Negative Externalities: Chicago Sightseeing

Chicago tourism note: the guide on the architecture tour told us that for high-rise viewing, we should skip the Sears Tower and go to the bar at the John Hancock building. A helpful passerby told us to go one better and try the Cité Restaurant and bar at the top of the Lake Point Tower. We tried the Cité but they turned us down: didn’t like our tourist shabby (damn, I knew I should have painted those toenails).

So we moved on to the John Hancock where we found no such inhibitions. Indeed a quick survey of the bar at the John Hancock impels one ask: is there any costume too drab, shabby, vulgar or disgusting for this high-priced venue? We had felt a little sheepish at Cité but over here, we felt downright sartorial.

We can infer, can we not, that Cité is outsourcing its share of shabby people? Shouldn’t John Hancock be entitled, on some sort of nuisance theory, to compensation?

[Fn. And speaking of discrimination, they tell me the best view at the John Hancock is from the lady’s room. Can’t say.]