How about some sidewalks. The area would be significantly improve by beautification and reconstruction of much of the streetscape along North highland in particular, but also Virginia.

Huh? There are sidewalks everywhere, and a pretty significant beautification project at Virginia/N Highland was completed just last year I believe. I think it looks great.

I also think the more temperate weather was what made such a huge different for the festival. I think organizers ought to consider backing it up a few weekends to avoid the inevitable heat wave.

The Summerfest committee is pretty well locked into the 1st weekend in June dates, as there is a major festival basically every weekend in the spring and moving the date would cause a conflict with another festival. Keeping the date the same weekend assures getting the best art vendors too,as they work up their festival schedules way in advance,

The neighborhood owes a big debt of gratitude to Pamela Papner as she has guided Summerfest, for many years, into the major event status it now has. She has developed a core group of volunteers who have done the behind the scenes planning for several years now and it is not necessary anymore to reinvent the wheel every year.