Every morning the first thing I do is look out my window up Maple Street all the way to Las Vegas Seafood, and I go, “Aw man! This was spotless yesterday!” I love just walking down the street and picking up everybody’s trash. I live here now, and I bought the house next to the funeral home. I was able to get two trees out of that: one at Most Precious Blood Church and one up at my son’s house in Canton. My grandfather took it into the garage, peeled the bark off the bottom, put it in a vase of water, wrapped it up with toilet paper and said, “Bring this home and in a couple weeks you’re going to see white roots, and we’re going to plant it somewhere.” At the time my dad was running the funeral home on Oak Street and is there today. One of my favorite was a house in Milton where we were cutting grass and a weeping willow tree had a branch come down. I used to go out with him after school, cut grass, plant gardens and do all kinds of things. I went to school here growing up in Hyde Park, and my dad owned a funeral home next to my school - that was difficult! I got into landscaping with my grandfather, an Irish immigrant. I was born in Hyde Park in 1952, on Beacon Street - the big old stone house that looks like a castle. Tell me about yourself and how you’re involved with keeping Hyde Park beautiful?:

It wasn’t until we connected for this interview that I realized we are practically neighbors! We sat down at Coffee Break Cafe earlier this year to discuss his commitment to the community. is a lifelong resident of Hyde Park, and a local business owner of the Carroll-Thomas Funeral Home. Two other points of interest are former president Barack Obama's home and Promontory Point on Lake Michigan.Alex Thomas Jr. Browse the German submarine U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry, the Egyptian mummies at the Oriental Institute, contemporary art works at Hyde Park Art Center and Smart Museum of Art and learn about the history of Chicago at the Du Sable Museum of African-American History. Visitors can roam the streets, from 51st to 55th to 57th, stroll through the University of Chicago's picturesque campus, take a lunch break at Medici on 57th, Valois, Piccolo Mondo, Virtue, Nathan's Chicago Style, Solonia, Harold's Chicken Shack, Leona's Pizzeria, Rajun Cajun, Thai 55, Nicky's Chinese Food or Chipotle Mexican Grill. In fact, there are so many historical properties in Hyde Park that it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The Museum of Science and Industry, formerly the Palace of the Fine Arts, is the lone survivor of the 1893 event. In 1893, Hyde Park got another publicity boost when the World's Columbian Exposition came to the neighborhood. Rockefeller established the University of Chicago. The development received a spike in 1891 when philanthropist John D. Hyde Park was founded in 1853 by real estate developer Paul Cornell, who purchased 300 acres of land between 51st and 55th Streets alongside the shore of Lake Michigan with the dream of attracting other Chicago businessmen and their families to the area. Not to mention a plethora of ethnic restaurants, trendy boutiques, shops, bars, hotels, museums and book stores. Located seven miles south of Chicago's Loop, within an area that extends from East 51st Street on the north to the University of Chicago's picturesque Midway Plaisance on the south and from Washington Park on the west to Lake Michigan on the east, Hyde Park also is home to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, the Museum of Science and Industry, Rockefeller Chapel, the Hyde Park Arts Center, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, Jackson Park and the site of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor. Hyde Park on Chicago's South Side is a culturally diverse neighborhood that, most importantly, is home to the University of Chicago, one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Coffee break hyde park