Not So Magnificent Mile

And it explains part of the story just above this post about the budget shortfall getting bigger:

• [...] Softness in the tourism and convention businesses -- [...] -- are hurting the Midwest's most prestigious retail district. It has weathered past downturns relatively well, thanks largely to the curiosity of out-of-town visitors.

  But today the Magnificent Mile is enduring its highest vacancy rate since 1992. Retailers Lord & Taylor, Talbots Inc. and William-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn all recently shuttered large stores.

Also contributing to the problems?

• Last year the number of empty shops hit 6.3%, up from 4.4% in 2007 and just 1.0% in 2002, said Bruce Kaplan, a senior vice president at CB Ellis, a commercial-real-estate firm that conducts an annual survey on the Mile's rents and vacancy rates.
  
  
• The sales tax in surrounding Cook County was raised last year to 10.25%, highest in the nation. This year, after the city privatized public parking meters, downtown rates climbed to $3.50 an hour. State legislators are considering a series of tax increases to close a nearly $12 billion budget deficit.
  
  
• A decline in out-of-town visitors also is hurting business. Downtown Chicago hotel occupancy rates dropped to 48% this February, from 54% in February 2008 and 60% in February 2007, according to STR Global, which tracks the hotel industry. Room rates are down 11% from last year. Among the largest 25 markets in the nation, Chicago has experienced the third-largest decline in hotel traffic, behind only Phoenix and San Francisco, STR said.

A economic death spiral. But bring on the Olympics!