Highland Park Residents Sound Off On What Needs To Be Changed

The city of Highland Park offers its residents and visitors plenty to do all year long, and will even shovel the snow for you during the winter blizzards that hit the area all too often.

But no city is perfect, and there is always room for improvement - even in Highland Park.

Residents of the city recently spoke out in response to an informal Facebook question on what should be changed in town.

Holly Jamieson called for “better policing of the streets.”

“Every day I see people blowing through stop signs and now the new thing is one person goes at their turn through the intersection and the person behind them hurries through on their tail instead of waiting their turn. It’s been increasingly unsafe for pedestrians,” she said.

The roadways themselves could use an improvement when it comes to appearance, William Brown says.

“I would like to see the street dept take some pride in the appearance of roadways,” he said - specifically pointing out the Deerfield Road overpass.

“The medians are full of debris year round,” he added.

Related on Patch: Residents Discuss What Needs To Be Changed in Evanston

More cooperation between drivers, pedestrians and those who ride a bicycle were mentioned by a number who offered comment.

(The city) needs “less adult cyclists unyielding to pedestrians on sidewalks,” according to Suzan Black, while Suzie DuBois says more courteous drivers would be nice.

“I have seen and witnessed people literally getting within inches of hitting pedestrians, going 2 cars at a time at stop signs, going around a STOPPED car when the person they are going around is simply STOPPING for a pedestrian crossing the road and therefore the jerk going around nearly hits the pedestrians,” she said, adding that she has “never lived in a place that has such entitled people behind the wheel.”

David Greenberg concurred with Black, specifically requesting bicycles be prohibited on St. Johns Avenue when “there’s a bike trail less than 20’ away.”

Parents that create traffic headaches while dropping their children off at school do not sit well with Shira Citro-Gurfinkel.

“For parents not to think the world revolves around them and their kids,” she said. “Blocking the traffic while you drop off your kids, continuing to chat with them while traffic backs up... Unacceptable! How about a little courtesy. The world doesn’t revolve around you!”

Offering more services for young residents is something Sally Peterson would like to see.

“We had a much more vibrant community for youth just 6 or 7 years ago,” she said.

Surprisingly, Betsy Cerf was the only one to mention public transportation, suggesting it should be “free and frequent” from any location within city limits.

That’s what fans of the Highland Park Patch on Facebook have to say. What do you think? Was your hot-button issue not brought up? Let us know in the comments section below or on the Highland Park Patch Facebook page.