'We are going to be OK': Residents pay tribute as downtown Highland Park reopens
Six days after a gunman shattered the festive spirit of Highland Park's Fourth of July parade, businesses along Central Avenue in the city's downtown welcomed back patrons Sunday morning.
Residents and visitors filled the sidewalks, some adding flowers and tokens to memorials for the seven killed and dozens more injured in the mass shooting. Others walked their dogs or pushed strollers down the avenue, sipped coffee while seated at benches, and greeted neighbors.
The events of July 4 were front and center in their minds.
"It's a traumatic thing," said Mara Karzen Metzner, a 45-year Highland Park resident who stopped to shop at the Bluemercury store. "But I want to support my community. I want that community to thrive, to heal."
Karzen Metzner, who on Friday attended the funeral of friend and shooting victim Jacki Sundheim, said it feels like a "bubble of innocence" has been broken.
"But we are a strong, vital community and we will support each other emotionally and financially and economically, and we are going to be OK," she said.
Store windows displayed Highland Park Strong signs, and several more signs we placed in planter boxes along the street.
Normally, Sunday morning would attract patrons to Walker Bros. Original Pancake House. But while customers did show up planning to have breakfast, manager Sandro Alcantar said the restaurant wouldn't open until Monday.
The building still bore the marks of the July 4 attack, with a bullet hole through an awning. Glass that had been shattered by gunfire will need to be replaced.
Alcantar and his crew were cleaning the restaurant Sunday to prepare for reopening.
"We're going to be scared for a while," he said.
Alcantar said he was standing by the entrance when the shooting occurred. He remembers people rushing into the restaurant to take cover. Two children came in looking for their parents. They eventually were reunited.
Jeanne Gatto, who saw the shooting from her nearby balcony, brought flowers to add to a swelling circle of bouquets at Port Clinton Square
On a bench nearby, accompanied by their dogs, sat Highland Park residents Marc and Ulrika Stancin, who were friends and neighbors of Sundheim.
"We took for granted what we had," Marc Stancin said. "You hear so many times, 'It couldn't happen to our town.' But it happened to our town, and it's sad, because if you're not safe here, you're not safe anywhere."
Highland Park High School student Stephanie Diaz noted that the shooting suspect grew up in the community.
"It's scary to think that one of us did something to our community," she said.
Farther down the avenue, east of the commuter tracks, a covered area was turned into a shrine for the victims, whose large portraits faced passersby. Across the street, the veterans memorial was transformed into a memorial for the July 4 victims, with mourners leaving flowers, candles, messages and chalk drawings.
Peter Sagal, who recently moved to Highland Park, pushed his 19-month-old son, Elliott, in a stroller through downtown Sunday morning, his two dogs walking alongside them.
"One of the weird things about this happening here, the last place you would expect, is it means it can happen anywhere," said Sagal. a National Public Radio host. "At this point, the risk is so widespread. It's not like this is a war zone. The entire country is now a war zone. Any place is as dangerous as any place else."