Would you live in the Trump Chgo?

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock that vacancies are on the rise at that gaudy tower erected on the banks of the Chicago River that stands as a focal point for all the local protest conducted against the name of one Donald J. Trump.

Space is available, if you want to live here

I could be pompous and arrogant and make a statement saying I would NEVER live there. But then again, the need to be honest overcomes me and I have to confess I’ll likely never have the kind of income that would make it possible for me to even think of living there.

TO BE HONEST, just walking past the Trump Tower Chicago feels like an alien experience – particularly when I recall the pudgy, tugboat-like building that once housed the Chicago Sun-Times on the very same site.

So the Chicago Tribune report Tuesday about how 11 percent of the building’s 486 residential units (scattered amongst its 98 stories) are for sale. The going price, depending on exactly which unit one buys and what kind of high-rise view it offers of Chicago and/or Lake Michigan is $1.5 million.

Generally, the kind of people who can afford that expect to have a certain exclusivity. Or perhaps it’s isolationism, from the riff-raff of life.

And I suspect that many of them view all the people who now feel compelled to have their pictures taken making obscene gestures in the presence of the Trump Tower Chicago as the ultimate in riff-raff.

Dodgers star won't stay here

WHO KNOWS, THEY may be right.

All I know is that I’m sure that when real estate developer Trump got involved in the idea of building one of his namesake structures in Chicago, the idea was that it would become some sort of prime address.

One that people would fight for the right to live in, and would consider it a sign of their arrival amongst the hoi polloi that they could live in something bearing those 40-foot-high letters spelling out Trump’s name for all of Chicago to see.

Which makes it impossible for anyone to possibly confuse the Trump Tower with any other high-rise building in Chicago.

LeBron won't stay at Trump N.Y. hotel

SO WHAT DOES it say about the fact that some tenants, according to the Chicago Tribune report, have been able to negotiate rent decreases (for those who didn’t buy their units), and that there are a significant number of units (36, according to the newspaper) that can be had if you’re looking for an apartment that will allow you to look down upon Chicago.

Just so you don’t mind the protesters who feel compelled to stroll by and show their contempt for your choice of a home address.

The condominiums in the building don’t sell well these days, and the apartment units for rent can be had. As for the portion of the building that’s a hotel, it seems like we’re constantly getting new reports of professional athletes who refuse to stay with their teams (Adrian Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the entire Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, to name just a few) at the Trump hotel here in Chicago.

Then again, this is Chicago, where we led a solid Electoral College opposition to Illinois going into the Trump column on Election Night – unlike certain other Great Lakes states where the rural portions of the population led a shift rightward.

EVEN NOW, A new poll by Personal PAC puts Trump’s “approval” rating in this state at 39 percent – with a majority 53 percent not approving.

Trump 'vibe' makes Marina 'corncob' look luxurious

Not the same impression as that cockamamie study that claims many people who voted for Hillary Clinton back in November now wish they could change their votes – enough that Trump could now win a popular vote, in addition to an Electoral College tally.

Which may make some out-of-towners want to think less of us Chicagoans. Not that many of us would particularly care, since we’re convinced the rest of the world isn’t lucky enough to call Chicago home.

And, I’m sure, many of those who eagerly backed Trump and are still among his most vociferous supporters will probably never be able to afford to live in his building either.

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Who knew Flying Wallendas were still around? They’ll be in Chicago soon

Perhaps it’s because I’m not 9 years old any more,

 

But the word this week that a member of the Flying Wallenda family (of generations of circus fame) will walk across a high-wire erected over the Chicago River just doesn’t raise me to the levels of amazement that some would expect.

 

IT SEEMS THE Discovery Channel is planning a live broadcast for Nov. 2, with that high-wire erected from one of the buildings of the Marina Towers (the corn cobs just north of the river) across the river to the Leo Burnett Building (which was where some of the real-life ‘Mad Men’ worked back in the day).

 

To make the event seem more daring, we’re told that it will be an uphill walk, and not during any ideal weather conditions. It will be the heart of autumn by then. It will be windy. It will be chilly.

 

Nik Wallenda – who is seventh generation performer from the Wallenda family – could easily have something go drastically wrong, which could result in him plunging into the Chicago River.

 

Even if he survived the fall’s impact, exposure to the contamination in that river alone would be enough to kill him.

 

PROMOTERS ARE MAKING a point of saying there won’t be any safety nets or harnesses to protect him if he should slip. The Discovery Channel, I’m sure, is counting on getting significant exposure. Particularly since officials say the program will be broadcast in 220 countries around the globe.

 

Great. The whole wide world will know of the nonsense taking place in Chicago.

 

I don’t doubt that Nik Wallenda is putting himself at some physical risk by undertaking such a stunt. I’m also sure he has the training (whatever that may be) to attempt such a stunt and have hopes of completing it still alive.

 

But the idea of walking a wire across the river at significant height doesn’t move me.

 

IN FACT, IT just seems so retro. My initial reaction to learning of the stunt was that it seemed like something from the past.

 

As though something a daredevil-type would have tried back in 1914, to the amazement of the crowds below – many of whom would have been anxious to see him fall and plunge to his demise, while thinking to him (or her)self. “Fool got what he deserved.”

 

Maybe I’m just too old – a year shy of 50 – to appreciate the “thrill” of the moment.

 

It certainly seems to fall far short of the stunt I remember from childhood – back in 1974 when motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.

 

KNIEVEL, WHO ATTEMPTED 75 ramp-to-ramp jumps and suffered 433 bone fractures during his career as a stunt-man, failed in that stunt – even though he was flying in a steam-powered rocket. I still remember the over-hype of that particular moment.

 

It seemed so incredible back then. Then again, it was my generation that also got all worked up when “Fonzie” jumped his motorcycle over all those garbage cans (only to crash into the Arnolds’ chicken stand). Watching those “Happy Days” re-runs comes across these days as more insipid than these daredevil stunts.

 

Personally, I’ll wish this Wallenda all the success in his stunt, but mostly because I don’t want my home city to become known as being the site where Nik met his demise.

 

We already have too many knuckleheads who came to their end in our fair city; all in an attempt to amuse the locals on a slow Sunday. It’s just a good thing the Chicago Bears have that particular weekend off, because otherwise nobody would care about the Wallenda stunt.

 

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