Here is an excellent article in today’s Sun-Times about postive change in Rogers Park that was helped along by my client, DevCorp North, Rogers Park’s business, community and economic development organization. This is a group of people who work every day to stimulate new stuff. They have a ton of programs that just keep going and going, usually w/o fanfare, w/o a lot of back-patting. This snip below sums it up:
The changes in Jarvis Square happened because Sullivan decided to invest where he lived — and this 15-year resident recruited others to do the same. After hearing him speak at a DevCorp North seminar, Lori Alderete and Phaedra Divras decided to rent from Sullivan and opened the cozy stone-front Gruppo di Amici restaurant — with a wood-burning pizza oven imported from Italy, no less — just steps from the Jarvis L. And last September, Sullivan rented out the space that became Poitin Stil, an Irish pub that allows patrons to order food from nearby eateries.
Just another seminar, out of the dozens they host per year. And it led to a lot.