Dear Highland Park neighbors,

 

On behalf of the Highland Park Community Development Corporation, I want to thank the neighborhood for your continued support of, and patience with our efforts on Bryant Street. Our first project on the street, restoration of “the dry cleaners building” at the corner of Bryant and N St Clair has proven, as most observers can attest, to be a larger undertaking than we or our partners could have envisioned. When complete, however, the neighborhood will have a new restaurant, a restored historic building with two new apartments on the upper floors, and what we firmly believe will be the anchor for continued development and turnaround in our neighborhood business district.  

 

As with any project that remains in construction past the date that the doors were expected to be open, especially when it is to be the home of Park Bruges restaurant, questions and doubts will surface. To the extent that those concerns lead to a desire to find “the guilty party”, however, please know that with this project there are no villains. From the beginning we have been extraordinarily fortunate to have the Mayor, Senator Ferlo, Councilman Dowd, and Rob Stephany from the URA behind this project, and to this day their support has remained steadfast.  Whenever we have requested cooperation, we have received it, whether from City agencies or a range of other stakeholders. Time and again, this project has presented more than its fair share of various and unexpected challenges. Some of them threatened to undo the project, and very nearly did. While hard work and challenges remain, the completion of the Park Bruges space is now within sight. To get where we are today speaks to the commitment of a strong team.

 

A word about sewer problems: Yes, our basement is subject to flooding when we receives heavy rains. The city’s sewer system simply cannot handle large rain events. Billions of dollars will be spent in our city and region in the years ahead to address the CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) problem that now pollutes our rivers. Though this is not an occurrence that is unique to Bryant Street, I suppose that it was only fitting that this project should suffer through this challenge, too. Councilman Dowd made clear to us from the outset that he would be especially helpful in getting us through this. Patrick immediately appreciated the gravity of the situation and acted quickly to bring it to the attention of top officials at PWSA.  While not alone in communicating his concerns to PWSA, he has certainly been an effective and strong-willed advocate on the community's behalf, and for that he deserves our sincere thanks.

 

Having concluded the HPCDC's most recent meeting with top PWSA officials yesterday, brokered by Councilman Dowd, I can convey that all the decision-makers were in the room to bring the issue to resolution. Far from being ineffective or obstructionist, PWSA has put significant time, effort, and resources in place to solve an issue that, if unresolved, would not only plague Park Bruges, but would severely compromise the HPCDC's efforts to fulfill the vision of the Community Plan to bring a thriving commercial district back to Bryant Street. The solution is neither just a "patch-job" nor will it be a trivial undertaking.

 

Before we began our efforts on the street, at the behest and urging of the neighborhood and then Councilman Ferlo, Bryant Street had suffered from obvious disinvestment and crumbling structures above ground, and as we are finding, not-so-obvious problems in the below ground infrastructure as well.  Very soon, however, Bryant Street will be a much improved place. With amenities like new restaurants beginning to populate our community, there is a brighter future now coming to life.

 

Please take a moment to consider the broad range of team members required to complete this remarkable project. There are many others not mentioned in this message that also deserve great credit, but none of this would be possible without you, the Highland Park community, behind us. Thank you again for your support.  

 

Dave Hance

President, Highland Park Community Development Corporation