Ikea in Chicago, nyet!

From the Trib

Ikea, the chic furniture retailer that draws customers from as far away as Iowa to its iconic blue-and-yellow store in Schaumburg, will open a second Illinois location in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, the Swedish company said Tuesday.

The new store, which is expected to open in the fall of 2005, will ease overcrowding at the 6-year-old Schaumburg outlet--the retailer's busiest U.S. store.

Yet Bolingbrook's gain is the city of Chicago's loss, as earlier efforts by Ikea to build a store in the city to sell its inexpensive but stylish armchairs, bookcases and housewares could not come to fruition.

Ikea canceled plans to build a store on the Near South Side at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street in December. One reason was because the store wouldn't have been ready until 2007.

I disagree strongly: I represent Chicago too, and having massive traffic increases in an already congested area is not good for my version of Chicago. Who needs more generic box stores? Let them locate to the suburbs, where parking is not a problem. I don't want Wal-mart, I don't want Ikea, I don't want Target: please don't build any of these on Clark & Roosevelt.

That is all.