Fairly busy, as streets go, but it's usually not too hard to traverse. On Saturdays in December, Michigan Avenue stops being a Chicago street and transforms into a logjam of people, like you'd find in Manhattan. It may be a subtle distinction, but there's a great deal of difference between being boxed in by models and getting trapped behind a wall of blubbery Cheeseheads who can't move faster than a waddle. I don't think I'm the only one noticing the influx of large tourists. At the same time that Michigan Avenue clogs up, all the neighborhood streets empty out.
Nobody seems to walk by the Thailand consulate.
Or the Ukraine consulate, for that matter. I do take some conciliation that urbanites can still get around relatively quickly by walking on the other side of the same block. I must be missing the point of a fake sausage pizza at a store specializing in natural food. Then there was the near throwdown I recently witnessed. I was happening by a local Walgreen's, a couple weeks back.