Circle Avenue from Roosevelt to 16th Street is Forest Park unique. On one side is the frontage of a modest residential neighborhood that stretches east to Harlem Avenue. On the west side of Circle is the mish and mash of a pre-zoning industrial park, which of course backs into a defunct rail line.
These two uses have uneasily co-existed for decades, almost a century. There have been moments of drama. We reported multiple times on chemical leaks from the old Acme Resin factory.
More recently the stretch has evolved into less industrial and more interesting services with a need for unique spaces. Now a new industrial business has purchased a core section of Circle to house its waste-hauling business. Garbage trucks, yes. But not garbage as it is deposited at out-of-town dumps before coming back to Circle.
We’ll wait to hear from neighbors about this new and active use. We’ll watch for the promised investments in the property. And as we report today, we admire a woman-owned business in what has been a male-owned, sometimes shady, waste-hauling business.
Things we like
With a week of spring which feels more like summer, we offer three upcoming Forest Park events that feel just like Forest Park.
Wine + art
The Forest Park Chamber will collaborate once again with the Forest Park Arts Alliance to host the annual spring wine walk. For the second year, the event will also feature local artists. This is a blend meant to be.
As the wine walk has grown in popularity and now features 17 Madison Street locations where ticket holders can sample wine and small bites, adding art showings from the village’s vibrant arts community is a perfect match.
The event is this Saturday. Purchase tickets on the chamber’s website.
Why trees?
We’ve admired the plucky resolve of Forest Park’s recreation board. When its main purpose to exist — watching over the village’s four pocket parks — disappeared in 2021 when village government rightly handed those four spaces over to the park district to manage, the rec board found new ways to serve.
On April 26, Arbor Day, the commission will once again manage Forest Park’s celebration of all things tree-related. In a town that has consciously expanded its focus on the virtues and challenges of its urban forest, marking Arbor Day is important.
And so at 9 a.m. on April 26 at the Roos Recreation Center on Harrison, the rec board will once again invite residents to add paper leaves to its man-made tree, along with their thoughts on why trees make a genuine difference in this town.
Back to the bridge
The Forest Park-affirming artwork that has decorated the Circle Avenue bridge for the past several years is in rapid decay. So the Arts Alliance, in cooperation with public works, is going to scrub the bridge clean, prime the parapet walls and offer a clean canvas to dozens of Forest Park entities.
The new paint job will take place on May 18 as Brushes on the Bridge returns.
