We hope everyone had a safe and amazing 4th of July holiday weekend!

Hopefully everyone has had a chance to view the Declaration Of Independence, as presented by the PT Social Commission, and read by residents and Owners (and yours truly) of the Park Tower Community.

If you haven’t, Click Here

I’ve heard from a few of you about how dazzling the fireworks were on Sunday, and yet others who felt their were some amateurs lighting of very professional devices quite close to our building, and far to close to the people in the park. Not only that, they left most of their litter and debris behind them.

I was in the park watching the fireworks as well. I was stunned and amazed, it was all very dazzling, yes, but I was also a bit shocked. While being hypnotized by them, the proximity to the high rises and onlookers seemed very dangerous and irresponsible. Some of the fireworks arced over our deck and pool and being lit in the immediate vicinity of hundreds of people including families and children. It’s also obvious to anyone visiting the park in the days after, the debris littering the park pretty excessively.

Many of us have needed to blow off some steam after the past year, and that’s understandable. However, this was pretty excessive and we did contact the Alderman’s office and shared photos of the event and aftermath. We requested some proactive police presence next year, to keep these things further away from buildings and away from large gatherings. (Notwithstanding I believe these fireworks are very illegal.)

In response, the Alderman’s chief of staff wrote, “I will forward this on to the Park District to address the clean-up. I can only imagine from the pics along the lakefront that the clean-up is going to take some time. As far as police presence, they did a great job protecting our community over the holiday and they are aware of the firework concerns all over the district.”

If anyone else would like to comment regarding this matter, the Alderman’s office can be reached at harry@48thward.org. Certainly, the more individuals whom write, the more seriously they may take any such concern.