No Estimate Yet for Chicago Looting Damage As Downtown Access Remains Limited | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

More than 100 people were arrested for looting and disorderly conduct the night of August 9 and in the early morning hours of August 10 due to evening-long looting in Chicago's Magnificent Mile and other shopping districts. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that transportation in and out of the city's downtown loop will be restricted from 8PM to 6AM central and that “these measures will be in place until we know our city will be safe.”

The city will use more than 100 “infrastructure assets” that are to be strategically placed to protect commercial corridors and critical businesses “such as grocery stores and pharmacies,” said the statement from Mary May, a spokeswoman for the emergency management and communication office.

Access to downtown “will be temporarily restricted” beginning at 8 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. May stressed that the restricted access “is not a curfew. All residents, essential workers and employees whose businesses are located downtown will have access at all times.”

The city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications released a statement that said it will enforce the restricted access to the Chicago Loop and downtown area by using the infrastructure assets, usually large trucks and other vehicles that can serve as barriers, and by raising bridges to downtown neighborhoods to restrict access. Lake Shore Drive, a major truck traffic highway, will close between Fullerton and Interstate 55.

Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown called on local prosecutors and judges to prosecute looters and create consequences for the caravan of cars that broke into stores in Chicago's Michigan Avenue shopping district.

"I call on our states attorney and prosecutors to step up and do their part," Lightfoot said. "Judges who are holding these cases, you need to step up."

The Chicago Dept. of Buildings does not track damage to buildings in such incidents. The Magnificent Mile Association, a trade group for Michigan Avenue business owners, said that while most merchants were still cleaning up their stores, the damages would likely be in the millions of dollars.