. Even living straight east somewhere like Jamaica or nearby is still 17 or 18 miles, but the route to get there via highways is actually worse and much longer (25 miles at that point if you wanted to go a route like that). The first time we went there, we got a regular uber back and my fiancee was living in Astoria (Queens) at the time. It's about 10 miles, but the car ride itself was over an hour on a Saturday afternoon around 3pm. No special events were going on - this is just normal.
Anyway, putting something in the 78 or OPO or downtown or whatever will be more central, but it's still not going to be convenient for everyone. You'll have the same problem as in NY.