The Dempster planning team held our second community-pop up event at Morton Grove’s National Night Out on August 5th. When taking a break from the bounce house, face painting, climbing wall, and pony rides, we heard from dozens of people (adults and lots of kids!) who were excited to share ideas for improving Dempster Street.

“Fill empty businesses”

“Make it look cohesive”

“A reason to stop when passing through”

We heard about a desire for:

• Updated storefronts, “cute and charming small businesses”
• Coffee shops
• More restaurants (variety: vegetarian, Latin, bakery, family-friendly, higher-end, gluten-free, lunch spots, donuts, etc.)
• More grocery options (Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, produce store)
• Diverse, affordable, and healthy options
• General retail: garden center, Target, card store, shopping
• Indoor parks/play facilities
• Entertainment (e.g. mini golf)

Comments focused on transportation included:

• Better signage for parking
• Sidewalk improvements
• Safer pedestrian crossings (especially near Harrer Park)
• Bike paths and rental bikes
• Traffic concerns
• Need Pace Pulse Station at Central
• Fix timing of lights
• Turning difficulties (onto Dempster, onto Waukegan from Kohl’s)

And the youth ideas were similar to those shared by adults:

• More places to shop
• Less pollution
• Yield signs
• More flowers to make it prettier
• More trees
• Clean!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat with us. We are working on summarizing results from the community survey and will share those via PlanDempster.org when available. Stay tuned and keep sharing on the comment map and ideas wall!