‘Little Bit More Normal’: Highland Park makes strides on Fourth of July

Highland Park took more steps forward together on Saturday morning.

Down streets lined with hundreds of patriotic locals, the city’s Fourth of July parade returned for a third straight year in the aftermath of the 2022 shooting. And this year — like the year before it, and the year before that — felt different for Councilmember Andrés Tapia.

“Speaking personally, this was the first time (since 2022) I felt more at ease,” said Tapia, moments after he concluded his parade walk with his councilmates. “It felt a little bit more normal. The specter was still there, but the apprehension I know I’ve had, and several have had, leading into it was not here this year.”

Tapia said while he and other Highland Park officials planned the Fourth festivities, he felt less “emotional apprehension.” And he believes that is part of the progress the community makes each year, which also manifests in the activity schedule.

This year, for instance, the city, in collaboration with the Park District of Highland Park, scheduled fireworks for the first time since 2021 and omitted a remembrance ceremony that had been part of the Fourth plans the last three years.

The fireworks, however, had to be postponed when persistent storms on Friday, July 3, washed out Independence Fest at The Moraine. The fireworks show will be scheduled for a date later this year, city officials said.

The parade on Saturday welcomed dozens of entries, from City Hall and the park district to local politicians and community organizations, like youth baseball and the League of Women Voters. They all again marched along Laurel Avenue and then up Green Bay Road to westbound Central Avenue, around a two-block stretch of downtown Highland Park that includes the site of the 2022 attack.

The progress this year, Tapia said, included the largest crowd of the last four years. That crowd included Sheila, a resident of 10 years who requested her last name be omitted. Sheila was in attendance in 2022 and feels it is important to continue showing up.

“I wanted to come in support,” she said. “I’m glad we are still doing it. One person can’t define who we are.”

Twin brothers Mike and Tom Bailey were ready and waiting for the parade on Central Avenue, west of Green Bay Road.

Mike Bailey, with his wife Judy Feinson, flew in from Delaware to visit Highland Park newcomer Tom Bailey and his wife, Katrina, and celebrate the twins’ birthday and the Fourth of July. None of the group knew much about the 2022 shooting. Once they saw “Highland Park Strong” signs in local storefronts, they googled to learn more.

Seven people were killed that day — Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo — while at least 48 others were wounded by the gunfire of a man convicted in 2025 and sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

Mike and Tom Bailey each lauded the resilience of the community, evidenced they said by the decision to continue the parade and all the residents who came out to participate.

“I think it’s good that the community is grappling with it,” Mike Bailey said. “I think it’s important to talk about it. You have to face it.”

Tapia hopes next year that the parade can move back to its typical route along Central Avenue and that the Fourth festivities will coincide with the opening of the place of remembrance, the in-development project to honor those impacted by the 2022 shooting.

Decisions about future Fourth of July activities, though, undergo a thoughtful and collaborative review process, Tapia said. And only time will tell.

“Next year, the timing should work out with the place of remembrance and that’s going to be an important marker and maybe, perhaps maybe, we’ll feel ready for downtown,” he said. ” … In the end, the city has to be ready. I don’t know if everybody can be ready, but a critical mass has to be ready with a sensitivity to those who lost people and were injured — that’s our No. 1 priority.”

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