Why I Oughta...

Thanks to Alderman Dannee Polomsky who posted this above on her public Facebook Fan Page, I stumbled onto the new City of Elmhurst website . At first blush, it appears to be a pretty big improvement in terms of pure looks, but they've also added some nice functionality and elevated the 'search box' to speed up the user experience and get people where they want to go faster.  Also...they've made the new site responsive, so when you are heading there on your mobile device - as we are all wont to do more and more these days - the site responds to your device size and presents you with a format that works on mobile.  That *would* have been a big miss in this redesign if they didn't get right, imho. The photography they're using on the page is neat - as there's a few drone shots showing a pretty unique perspective to town and they've done a good job of highlighting the town. Also, you can see some highlighted items across the main part of the site inc...

Elmhurst 3rd Ward Alderman Danne Polomsky posted this update above to her public Facebook page that links to this document that was delivered last week  by the City Manager that shows a series of development updates around town.    I'm not sure if this was just delivered to the Board, but it is a good document for all residents. But, in addition to the info here, it is notable to discuss the nature of how this was shared.  This is a great example of a public servant sharing info and being transparent with her constituents.  I'm sure that this document could have been 'found' by someone searching the archives on the City's site somewhere, but Alderman Polomsky has made open communication with residents a top priority.  It was part of her pledge as a candidate that she's worked to deliver on during her term.  And this (and just the fact that she's active on social media!) is further proof that she's living up to that promise. Importantly, this is a...

Back in July, I took a photo of the demo on the site of the new massive apartment complex being built on the west side of York Street, just south of Panera.  The City of Elmhurst has been calling this the "Hahn Street Project" for years, but Morningstar, the developer, is calling it Elmhurst 255. That crane out front has been lifting sections of this development into place for the past few months and now it looks ( from the sketch in this pdf ) that at least this section of it has topped out.  Let's call it about half of the building is up.  The entire first floor, which will be retail and maybe parking(??), is up, but I think they're going to build a bit more out closer to the street/sidewalk area when it is done. 192 apartments.  Seems like a lot, right?  But, if it works, won't it be nice to have even more foot traffic for downtown?

Looks like tonight is your chance to get a look at the new Elmhurst Downtown Plan and provide some input.   According to the City's site , there will be both some review of the plan/open house followed by a presentation at 7:30 pm. What is the Elmhurst Downtown Plan? The Elmhurst Downtown Plan will serve as the City’s official guide for land use and development in the Downtown area over the next 10 years. It will act as a “road map,” detailing a long-term vision and policy agenda for important issues such as land use, parking, and circulation. Ultimately, the Plan update answers “What should our Downtown look like in 10 years and how do we get there?” The consulting firm that the City of Elmhurst hired has posted the draft plans on their site, so even if you can't get to the meeting tonight, you can still check it out here .

After a bunch of nagging, i t seems that the City of Elmhurst and the City Centre are going to sack up and decorate the downtown business district with more Christmas lights . I have to say...the one tree that they *did* light up by the train tracks looks awesome.  Here's a shot in the very early morning hours on my walk to the train late last week.

We lost another retail business on York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre. This time, Elmhurst Olive Oil Company has closed their doors and the landlord has a 'for lease' sign up. We covered this place back in 2011 here on the blog when they opened. They made it four years and couldn't make it through the holidays this year.  This place replaced "Let's Have a Party". I think we stopped in there once in the four years it was open.  Well...besides the times when we went to the City Centre for Trick-or-Treat'ing over the years.  And that, folks, is part of the problem.

At the Elmhurst City Centre's Boo-tiful Saturday before Halloween, there were some folks giving out candy to kids and these 'coming soon' flyers to adults.  Looks like a new gym is coming to the City Centre and this one is going to be at 135 N. Addison Ave - which if you look at this LoopNet listing for space - is the new parking garage going up on Addison.   They have a site up for the Elmhurst studio here .   The odd thing is that I've heard about a different 'high end' gym/fitness place opening up on Addison, but on the west side of the street.  Check out this proposal to the City of Elmhurst for a Fitness Formula Club which is at 138 & 142 North Addison.  That's where the city parking lot is right now (I think!).   From the look of the proposal, it is a free-standing building and is HUGE.  Here's a screenshot of the front facade: I can't help but wonder...with places like FittRx and the newish Pilates place on York Street -...

