It’s the age-old question.
At the beginning of a new year, what’s more important – looking back, or looking forward?
Looking back can be full of messy hindsight, while looking ahead provides a modicum of hope for what’s possible.
So what are locals’ best hopes for 2025?
“Hope is an action,” said Ann Filmer, new executive director of the Riverside Arts Center, 32 E. Quincy St. “You do something about it. For me, it’s about engaging directly with my community, and I think art, for me, has always been the place to connect with neighbors and friends and people I don’t know and don’t share beliefs with.”
In summary: “You can connect with something that moves you.”
A couple of blocks away, at the Riverside Public Library, director Janice Foley pointed to two major milestones that are sure to be high points for the new year.
“The fact that the village is celebrating its 150th year, and the library is celebrating its 95th, there is a sense of a history combined with the present and that we celebrate our past and enter into the future,” said Foley, who has worked at the library for 30 years.
Though Foley lives in River Forest, she’s been around long enough to realize businesses like Riverside Foods and Riverside Plumbing continue to play an integral role in the community, while the library has worked to evolve. That includes updating technology to 2025 standards and providing new avenues for patrons to explore, like its Maker’s Space.
There’s an element of fun, too. The second edition of the board game Riversideopoly debuted just before Holiday Stroll on Dec. 6. The new version, which is $30, includes all the businesses that participated in the first edition in 2008, plus virtually all new businesses. In other words, it’s a unique way to engage with the village.
Over in Brookfield, sentiments about 2025 were by and large the same: cautious optimism.
Doug Cooper, the village’s finance director, said infrastructure improvements alone are something to look forward to.
“That includes a 2025 local road program, as well as a lead service line removal project, and water main replacement,” Cooper said, adding that the majority of the $20 million cost for those projects will be covered through low- or zero-interest loans and grants – not taxpayer dollars.
Another plus is the Brookfield Business Incubator that will launch in 2025 at Eight Corners. There are six sheds located there, and a panel of judges will determine what businesses should be incubated in those locations, which will energize that area.
Over at the Brookfield Metra station, Saturday morning was bustling with the regulars that patronize Loca Mocha, owned by Maria Verduzco. She and her husband, Gabe, a real estate agent, are born optimists and very observant.
Admittedly, the majority of those regulars, Gabe said, “don’t like how the election results ended, but we’re going to be positive anyway.”
The Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library has plenty to look forward to in 2025, according to Iris Overstreet Strupp, youth services assistant and a Brookfield resident. For example, home literacy calendars are coming, which parents can work on at home with children to promote literacy skills. Read-along books for kids will also be hot.
But there’s more.
“Taking off my library hat, I am hopeful for the opportunity to see our community continue to come together,” she said. “I think in 2024, there was a lot of upheaval in general, a lot of unprecedented events in our lives. Some people kind of ended the year feeling uncertain, there are going to be a lot of changes coming. But I think for myself, (I’m) trying to frame it instead of worrying, it’s opportunities.”
Small business owners like Mike Doerr, chief executive drummer at A Sound Education, 9433 Ogden Ave., said he’s hopeful the national economy turns around.
“The more I believe we crawl out of COVID, the more people are shopping brick and mortar.” Doerr said. “That’s what I’m hopeful for.”
North Riverside resident Larry Lembcke added that in addition to a stronger economy, lower interest rates and village parks and recreation improvements, he’s got one other hope, related to Riverside-Brookfield High School.
“A 2025 RB football conference champions, and a state title,” he said.