WAUKEGAN - There's building aplenty going on in downtown Waukegan, but the thing that makes me happiest about the redevelopment of my adopted hometown's downtown is the new sidewalk being poured south of Washington Street.

The renovation of the Genesee Theater -- the dilapidated movie palace turned sparkling playhouse -- has created a synergy along Genesee Street heading north. But cross Washington and head south, and with a couple of exceptions, it's still low-rent rendezvous.

While Waukegan developer Kent Moon is accomplishing wonders with the old Blumberg building at 110 S. Genesee, where just north of the resplendent Waukegan Ravine the classy Hussey's Tavern happily co-exists with the warm and welcoming Family Piano Store, the rest of the block is marred by vacant storefronts and lackluster infrastructure.

Just last Christmas it was a pitiful sight. Along Genesee Street, from Washington north to Grand Avenue, a million glittering holiday lights dressed the trees lining the new side of town. They looked so spectacular, the city left them up long after the holiday season. On the po' side of town however, it looked like the Grinch had descended, this time not even leaving hooks and some wire.

And so I'm glad to see the new sidewalk, with red brick work embedded, being poured on the side of town that hasn't got much of anything new in the last quarter century except a bigger jail and more work-release. It's a reminder that the South Side, where immigrants have always gained a foothold and the poor have stubbornly persisted, is still part of the North, West and East of us.

The new sidewalk is a good sign for those who stepped forward to invest in South Genesee -- and North Genesee for that matter -- after others deserted the business district and moved west. City officials have shown good sense in using tax-increment financing to help resuscitate the heart of our downtown. But even when all of Genesee was a seedy strip with bleak prospects, Alice Alviani, co-owner of the Family Piano Store, believed it could make a comeback.

Alviani and her husband Frank renovated two old houses into one on McAlister Avenue back in the 1980s, raised their children there and have been working for the city's revitalization ever since. A trained piano technician, Alice and her partner Mark MacLeod are expanding their business to include a coffee house, teaching studios and performance space. Other dreams for South Genesee include boutiques, art galleries and studios.

While commerce is coming back to the South Side -- of Genesee Street anyway -- the faith community never left it. Houses of worship continue to abound and expand -- Shiloh Baptist, old St. Joe's -- now St. Martin de Porres High School -- and Jesus Name Apostolic Church are showing that service to others can exist within a service economy. Jesus' name Family First Support Center, just around the corner at 208 Lake St. is working to bring back life to those victimized by the disintegration old Waukegan and a host of related social ills including family breakdown, unemployment and drug abuse.

"South Genesee Street is going to be lovely," Alviani said.

I believe her, now that the sidewalk never ends.