What’s Coming to Evanston’s Main Street?
Expect strings of white light bulbs over Evanston’s Main Street near Chicago Avenue (similar to the east side of Dempster Street at Chicago Avenue) following the summer 2023 road construction.
Katherine Gotsick, executive director of the Main Dempster Mile (MDM) marketing group, summarized a sequence of community events during its yearly meeting. The vision is to install the lights in Fall 2023 after Main’s summer road construction, allowing ample time for the road to have a “glorious” glow leading up to the holidays.
What’s New with the Main Dempster Mile?
The MDM conducted its seventh annual meeting in October 2022; however, it was the group’s first in-person meeting since October 2019. While 35 businesses closed during Covid, 28 new businesses opened, and three existing companies expanded. Gotsick said their situation is “a real blessing” compared to many business districts across the region and throughout the nation. “During COVID, we kept the character of independently owned businesses” in the community, she said. Some new neighborhood companies have more employees than the stores that preceded them.
New Businesses in Evanston, Illinois
The meeting acknowledged five new business owners, such as Heather Collins, owner of Monarch Fitness Coaching, who had her daughter, Trinity Collins, stand in her stead. The studio’s location is quite literally “close to home” for Trinity, as she was raised in the Main Dempster district. Trinity, a senior at Northwestern, said, “there’s something special about Evanston.” Upcoming community advances involve an extensive showroom makeover at City VW and new apartments at the former Vogue Fabrics location on Main.
What Do Evanston Residents Want?
Residents said “they’d really like to see” an ice cream shop on the first floor of the apartment community at the former Vogue location and a bowling alley. “We want Main Dempster Mile to be a creative urban environment with an iconic small town personality,” Gotsick explained. A bowling alley fits wonderfully into that vision. Click on our Relocation tab to learn more about our neighborhood community!
