Out here on the streets Chicago is a damn mess. The Magnificent Mile? More like a crime-ridden ghost town. Dodging vagrants, drug dealers, and plywood-covered stores while the city pretends everything’s fine. It’s ugly. Here’s what went down on July 1, 2025.
Mag Mile’s Getting Smashed to Hell
[ Picture … Plywood Special — Smashed and grabbed again at Alo, 700 block of North Michigan Avenue, boarded up window, 5pm, July 1, 2025. Photo by John Kugler, SubX.News ]
At 3:14 AM, some punks smashed into Alo on the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue. Broke the glass, grabbed what they could, and peeled out. Second time in a month—last hit was June 5. Stood there today, staring at another “plywood special.” This is the Mag Mile, not some back alley. Where the hell were the security guards? They’ll hassle you for parking on the curb but let criminals waltz in and out. CPD’s got Area Three Detectives on it, but nobody’s in custody. Shocker.
Six stores closed within a block and a half near Superior and Huron. Empty. Boarded up. Some got smashed, others just gave up.
State street is no different the Chick-fil-A at State and Lake tells the sad story of fake politicians. Shut down, plywood up, right before NASCAR rolls into town. You’d think they’d stay open for the crowds, but crime’s killing business, the renovate during the high tourist season, strange aint it.
Vacant high-rises, empty retail spaces, and guys sleeping in doorways while cops scroll their phones. This ain’t COVID or remote work—it’s a holiday week, and the streets are dead.
Wabash and Lake: A Progressive Solution Ignored
What about a progressive solution for dealing with vacant retail spaces and homelessness? There’s an empty building at Wabash and Lake that’s sat unused for a few years. A guy sleeps on the sidewalk right in front of it. Why not offer him the space—give him a bucket, a cot, a curtain—and let him keep an eye on the place?
Cut the owner a break on taxes or city fees. It’d help the homeless, clean up the sidewalk, and make the area look less like a war zone. But no one in city government’s thinking like that.
No creativity, no care—just more fines, more contracts, more money for themselves.
Then there are the Sidewalk Sleepers and NASCAR’s Illusion. The big street race is coming in a few days, and at 6:42 PM, there’s a guy sleeping on the sidewalk at State and Ida B. Wells while cops are all around doing nothing. Tourists wondering is this what they paid to visit, an urban slum.
How do you sell Chicago to visitors like this?
Crime’s Running Wild Just One Channel Mind You
The scanner lit up all day. At 5:19 AM, a 29-year-old was found with bullets in his back and leg at 13200 South Langley—critical condition.
At 6:30 PM, a 27-year-old woman got stabbed in the gut at 7800 South Sangamon during a fight. Hanging on by a thread.
At 6:41 PM, a 27-year-old guy got shot at 400 West 99th Place—also critical. No suspect.
At 9:53 PM, a 25-year-old male was shot in the right forearm at 4400 South Wells after unknown males called out to him, then opened fire.
At 11:20 PM, a 66-year-old man was shot in the chest and neck outside on the 0-100 block of West 79th Street by someone in a dark sedan. He died at University of Chicago Hospital.
At 12:15 AM (technically July 2), a 26-year-old man walked into Trinity Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. He wouldn’t say what happened.
Area Detectives are “investigating,” but good luck with that.
Transit’s a mess. At 6:12 PM, a Black female threatened a bus driver at Broadway and Leland. By 7:17 PM, thirty underage kids on the Red Line near Addison—drunk, puking, tossing beer bottles. Never used to hear about murders on buses or trains. Now we’ve got double homicides at schools like Benito Juarez and Intrinsic. When did this become normal?
Crime ain’t down—it’s worse than ever.
A black Audi jacked from a parking garage at 210 North Wells at 7:05 PM—no cameras, no security. A drunk woman at O’Hare’s Terminal 2 at 7:06 PM—needed EMS to drag her out. Online, people say don’t demonize youth caught up in crime—they’ve got no opportunities. Sure, but when 12- and 13-year-olds are carjacking people and there’s no gun charge on the sheet?
That’s messed up.
And remember these calls, we report on, come from the Citywide 1 radio frequency, 460.475 MHz, one of at least 20 Chicago Police Radio Channels, not including the State Police, Cook County Sheriff, Metra, and other jurisdictions like Universities and private security companies.
Shelters, Drug Dealers, and No Accountability
Down at 23rd and Halsted, the city’s running a so-called “mixed shelter” for migrants and Americans. At 7:10 PM, it was a circus. Guys hanging out, some dealing drugs, others just laid out. If any regular landlord ran a place like that, they’d be slapped with nuisance violations—but the city gets a pass.
