Renew the Avenue, the 10-month-long Oak Park Avenue reconstruction and beautification project has only just begun, but it is already affecting storeowners in the area, particularly restaurants.
The blocks immediately north and south of the Green Line were supposed to remain open during the first phase. However, on Feb. 16 they were closed as workers removed trees.
“This morning, I come in and there’s no parking in front of our entire area,” Mayra Fernandez of Café Cubano said. “I try parking on North Boulevard. Well, that whole site is also blocked. Don’t even try going west because my alley is being torn up completely too. How are people going to get to me? I don’t know.”
This particular closure was temporary, but it’s a taste of what’s to come over the rest of this year.
The village has extended 90 minutes of free parking in the Avenue Garage parking structure at 720 North Boulevard for the duration of the construction.
“I lost two customers already this morning because it’s too far to walk,” Karim Benyaich, owner of Grape Leaves, said. “This is the beginning. Everybody’s scared.”
The village has offered a matching grant opportunity to upgrade business’ exteriors, interiors and to help ease the situation.
“They give us money, grant money for fixed signs or whatever,” George Konstantos, owner of George’s Family Restaurant, said. “Right now, we need money to pay the rent, the expenses, the employees.”
“We have this challenge in front of us, which will be challenging for all businesses at this point,” Frank Russo, co-owner of Il Vicolo, said.
Il Vicolo and other restaurants are planning to offer specials to help motivate customers to persevere through the difficulties.
“The dining alone in the Hemingway District is so important and impactful for Oak Park,” Moses Valdez, president of the Hemingway District Business Association, said “We have such a variety. Flavors are from around the world with Moroccan, Italian, Mexican, Brazilian. We have now Seoul Avenue, Korean.”
The business association has kept in touch with the village as the plans were made for the reconstruction.
“We try to figure out how can we solve problems as opposed to just complaining,” Valdez said. “We do encourage people to follow our social media and then they can see anything that we’re going to be doing through the year. They have to fix these old pipes that are over 100 years old. We have to constantly keep looking at the silver lining and how can we work together as a community.”
Delivery is one way to mitigate the loss of business, but that has it’s issues too.
“A large part of our business switched to pickup and delivery during COVID, and that’s where we have a big base of our customers now,” Ric Gruber, CEO of Billy Bricks Restaurant Group, said. “The additional challenge for us is that you’re adding 5-10 minutes of driving around. That makes our times to deliver longer, which makes people unhappy.”
Stress is hitting all businesses in the path of the reconstruction along Oak Park Avenue. This is on top of winter’s typical slowing of foot traffic, ICE raids that kept some customers from venturing out and overall inflation pressures.
“I used to pay somewhere around $4 for just about all our meat,” Fernandez said. “We have up to the $9 and $10 now. I had to take a few things out of the menu.”
“The cost of operating is up over 30%,” Gruber said. “The ban on disposables, like we’ve upgraded all of our stuff to be eco-friendly. We don’t have an issue with that. But it is a part of reality where, people used to use Styrofoam that cost next to nothing. Now we have these expensive to-go containers and we feel that pressure. We know everybody’s living in the same world right now where we all feel squeezed.”
“It’s like lots of whammies, one after the other,” Fernandez said. “We’re just going to have to buckle up and hope for the best.”
“We are very excited. about the outcome of it,” Valdez said. “We know that once the beautification happens, once everything is done, we know it will bring more value to us and people will be excited to see the new street, to see the new lights, the new road, but during the construction we all have to pull together and support each other.”
One and all, the owners asked the same thing.
“Please support us as much as you can,” Konstantos said. “Not only me, all the businesses. Everybody needs help: the bookstore, the flower shop.”
