Channel 2 moving to State Street

Interesting news for Chicago citizens, straight from the horse's mouth: Local CBS affiliate WBBM (channel 2) has just inked a deal to move their entire operations to 108 N State Street, the vacant lot currently filled by Gallery 37 in the summer and laying barren the other three seasons a year. The facilities will include a glass-walled studio overlooking Daley Plaza (where the Picasso sculpture is, for tourists who are confused), as well as one that opens onto the sidewalk for their wacky morning show. The building is also going to house a brand-new CTA station, featuring express trains back and forth between the Loop and both Midway and O'Hare airports.

Say what you want about Mayor Daley, but I'll give him this - ten years ago he was bitching incessantly about how no one goes to State Street anymore, and now ten years later he's given us all kinds of reasons to go to State Street. Between the architectural overhaul, the new Art Institute dorm, the major businesses that have been lured away from the Magnificant Mile (including Old Navy and Borders), the new "theatre district" on the north end, the new zoning law that now lets people live in the Loop for the first time in Chicago history, and now this announcement about WBBM, Daley has proven that he's willing to put his money where his mouth is, a fact which I think should be commended.