SubX.News® | Street Report | Oct 13, 2025
(Chicago) — As the partial government shutdown dragged into its thirteenth day, the streets of Chicago carried a strange mix of noise and silence — drums and cheers now gone from the 73rd annual Columbus Day Parade, and frustration lingering from a city still waiting for leadership.
Economic Outlook and Marathon Reflections
Michigan Avenue carried the echo of the marathon — medals clinking, shoes scraping the pavement, a heavy October sky hanging over the city. A little humid, a little overcast.
There were no banners, no flags, no signs of civic celebration along the route.
The administration has no spirit. Parasites and parrots — they talk about the soul of the city but do nothing for it.
Under mostly cloudy skies and seventy-one degrees, marchers in bright regalia moved down State Street, celebrating Italian heritage and the legacy of exploration.
“To us, Christopher Columbus is like a family member,” one parade-goer said, waving a flag. Organizers spoke of unity — “one big umbrella of love and brotherhood” — while federal workers sat idle, victims of a Capitol Hill stalemate that showed no sign of ending.
Congress was on recess for the holiday, the Senate scheduled to reconvene Tuesday for another vote that was already expected to fail.
The fight in Washington over health-insurance subsidies mirrored the political paralysis felt in Chicago — a city trying to celebrate itself while half the system slept.
By midafternoon, downtown was empty again and hollow underneath. Barricades still lined the parade route; city crews packed up and left boarded storefronts.
What remained was a city performing joy while the foundation cracked beneath it.
Wall Street had surged — the Dow up 588, NASDAQ 490, S&P 102 — but the city felt stalled.
The collective experience used to matter.
Now it’s just about money.
Police and commuters shared the sidewalks with runners and vendors, the surface energy hiding economic exhaustion.
Environmental Clash: Pilsen Silos and the Politics of Dust
Farther west, residents near the Damen Silos in Pilsen renewed their fight against a demolition project they said was endangering the neighborhood. The site — already nearly 80 percent demolished — had been halted by a stop-work order, only after political pressure.
The Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization warned that the dust-control plan ignored community input, raising fears of another disaster like the 2020 Crawford smokestack implosion that blanketed Little Village in toxic debris.
Health officials promised no demolition would proceed until safety measures were complete, but the work continued.
Activists extended their alarm to the nearby Fisk Generating Station, where a similar demolition permit was granted late in the month.
“Without public input, we’re left questioning short- and long-term health effects,” one organizer said.
Residents called the city’s reversal a move of political appeasement over public safety — blocking community oversight while pretending to listen.
Downtown Route and Connectivity Issues: Civic Pride and Leadership in Decline
Connectivity dropped without warning downtown — internet gone, phone useless — right in the heart of the Loop, a place built to stay connected.
How does this happen here?
This is the center of Chicago, and it’s like somebody’s pulling the plug.
There was speculation that interference might not be random.
We can’t even broadcast without something going wrong — that’s how deep the neglect runs.
The commentary shifted from technical failure to civic emptiness.
If there was pride in this city, you’d see it everywhere — marathon banners, Cubs playoff flags, parades for something.
Instead, it’s just silence.
The mayor talks about the soul of the city but won’t even decorate it.
The reflection reached back to older leaders who at least showed up.
Jane Byrne lived in Cabrini-Green to confront violence firsthand.
Rahm Emanuel turned the riverwalk into theater — even a tightrope walker, but at least it made people look.
Lori Lightfoot walked the streets herself during the lockdowns, mask on, facing crowds and talking smack to teens on basketball courts.
They fought.
Even if it was a stunt, it showed courage.
Now? All we get is excuses and and ‘give me more money.
Downtown’s decay — visible addiction, empty storefronts, boarded hotels — became proof of leadership without purpose.
The mayor’s speeches about unity felt hollow while city workers swept around tents and stepped over needles.
You want civic pride?
Start by standing where the people are.
Drug Use and City Failure on Lake Street
The camera turned toward Lake and Dearborn, where the city’s failings were laid bare. Sidewalks near the Goodman Theatre had become open-air shooting galleries. People of every background — white, Black, Latino — slumped against walls or nodded off under awnings, lost to drugs.
Drug addiction and homelessness are two different things. Conflating them lets politicians avoid responsibility.
Tourists stepped around the bodies, and a few shouted at the camera.
The scene captured both anger and resignation — the city’s image clashing with its reality.
Political signs still clung to nearby poles, declaring “Building Better Chicago,” but the contrast was brutal.
If this is better, what’s worse supposed to look like?
The mayor’s absence became part of the story.
Where is he? Why isn’t he here every day with security, food, and a plan?
The voice on the feed was raw and unsparing.
We’re thirty years clean.
We’ve seen recovery.
It’s possible. But this isn’t recovery — this is surrender.
Monday evening, Lake Street and Garvey Court were lined with people using drugs in the open.
Not homeless — drug addicts.
Different races, men and women, all nodding off in the heart of the Loop.
Tourists keep moving with strange looks on their faces, while the mayor talks about compassion.
Nobody from City Hall was there.
No outreach, no police, no plan.
Right next to the Goodman Theatre, a big political sign read “Building Better.”
Less than a block away, people were shooting up and sleeping against a building wall on a city sidewalk.