Photo from the Elmhurst History Museum's Facebook page Yesterday's post about the Elmhurst History Museum's archives being used for economic development purposes by the City of Elmhurst got me to poke around the Elmhurst History Museum's site and Facebook page.  I ended up coming across this piece in the Chicago Tribune by Steve Johnson that covers his Top 10 picks for Fall Museum Trips . Included in there at $6 was the Elmhurst History Museum and their new Beer exhibit.   From the story : 6. "Beer Chicago: The Refreshing History": Lots of institutions these days do beer-themed events. This is all well and very good. But the Elmhurst Historical Museum had the bright idea to make an actual exhibition based on the sudsy stuff. The show's menu includes a beer-making station and the history of the city's beers, beermakers and taverns. There's also a tie-in with the Sept. 19 Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest, on the grounds of the museum. Sept. 18 to F...

Last week, I wrote about how there's a new rendering of a new construction building on the old Plass Appliance store in the Elmhurst City Centre that portends a new four-story terraced structure with retail and street-level and condos on the upper floors. But that isn't the only thing that has been plastered on the windows of the old Plass store.  This new "Picture Yourself In Elmhurst" three-panel photo went up and is pretty cute.  It is a bunch of laborers who are installing street lights for the first time in town.  It evokes the same feeling of the lunch on top of skyscraper iconic photo for me. Here's a closer look at the white box on the right side that shows the reason for the billboard: Some of the #hashtags are interesting at the bottom.  #walkable #downtown #citycentre. Based on the email addresses, it plainly looks like the city's Economic Development group had the idea, but if look closely, it appears to be a nice little bit of inter...

If you drive down York Road towards the City Centre these days you can't help but spot the big demolition job taking place on the west side just south of the CVS/Panera. Coming down are Pauli's gas station and a few other random buildings.  And in their place?  Something called the Elmhurst 255 built by Morningside USA .   From the listing on their site: 192 luxury rental units in downtown Elmhurst, two blocks from the Metra station 12,000 sf of new retail space available Spring 2016, with 150 public parking spaces and outdoor cafe seating. Divisible 1,400-6,000 sf. Click for more information . Public event plaza with bandshell A public bandshell?  That's pretty cool.  The City Center lacks one important feature that all downtowns *should* have:  a gathering place.  Think place to light the town Christmas tree (I know, I know...we do one down by the police station, but...that's not quite right.), have free concerts, show movies, etc. ...

( If you're reading this in your email, the election is actually *today*! )  I was walking by City Hall over the weekend and was surprised by the volume of campaign signs that were posted in the parkway.  There has been early voting at City Hall and my assumption is that these campaigns wanted to make sure they had a presence in front of those early voters. But, it makes me wonder:  do these signs actually work?  Is there a voter out there who is engaged enough in the electoral process that wants to actually early vote who doesn't know who they're going to vote for?  And glancing at one of these yard signs is going to sway them? I suppose, there is some notion of 'confirmation' that can be achieved with these signs.  And...it really doesn't cost anything to put one up.  That minimal cost/effort is likely the reason why these things are even here.  When you're running a local campaign, the margins are often so small that you want to make sur...

Word came this week that the City of Elmhurst City Council did something that I have never witnessed a governmental body do before: Aftering giving something more thought, they unanimously adopted a “minority report” version of a recommendation coming out of a committee over the initial “majority” view of the situation. The details of what exactly happened can be found here on the Elmhurst Patch. The interesting part isn’t that a marketing agency only received a five month contract and not a twelve month contract. That’s not the big takeaway here. The important part is that Alderman Dannee Polomsky - my Alderman and neighbor - used this time to make a larger point about the City of Elmhurst taking some time to be deliberate and evaluate ALL of the marketing initiatives as a collective whole and work to optimize them.   For instance...The City of Elmhurst has a role (Part-time) on staff for something called "Visitor and Tourism" while at the same time, Finzall main...