ROGERS PARK — Two Rogers Park groups have been awarded a grant from AARP that will help them beautify the neighborhood.
The Rogers Park Business Alliance received a $7,500 grant to bring a “People’s Spot” to Rogers Park, said Sandi Price, the alliance’s executive director.
A People’s Spot (called parklets in other cities) is a moveable public space that takes up two street parking spaces. It will contain benches and landscaping to beautify the area, a priority of the alliance’s Clark Street Vision plan.
The Rogers Park Business Alliance purchased the people’s spot from the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce. The spot used to reside in Andersonville but has been missing since 2015.
Price said the People’s Spot will indirectly help local businesses in Rogers Park.
“In order to help the business community, we need to bring people to Clark Street,” she said. “Beautification is part of that plan.”
The Rogers Park Business Alliance hasn’t yet decided where the spot will live and is still seeking city permits to place it on the street.
But if all goes well, the People’s Spot could come to the area by November.
Artistic potholes win grant
The Recyclery Collective, a used bicycle repair shop and educational co-op, also won a $7,500 AARP grant.
Although representatives from The Recyclery could not be reached for comment, AARP officials said they plan to use the grant to create “Art Potholes” by filling some of the neighborhood’s worst potholes with aesthetically pleasing designs.
The AARP grant is meant to help communities make quick improvements by way of smart public projects. The organization received more 1,660 applications and only 159 groups were awarded grant money.
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