Curt's Café, other Highland Park businesses remain closed, must improvise with FBI still processing massacre scene
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Businesses are struggling to return to normal in downtown Highland Park, three days after a massacre at the July 4th Parade left seven people dead and dozens wounded.
As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported Thursday, the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce just told us that there are about 100 businesses affected by a crime scene perimeter around the site of the massacre. Those businesses are either completely closed for the time being, or finding another way to function while the investigation continues.
One example is Curt's Café, 1766 2nd St. Just because they can't get into their store at Curt's Café doesn't mean they've stopped serving their community.
Curt's has two locations – one in Highland Park, and the other at 2922 Central St. in Evanston. They have temporarily rerouted their operations fully to the Evanston location until they are allowed to reopen the Highland Park location.
Curt's Café serves coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. But its main mission is to help kids living in at-risk situations, and formerly incarcerated young adults, by providing workforce and life skills training.
Curt's offers teaching on the job at its cafés, in classrooms, and through mentors.
"Curt's Café just has a place in my heart that I can't explain," said Elijauh Perry, who works at Curt's in Highland Park. "It feels like a second home in some way."
Perry was alarmed by the fact that such a second home for many came under attack.
"It messes with me - the fact that we were right there," he said.
The members of the Highland Park staff now working temporarily in Evanston were not at the parade. But they say many of their regulars were.
"I get a sense of emptiness – the fact that there's a possibility that I might not see that person again," Perry said.
Meanwhile, the staff at the Highland Park location has not missed a minute of that instruction they receive through Curt's. The café's management said they want to provide as much of a sense of normalcy as possible during an anything-but-normal time.
But on that point about anything-but-normal times, Curt's Café Vice President of Operations Karen Smitch emphasized that some Curt's staffers know violence in their communities all too well.
"Different students from different backgrounds, how they felt - some were like, 'Oh yeah, it's just another day - this happens on our streets every single day,' or is there other people like, 'No, this is more sensationalized.'"
To Curt's staff, it doesn't matter that the food in Highland Park is spoiling.
"That's nothing," Smitch said.
When the doors in Highland Park do reopen, Curt's plans to be there for the community as well – as much as they can, as soon as possible.
"I'm not expecting to open full force, you know, the minute we open the doors," Smitch said. "I think it's going to take some time for my team to get back in the space. I think there's going to be some feelings around that, and I just want them to be able to deal with those feelings - and open the doors and start with coffee, or scones, or whatever the community needs."
Though the crime scene tape perimeter in downtown Highland Park is slowly shrinking, the FBI is still processing the scene.
There is no exact date or time when staffers from those approximately 100 businesses in the crime scene perimeter can get back in. But one thing we've heard from speaking with employees is that they're willing to wait it out as long as they need to – so that justice in this tragedy can be served.