That’s Chicago’s version of “better” — a city that hides behind banners while addiction eats the core of downtown.
The mayor wears an expensive watch and hides behind cameras while people die in his streets.
If this was truly a city of care, he’d be here every day with food, security, and help — not speeches and slogans.
Tax money disappears, streets rot, and the only thing left downtown is neglect.
Chicago’s soul is fading right where it should be strongest — under the lights of Lake Street.
No Civic Pride to Protect the People
By early evening, the camera turned south toward Ida B. Wells Drive and State Street — the heart of downtown Chicago, and proof that civic pride no longer lives here.
The sidewalks were lined with cardboard shelters, people wrapped in blankets, sleeping inches from traffic. Storefronts that once drew crowds now framed tents and makeshift beds.
This is our main sidewalk in the city of Chicago.
That’s cardboard housing.
Imagine we had a Columbus Day Parade here — and that’s what we had out here.
No civic pride. None. Zero.
There were no cleanup crews, no outreach workers, no urgency.
Just people sleeping on the same blocks tourists walked through hours earlier.
The camera kept moving — past garbage bags, broken signs, and flickering streetlights — a slow tour through what leadership calls progress.
Billions get spent every year, but the simplest things are missing:
Safety, Dignity, and Care.
Downtown has become a contradiction — a city built on pride, now proud of nothing.
75% Abandoned
North of the river, another kind of collapse — not drugs or tents, but silence. Between Ohio and Dearborn, three of four corners sit empty.
The Hard Rock Café boarded up.
The Rainforest Café shuttered.
The former Rock ’n Roll McDonald’s barely hanging on.
A block that once fed downtown nightlife now looks like a movie set after the crew left.
Seventy-five percent vacant.
And they call this economic recovery?
Windows are covered in plywood, signs faded, doors chained. It’s not just one business — it’s the death of a whole district.
For years, media headlines talked about revitalization.
Now they walk past boarded buildings and pretend it’s normal.
It looks worse than a recession. It looks like truth.
When the lights go out on the tourist strip, it means the city already gave up.
Drug Use Alley
Behind the boarded storefronts, the alley tells what the street signs don’t. Under dim light and between dumpsters, people gathered, some barely standing, others sitting against the wall with their heads down.
It was quiet except for passing traffic and the scrape of metal lids.
One man tried to guide the camera away from danger. Said he had no money. A bag of fruit was offered instead.
Be safe, ended the exchange.
This wasn’t a crime scene — it was a portrait of survival in a city that stopped looking.
Steps away from luxury condos and million-dollar developments, people were living behind dumpsters, caught between addiction and abandonment.
River North used to be a showpiece.
Now its alleys speak louder than its skyline.
Hundreds Block Gunfight on South May
Gunfight in the hundreds block — 11306 South May Street around 2:23 p.m. in the 22nd District. Two shot: male 17, right leg; male 18, left leg. Both victims were shooting back at a white Jeep Grand Cherokee that fled southbound on May.
Spot News reported that a video shows both victims running with guns in their hands. The crime scene included shell casings, live rounds, and at least three vehicles struck by gunfire. Both victims were transported to Christ Hospital in good condition.
Multiple Shots Fired — Man Critically Wounded on West Root Street
Around 4:14 p.m., gunfire tore through the 300 block of West Root Street in the 9th District. A 39-year-old man was standing on the street when two offenders walked up, pulled handguns, and opened fire.
The victim was hit multiple times before collapsing near the curb. Paramedics rushed him to the University of Chicago Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.
The shooters ran off before police arrived. Detectives from Area One are handling the case.
Porches on Fire — Families Displaced on South May
Just after 7:18 p.m., flames broke out in the rear porches of a three-story building at 5441 South May Street. Firefighters arrived to heavy smoke pushing through the roof as families poured out into the street.
Crews vented the attic and fought the fire from every floor before bringing it under control.
Officials confirmed twelve residents — adults and children — were displaced,
By 8:11 p.m., Human Services was requested to assist while fire crews rotated for rehab. Charred porches hung from the frame of the building, water running through the alley.
It’s Gonna Blow Heavy – South Paulina Garage Fire
A garage fire ignited at 6:45 p.m., near 7011 South Paulina in West Englewood. Witnesses shouted warnings as thick black smoke rolled across the block.
Flames climbed close to nearby homes before firefighters shut down gas lines and attacked the blaze.
Police blocked traffic in both directions, preventing cars from driving over the hoses. The air filled with sirens and the smell of burning fuel.
Crews kept it from spreading, but several garages were left scorched and unstable.
Night Volleyball and the City That Endures
By nightfall, the scene shifted north to Montrose Beach where the day ended differently — under floodlights, on sand, with people still playing volleyball as the temperature dropped and the sky turned dark over the lake.
A light breeze came off the water, but nobody left.
They kept playing, the noise of the city fading behind them — laughing, calling out scores, chasing the ball into the dark.
The same resilience that once carried explorers across oceans now drives people to carve joy out of a broken city.
It was the same instinct that built the place in the first place — to gather, to work, to find light when the day’s gone.
While downtown sank under neglect and violence, the beach showed something else: that the city still moves, still adapts, still finds its rhythm.
Sunset over the lake marked another day survived.
Chicago doesn’t quit.
SubX.News® on-the-spot reporting
