Vol. VI No. 11 D209 teachers strike continues, PAGE 8
After 73 years, the Mister Shop to close, ending a retail era The Mister Shop spent 47 years inside of North Riverside Park Mall By BOB UPHUES Riverside-Brookfield Landmark
The Mister Shop is a retail unicorn. A bona fide mom-and-pop retail men’s clothing store, it started out as a suburban main street storefront, made the move to a regional shopping mall where it faced intense competition from national big-box retailers and then adapted and continued to thrive as shoppers fled bricks-and mortar shopping for the ease of internet clicks. But, after a 73-year run – 47 of them at the North Riverside Park Mall – The Mister Shop is selling off its inventory as owner Randy Kurtz closes the doors to retire from the business his family started in Oak Park. “I’m going to see my grandchildren grow up instead of missing my children growing up,” said Kurtz last week during an interview on The Mister Shop’s sales floor on the first day of the store’s blowout retirement sale. “I’ll go to all the Bulls games, and all the White Sox games. I missed most of them. I haven’t been to a Sox game in 10 years. Bulls games I kept going, but I get to go to more.” For many years, the company was known as The Mister Shops, plural. Kurtz’s father and uncle opened the original location in 1948 close to Marshall Field’s on Lake Street near Harlem Avenue in Oak Park, but they added another at 3242 Harlem Ave. in RiverSee MISTER SHOP on page 4
MARCH 16, 2022
vfpress.news
Major St. Patrick’s Day Parade returns, PAGE 2
Alexander Williams, a seventh-grader at Irving Middle School in Maywood, won the 12th Annual West 40 South Cook Intermediate Service Center (ISC) Scripps Spelling Bee held March 7 at Lindop Elementary School in Broadview. Read more on page 2.
Michael Romain
Broadview voters to weigh in on term limit referendum Referenda on carjacking and property taxes will also be on the ballot in June 28 election By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Broadview voters will see a binding referendum on term limits during the June 28 Gubernatorial Primary election — the village’s second binding term limit referendum in six years. In 2016, a referendum limiting Broadview mayoral tenures to two consecutive fouryear terms was approved by 66% of voters, effectively ending former mayor Sherman Jones’ two-term mayoral career. The Illinois Supreme Court later upheld the term limits vote. This most recent term limit referendum applies not only to the mayor, but to the village clerk and all six village trustees, and would take effect on Jan. 1, 2023, in time for next year’s municipal elections. If approved by voters, the referendum would only apply to anyone elected to the positions of mayor, clerk and trustee after
Jan. 1, 2023. During a special board meeting on March 7, the village board voted 4-1 in favor of placing the referendum on the ballot. Trustee Judy Miller voted no while Trustee Sheila Armour abstained. All abstention votes are counted with the majority. “By extending term limits to all elected offices in the Village of Broadview, rather than only the village president’s post, all offices will be treated equally and more justly under the law,” said Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson. Thompson, Jones’ immediate successor in office, was elected April 4, 2017. She ran successfully for reelection in 2021, defeating Jones with 71% of the vote. If residents approve this most recent term limit referendum, the term limit ordinance that effectively forced Jones out of office would be null and void, allowing Thompson to seek a third consecutive term if she chooses. “By applying a term limits ordinance to all offices, we would assure that no elected official ever becomes too entrenched in office and overstays their welcome,” Thompson said. “Ultimately, Broadview voters gain more
power and more opportunity over our community’s future by assuring leadership at a fixed, certain point in time,” the mayor added. “Voters could, of course, vote [someone out of office] ahead of their term limit, but let’s face it, defeating incumbents is hard, and with term limits in place, political mobility is guaranteed to generate new leaders and new ideas in the future.” Carjacking, property tax referenda also poised to appear on ballots During the March 7 meeting, the board ensured that two more referenda, both of them advisory, will appear on Broadview residents’ ballots on June 28. An advisory referendum differs from a binding referendum, in that the outcome of the former does not result in “new, changed, repealed, or rejected law,” according to Ballotpedia. The board voted 4-2 to allow an advisory referendum asking residents whether or not the minimum criminal penalty for vehicular carjacking should be increased from four years to 10 years. See REFERENDA on page 4