Tag Archives: Michigan Avenue

Black Friday protest planned along Michigan Avenue

(CHICAGO) For the second consecutive year, protesters are planning a Black Friday boycott along the Magnificent Mile, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The protest is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Friday at the Water Tower monument at Chicago and Michigan avenues, according to organizers.

As of Tuesday evening, more than 400 people have said they will attend the protest, which will denounce the city’s implementation of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, COPA, instead of a version preferred by protestors. That alternative watchdog, dubbed the Civilian Police Accountability Council, would be made up of members elected by the public.

“In passing COPA, the City Council and the Mayor have completely ignored the democratic demands of the people of Chicago for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council,” the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression wrote on its Facebook.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition organized the protest last year in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video. Hundreds of protesters marched along North Michigan Avenue, with some preventing shoppers from entering stores. Four people were arrested.

— Chicago Sun-Times

UPDATE: 1 dead, 8 hurt in CTA bus crash near Michigan Avenue downtown

(CHICAGO) A woman was killed Tuesday when a CTA bus ran a red light and drove onto a crowded sidewalk near Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in the evening rush hour, leaving the bus driver and seven others injured, officials said.

About 5:50 p.m., the No. 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus was heading eastbound on Lake Street when it crashed at Michigan Avenue, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.

The bus was initially stopped at a red light, but then proceeded through the light, striking two pedestrians and at least three other vehicles before jumping the curb, Chicago Police said. The accordion-style bus bus came to rest on the sidewalk on the north side of Lake Street, east of Michigan.

Nine people, including the 48-year-old man driving the bus and two pedestrians, were injured in the crash. No one except for the driver was on the CTA bus at the time, authorities said.

One pedestrian, a 51-year-old woman, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she later died, police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the fatality, but did not immediately release additional details.

Everyone else injured in the crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The driver was issued citations for failure to stop at a red light and failure to exercise due care, police said.

Evanston resident Julie Larkin works in the Michigan Plaza building near the site of the crash, and said she was in a first-floor CVS when she heard a scream and then “a horrible thuddy crash.”

She ran outside to see the bus driver with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. Several good Samaritans got on the bus to check on him while she called 911.

“I’ll never forget that scream,” Larkin said.

Investigators are analyzing video footage from a camera on board that shows the interior of the bus, Steele said.

The police Major Accident Investigation Unit is also looking into the crash.

Parts of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street were closed to traffic for several hours Tuesday evening as emergency crews responded.

The CTA rerouted several buses around the crash scene Tuesday night, but normal service has resumed as of about 9:15 p.m.

UPDATE – Female injured in downtown party bus shooting

A female was shot while inside a party bus early Wednesday on Michigan Avenue near Monroe Street. | Network Video Productions
A female was shot while inside a party bus early Wednesday on Michigan Avenue near Monroe Street. | Network Video Productions

(CHICAGO) A woman was injured in an accidental shooting early Wednesday while she was inside a party bus downtown near Millennium Park.

The 24-year-old woman was shot in the leg after another passenger discharged a gun about 2:35 a.m. while inside the bus on Michigan Avenue near Monroe Street, police said. The shooting appeared to be accidental.

She was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.

Further details were not immediately available, and police said witnesses were not cooperating with investigators.

Detectives were questioning several people early Wednesday.