One migrant drug dealer—bushy hair, switches cars—been there two years. Threatened to kill people more than once. Still out front dealing. Everyone knows it.
Even the homeless say it’s dangerous—criminals sneaking into tent cities and shelters preying on them.
City’s doing nothing.
The System Is the Scandal
Crime’s like rust on a car—you can’t just slap paint on it.
You gotta cut it out and fix it for real. City’s not doing that.
They’re encrypting scanner channels like during Pride, so no one hears what’s going on.
Bribing gangs with checks. Band-Aid fixes.
When the money runs out, it’ll be worse.
The city’s falling apart—empty stores, brazen crime, and a government more loyal to cronies than citizens.
There are solutions: tax-free zones, using homeless veterans to fix housing for the unhoused and maybe even take care of the migrants if needed.
But they’re not doing it.
This is collapse, slow and quiet, until it’s not.
References
Chicago economy crime and migrant update 605 p.m. July 1st 2025
Chicago economy crime and migrant update 605 p.m. July 1st 2025
“it is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.” 10:51 AM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/w_h_thompson/status/1940075823752470529
Someone breaking into garages during the night near Sayre and Byron. They also broke the light next to the door. 12:06 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/DunningWatch/status/1940094580546052312
Plywood Special Mag Mile …. Smash and Grab Part 2 … 717 block of N. Michigan on July 1, 2025 at appx 314am Three unknown offenders forcibly entered a business by damaging a glass window at the above location and removed items from inside. The offenders fled the scene. No one is in custody at this time. Area Three Detectives are investigating (18th District)
Posted: July 1, 2025 4:24 AM CDT A similar burglary happened at the same store on June 5. 4:59 PM · Jul 1, 2025
Plywood Special Mag Mile …. Smash and Grab Part 2 … 717 block of N. Michigan on July 1, 2025 at appx 314am
Three unknown offenders forcibly entered a business by damaging a glass window at the above location and removed items from inside. The offenders fled the scene. No one… pic.twitter.com/ckdpfEeTJX
Mag Mile Dystopia …. count at least six stores close within a block and a half area with a bum sleeping in a doorway, plywood on glass, and cops on their cell phones 5:00 p.m. July 1st 2025 https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940184075622371677
need to be careful, there are some shady ass mother fuckers out here #chicagoscanner #MagMile #Dangerous
Chickened Out … they shut down the Chick-fil-A at State and Lake … plywood special right before NASCAR kind of wild ain’t it … you figured you’d stay open for the people coming into town … guess they figured ain’t enough to come to stay open 6:30 p.m. July 1st 2025 https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940191583711732082
Progressive solutions empty and vacant real estate spaces can be places where the unhoused can stay temporarily and the empty space landlords and management companies get a discount on whatever fees and taxes they have it’s a win-win for both but no one’s doing that are they 6:30 p.m. July 1st 2025 Wabash and Benton https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940192826387538423
Sidewalk Sleeping … State and Ida b Wells 642 p.m. July 1st 2025 welcome to NASCAR https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940195359667687782
Belmont Lakeshore Drive walking on the drive wanted for robbery Has been detained 6:58 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940198426869944782
Auto theft black Audi 210 North wells from the parking garage
Really the parking garage I mainly go to …nice No cameras at that joint as well 7:20 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/Chitoycop/status/1940203995018273106
Disturbance with the intoxicated female that was denied boarding at gate, flt SKW5517 ORD-PVD Female now at the front of Terminal 2, upper level, door 2D #CPD requesting #CFD EMS to transport her 7:06 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/WindyCityWxMan/status/1940200273458471239
20 plus people fighting in the fieldhouse at Ogden park and a female’s trying to run people over with her car
the city is a nuisance landlord 23rd and Halsted homeless migrant shelter 7:10 p.m. July 1st 2025 the main Mondo drug dealer still here .. https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940203317835243928
thirty underage kids on the red line by Addison drinking on the train beer bottles everywhere and they’re throwing up everywhere
busy here it looks like they might be going towards the back of the yards cops going south on ahsland from archer 7:25 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/SubxNews/status/1940205155456364843
Male (27) shot in the leg, 406 W 99th Pl the crime scene consists of blood and shell casings inside the house, and 5 weapons, 2 of the weapons have blood on them. 7:33 PM · Jul 1, 2025 https://x.com/SPOTNEWSonIG/status/1940207053508931978
