W E D N E S D A Y
March 4, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 32 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Early voting begins Page 12
Shaker family puts 4 downtown buildings up for sale Redevelopment not seen as likely outcome By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter
The Shaker family has listed all four of its commercial and retail properties in downtown Oak Park for sale. The buildings are fully leased. The two larger buildings, each facing Lake Street at Marion Street, are quintessential downtown buildings, while the two Marion Street buildings are smaller single-story retail sites. “We’re testing the market in so far as the potential availability of these buildings. There’s no urgency to selling the properties,” said Anthony Shaker, the managing owner. “It’s just a matter of we think the timing is right to see what we think the market price would be.” At 1100 Lake St. is the Shaker Building at three stories and 120,000 square feet. Among the office tenants on the upper floors is Shaker Recruitment Marketing, the core business over decades of the family which has deep roots in River Forest and Oak Park. A Potbelly is the most prominent retail tenant in 2020 but older residents will See SHAKER on page 17
Making demands
Photo by Paul Goyette
Oak Park student protestors demonstrate inside Oak Park Village Hall on Feb. 26. The students made a series of demands, including that the village remove police officers from Oak Park and River Forest High School. The full story is on page 7.
D200 to delay frosh curriculum changes Officials say more time needed to iron out details of the initiative
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
District 200 administrators announced on Feb. 27 that they will delay restructuring of the freshman curriculum at Oak Park and River Forest High School, a plan conceived to help eliminate the opportunity gap between white students and students of color.
The restructuring, which would end the practice of dividing incoming freshmen into separate college placement and honors curriculum levels, was initially scheduled to start in the 2021-22 school year. Administrators said that, due to a variety of issues related to the rollout, they’ll need to extend the start date to the fall of 2022. “We have been working together to ensure that the majority of our fresh-
man students experience one high-level, rigorous curriculum in English, history, science and world languages; we are also making curricular adjustments in math,” the school’s administration and the Faculty Senate said in a joint statement released on Feb. 27. “Over the past several months, we have See D200 on page 15
Saturday, March 7 3pm - 10pm
Enjoy free live music performances inside 13 restaurants. For more information visit: downtownoakpark.net Presented by Downtown Oak Park in partnership with 90.9 WDCB “Chicago’s Home for Jazz!”