A HEALTHY COMMUNITY BEGINS WITH ITS MAIN STREET (6/20/04)

I know that I am getting old: Aches and pains. Handfuls of pills. Agreeing too much with O’Reilly. Less envy of big city life. More wistfulness of how life used to be in my little town.

Main Street was, hands down, the source of strength that made my little town great. The houses of worship certainly helped make it so. But, everyday commerce really provided the glue. Doing your shopping or taking a stroll was not an antagonistic experience. It was friendly. It was welcoming, kind and honest.

After almost a half-century, let me stroll it with you one more time:

First came Pete’s, “the corner store,” where you could look at comic books, nary a Playboy in sight, a soda fountain for a nickel Coke. Then came Ike, a barber who knew how to give a close crew cut, my dad’s only prerequisite. At Levinson’s, a baker’s dozen for my mom, two cookies for me. Then, Falk the Butcher. If I looked bored as mom put in our order, Mr. Falk handed me a broom and told me to sweep the sawdust. He always had charity boxes on his counter for charities that he supported.

Max of Max’s Hardware was our scout leader. He could pitch a tent in solid granite. Next came Fahey’s Fixit for broken lamps, irons, whatever. In back, Jones – half-glasses on the tip of his nose – could fix anything while regaling us in stories of the Negro League. Finally, Harry Levin’s Clothiers, where I was made to look like a “fine young gentleman” in a scratchy suit that made me fidget when stuck in a pew between my mother and father. Oh, we did have one “modern” supermarket, an IGA that was so cozy that I can still tell you the names of everyone who worked there.

That was the Main Street of my little town. But, let me tell you a couple of other things about where I grew up: My Main Street was Devon Avenue. And my “little town” was Chicago. My Chicago had nothing to do with Marshall Field’s and Michigan Boulevard. Those were trips to the Big City, dress-up occasions that were more than a little intimidating.

I realize that my healthy upbringing did not come from being a “Chicagoan.” It came from having wonderful parents, of course. But, it came even more from a neighborly neighborhood, a main street lined with welcoming businesses, and a community with a strong sense of self-identity.

You may certainly join me in reminiscing if you have seen the place of your formative years morph from a strong, supportive “little town” to an indifferent, even daunting, monolith. Dare we dream that the best days of healthy neighborhoods and welcoming Main Streets may yet lie ahead?
Get real, you say? What kind of earthshaking changes would local the local environment have to make to build the spirit of Main Street, not merely occupy space on it?

For starters, how about businesses becoming more family-friendly? Why will moms and dads drive extra miles to shop at mega-store A rather than mega-store B simply because the former has a supervised play area for their kids? What about incentives for employees to get more involved with their kids and neighborhoods? How about businesses giving incentives for good grades and perfect attendance? I remember that in my first days of college, I stopped for lunch in a little local deli. “Where are you going to school?” the counter guy asked. I told him. “You bring me back straight A’s after your first semester, and anything on the menu is on me!” Well, I did. And he did. In New York City.

I think you get the picture.

It’s way too soon to toss hope of neighborhood renewal on the rerun pile with Andy and Opie. We have seen what happens when a child grow up in an indifferent community. Unless s/he has had the fortune of encountering one or two people who really care, the numbness into which s/he grows will produce more a robot than a truly human being.

If we want our kids to grow up human, first we must take back our Main Street. Make it a safe, friendly, supportive place to spend our comings and goings. Neighborhood energies and resources will soon gravitate toward that nucleus, and as energies coalesce, healthy communities will be reborn.

And then, I’ll treat you to a Coke at Pete’s.