'Front' and Center: Mayor Joe Werner Talks Front Street and its Future

Mokena's Front Street has long been a sticking point in the community. Residents have asked why businesses can't last in retail spots along the street, while the continues to strive to find answers for that question.

Mokena Mayor Joe Werner doesn't have the answers, but he has his own ideas of what might help revitalize Front Street. 

Historically, Front Street was a place for people to shop for goods and services for a given town, Werner said. However, he said that due to the mobility of people in today's world, along with the development of large shopping centers, people have moved away from taking to Front Street to shop.

“Without a lot of options around the area, that was the place to you went to do some of your shopping, buy your incidentals, pay your utility bill,” Werner said. “That's just the way things were.”

Werner said that the ability to go farther to shop has taken hold of people and that the community surrounding Front Street really dictates what happens along the street. He said that if people shopped there, businesses would thrive and people would see a dramatic change in the area.

“You've got to create a greater density of a type of resident that wants to walk, that's not as mobile by car,” said Werner, adding, “There's going to be more of a transition of the people living downtown. You're going to see younger people moving in, that will walk up to Front Street.”

Werner said that once that happens, businesses will be able to sustain operations and even thrive, but he added that if residents are expecting Front Street to turn into something similar to Oak Park Avenue, they shouldn't get their hopes up.

“We have to change our expectations of what Front Street is, or can be,” Werner said. “It isn't going to be Oak Park Avenue, it isn't going to be Downtown Naperville. We're not going to be that. We don't have the land for it. I do believe it can be more than what it is."