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A talented, new Wkgn MainStreet Director !
I hope Ms. Violet Ricker can make it happen for the better in our long ailing downtown !
Best wishes to you and welcome aboard !
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NEWS-SUN, May 11, 2010 Edition, page two..
Staff Report by Ryan Pagelow
Violet Ricker, who has served as Waukegan Main Street's part-time director since December, will assume the duties of full-time executive director this week, according to a statement released Monday by Main Street board president James Donovan. Ricker was brought in following the departures of two different directors over the course of 2009. First, Maureen McGrain ended an 11-month tenure in July, then Susan Miller resigned in November after two months on the job.
In his statement, Donovan said that Ricker "comes to us with a near perfect skill set. She really knows her stuff and brings real vision."
"When the search committee interviewed her last December, she came in with a realistic, seven-page strategic plan for Main Street. We were blown away," Donovan added. "The past five months of her part-time work has confirmed that she's the right person for the job."
Ricker is a Waukegan native and Waukegan High School graduate who received a bachelor's degree in non-profit management at North Park University in Chicago. She previously studied political science at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
According to Donovan, Ricker's resume includes experience with non-profit organizations in Springfield, Chicago and Washington. While growing up in Waukegan, Ricker worked at the Waukegan Public Library and volunteered with the Genesee Theatre renovation.
"My most immediate goal is for everyone in the Waukegan to know all of the amazing places that are open in their own downtown right now," Ricker said in the statement. "This is the time we are waiting for."
Ricker's hiring took effect on May 10, which coincided with her graduation from North Park University.
-- WT Reader
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The sooner we get back to our industrial roots, the sooner we will see positive change on the east side of our community. Our downtown is a no go. Take a good look at the layout. If there was any possibility for sustainable business, it would be full by now. We couldn't get anything going during boom times, what makes any of you think another new Mainstreet Director will possess a magic wand? Waukegan's demographics are not favorable for the kind of business that you people envision. Wake up and smell the coffee( or the smelling salts.) The majority of Waukegan residents are exposed to the constant booming rap, or mexican music, loud cars, and the perpetual litter that dirties up our fragile neighborhoods, and until we can restore respect, and law and order to our community, we are going to continue spinning our wheels( and wasting precious tax dollars.) Come on folks, let's roll up our sleeves and demand results from our city council. Maybe if we demanded that the city release all crime statistics to the local newspaper, we could possibly generate a well of community support for stepped up law enforcement efforts. If not, I will give Ms. Ricker about a year of longevity. If I it turns out I am wrong, I will apologize. I don't plan on losing any sleep over my prognostication.
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ClassicalLib17 Wrote:The sooner we get back to our industrial roots, the sooner we will see positive change on the east side of our community. Our downtown is a no go. Take a good look at the layout. If there was any possibility for sustainable business, it would be full by now. We couldn't get anything going during boom times, what makes any of you think another new Mainstreet Director will possess a magic wand? Waukegan's demographics are not favorable for the kind of business that you people envision. Wake up and smell the coffee( or the smelling salts.) The majority of Waukegan residents are exposed to the constant booming rap, or mexican music, loud cars, and the perpetual litter that dirties up our fragile neighborhoods, and until we can restore respect, and law and order to our community, we are going to continue spinning our wheels( and wasting precious tax dollars.) Come on folks, let's roll up our sleeves and demand results from our city council. Maybe if we demanded that the city release all crime statistics to the local newspaper, we could possibly generate a well of community support for stepped up law enforcement efforts. If not, I will give Ms. Ricker about a year of longevity. If I it turns out I am wrong, I will apologize. I don't plan on losing any sleep over my prognostication.
Well ClassLib,
Many tried to achieve all that you suggest here ... it was called the Taskforce On Waukegan Neighborhoods (TOWN).
It was a valiant effort, much good came of it, yet Waukegan still has a myriad of serious issues.
There is certainly no "quick fix" to all of this, whether it be in our neighborhoods or on Wkgn's Main Street.
Still, Ms. Ricker appears to have a cartful of exceptional ideas, vast energy and fresh vision .. so I think we should be greatly encouraged by this.
For I still believe that "YES WE CAN!"
-- WT Reader
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ClassicalLib17 Wrote:The sooner we get back to our industrial roots, the sooner we will see positive change on the east side of our community. Our downtown is a no go. Take a good look at the layout. If there was any possibility for sustainable business, it would be full by now. We couldn't get anything going during boom times, what makes any of you think another new Mainstreet Director will possess a magic wand? Waukegan's demographics are not favorable for the kind of business that you people envision. Wake up and smell the coffee( or the smelling salts.) The majority of Waukegan residents are exposed to the constant booming rap, or mexican music, loud cars, and the perpetual litter that dirties up our fragile neighborhoods, and until we can restore respect, and law and order to our community, we are going to continue spinning our wheels( and wasting precious tax dollars.) Come on folks, let's roll up our sleeves and demand results from our city council. Maybe if we demanded that the city release all crime statistics to the local newspaper, we could possibly generate a well of community support for stepped up law enforcement efforts. If not, I will give Ms. Ricker about a year of longevity. If I it turns out I am wrong, I will apologize. I don't plan on losing any sleep over my prognostication. How do you expect to promote law and order when we live in a society that perpetuates, and is permeated with, disrespect for law and order in so many ways? (I expect no answer) Yes, the structure of our society has created exactly what we have now and until you address those issues at the root level any so called solutions will be temporary and futile. Most of human society has been doing the same things over and over for centuries with no different results or appreciable change or progress. It's been said that a sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results each time. It's time to stop the insanity and try something else. And for those who are more simple minded... when someone is currently a monetary based capitalist and suggests "something else" that something else is not automatically socialism or communism. There are much better options.
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Genessee Theatre doesn't quite have the amount of activity to pull in enough business (Although I wouldn't rule it out in the future. It really is a nice venue, and should be maintained.), and people going to the courthouse or city buildings typically want to get out of dodge once their business is done... Which leaves one thing that seems to be creating a nice little pocket of life downtown. That would be the CLC branch campus. If you can figure out how to build on the activity there and promote events and activity to the college students, that's where you'll get the business.
Hopefully she's smart enough to recognize that and work with it. It's going to be tricky, since the city doesn't have much budget to work with on its end.
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Why don't you devise a taxpayer-funded program that would provide the CLC students with gift certificates from downtown businesses, otherwise they would take the cash and spend it where they can actually enjoy themselves. Or, let's see what brilliant plan, Waukegan's own, Ms. Ricker can come up with. I would not take that job if offered to me, because I think it is putting the cart before the horse. Wake up, dreamers.
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