RAVENSWOOD — After feeling a bit like a second class citizen, Ravenswood activists have created a new chamber of commerce for the neighborhood.
The new Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce was a project driven by the Ravenswood Community Council. It is independent of the current joint Lincoln Square/Ravenswood chamber.
Community Council Executive Director Megan Bunimovich says that the RCC petitioned the city for a new chamber of commerce after numerous small businesses in the area reported feeling neglected by the chamber based in Lincoln Square.
“The Lincoln Square chamber is focused on, well, Lincoln Square…” said RCC Board President Outten. “We felt our area was a little under-represented.”
Others felt the RCC’s ability to interact with Ravenswood’s growing number of small businesses was too limited. A new office might help relieve some of the pressure.
“Right now the community council is kind of running all our programs,” said RCC Events and Marketing Director Gene Wagendorf. “I think that having a new chamber of commerce to interact with the business side of things will free up some space for the council to worry about other things... A lot of the direction of our programming was already skewed toward business anyway.”
Bunimovich said the community council first began petitioning the city for a grant to start up a new chamber of commerce last year "but we only found out that we were awarded the grant in the last week of December.”
The community council is still negotiating the exact amount of the grant, said Outten, but he believes it will be sufficient to get the new chamber on its feet. The new chamber will be officially christened on May 28th, he said, at a public ceremony to be held at the Spacca Napoli Restaurant, 1769 W. Sunnyside Ave.
A previous Ravenswood chamber was shut down for what was described at the time as "the weight of sizeable debt caused by a history of poor record keeping."
In the meantime, work is already underway to prepare the new chamber for its eventual responsibilities.
Many businesses are already engaging with the new chamber’s staff, says Bunimovich, including the Chicago School of Shoemaking, Wintrust Bank, and the Nevica Project art gallery/art consultation business. “Every week we’re seeing more and more people join up,” she said.
“Right now there are a lot of marketing luncheons going on… a lot of business-to-business networking,” added Outten.
Though eventually the chamber will function independently of both the RCC and Lincoln Square chamber of commerce, Bunimovich says that it will seek to work closely with both organizations, as well as with others in the area.
“We’re trying very hard to work with the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce and North Center, and of course we’ll continue to work with the (47th Ward) alderman’s office, and with our friends in Uptown,” Bunimovich said.
Lisa Ripson, a spokeswoman for the Lincon Square Ravenwood Chamber of Commerce, said, "We have an obligation to our members in Ravenswood and will continue supporting them through events, marketing, and referrals."
As for the new chamber, Ripson said: "Both organizations seek to help small businesses grow and prosper and we look forward to working with them to create an even better business community."
Editor's note: This revised version of this story contains updated information.
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