For the past year and a half, residents of the Dunning neighborhood on the Northwest Side have been working on ways to make their community, which rests on city’s edge, stand out from the surrounding suburban sprawl.
“The neighborhood is right on the line of the suburbs and the city so people who actually live in the city don’t even really consider us a neighborhood of Chicago,” said Ann Monte, 56, a longtime resident of the Dunning neighborhood. “It’ll give us that city community feeling.”
Teresa Giannini, 50, has lived in the area her whole life and is part of the Dunning Neighborhood Organization. She said the neighborhood organization will be embarking on a new banner campaign to help the neighborhood stand out.
“We didn’t have a Chamber of Commerce that was attending to the community in any way,” said Teresa Giannini, explaining the Dunning Neighborhood Organization’s latest banner campaign.
“We thought it would be a good way to bring neighbors together to get to know each other, become friends and try to beautify the area.”
Giannini, who is a mortgage broker and owns the neighborhood tavern Draft, which is located at 8221 W. Irving Park Rd., and other members of the Dunning Neighborhood Organization are putting up the banners, which will advertise the neighborhood organization’s website, and names of local businesses and families.
Businesses and families can donate money to be featured on the banners, which will have a colorful theme and neighborhood logo.
The Dunning Neighborhood Organization initially started with 12 banners, but after getting a lot of applications from families and businesses they currently have about 25.
Dunning resident Megan McCaffrey, 21, said she wants that community feeling that makes people feel they have a common bond and she said the banners could spark that new identity.
“The banners make people aware of the community and what it has to offer,” McCaffrey said. “It definitely is a way to promote the local businesses in the area.”
Monte said the banners are a symbol of the community’s progress.
“This is something that has been needed for a long time now,” Monte said. “Having businesses and families from the area featured on banners along with the neighborhood’s website shows just how far we’ve come.”
You can purchase a banner on the Dunning Neighborhood Organization website.
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