The East Village Association invites you to sign an online petition to maintain the package liquor moratoria in our community. We also encourage all of our friends and members to share the petition with their friends and neighbors. Petition: Keep the East Village package liquor moratoria After intensive and thorough discussion of the issue, concern over alcohol sales remains high throughout the community. In EVA forums for the past three months, a consensus formed that liquor moratoria continue to serve the purpose for which the city established them: It established an environment that continues to attract significant new residential and business development. The online petition can be signed with an email address (which will remain confidential) or by using Facebook registration. While signing, you can leave your comments on how liquor-sales limits have helped the community. Show your name on the online signature list and let your voice be heard! Read more: East Village liquor m...

By Molly Murray Your help is needed at the next Graffiti Action Day, which will be targeting Chicago Avenue on July 28 starting at 10 am at Chicago and Damen. Check out the website  www.GraffitiActionHero.com  or contact Orlando at Ald. Proco Joe Moreno's office at 773-278-0101.

Membership meeting minutes for July 9 Submitted by Meghan Quinn Business Minute Guest Speaker Jodi Hamilton spoke to the group about her Dream Dinners location at Chicago & Damen. Hamilton is president and CEO of the franchise location, which opened 16 months ago, and she and her husband are also proud to call themselves residents of the neighborhood. Dream Dinners is a meal-assembly service that provides everything necessary to create healthy, family-friendly dinners. Register online or in the store to attend a meal assembly session, where you can prepare ingredients, and then pack your uncooked dinners to take home and make throughout the month. It’s even BYOB during the sessions if you want to enjoy your favorite wine while you prepare. Check out their website at www.dreamdinners.com/chicago for more information. 13th District Closing The five-person working group advising Ald. Proco Joe Moreno has already met and is meeting again on July 10 to tour the facility at 93...

After closing Ashland Avenue last August, the Food Truck Social is looking for another place to park. The site is on Monday's agenda for East Village Association members. The street fair is set to expand to two days, from noon till 10 pm Aug. 25 & 26. On Friday the sponsoring West Town Chamber of Commerce sent an email to merchants and community groups seeking comments on a Chicago Avenue location. Food trucks would ring the vacant lot at 1834-50 W. Chicago Ave., once the AAA Distributing warehouse. A music stage booked by Empty Bottle Presents would close Chicago Avenue between Wolcott and Wood Street, along with a mix of beer, wine and craft vendors.

Another step in the slow-moving development of the former Pizza Hut location across from the CTA Blue Line stop at Division Street fell into place June 27 when the City Council changed its zoning to the RM6.5 high-rise residential class. Earlier in the week, East Village Association planning co-chair Scott Rappe spoke in favor of the zoning change at 1601-15 W. Division and 1148-56 N. Ashland. A companion measure lifted the "pedestrian street" designation for the property. That would allow a group led by Newgard Development to build a bank drive-through, shown here in the original October 2011 zoning request. The developer now plans an 11-story apartment building, with the PNC Bank storefront on Ashland Avenue and drive-through along the south alley. A number of additional measures must pass the City Council, including Ald. Proco Joe Moreno's proposal to allow minimal parking as part of a "transit-oriented development."