Midtown Eye Care
Proud to Be Resilient on Lake Street
Photo by Bruce Silcox
Before opening at 2955 Chicago Ave S in 2014, Akmed Muhumud, co-owner of Midtown Eye Care, carefully considered the location of his new business, “we selected Lake Street because of its central location, public transportation, affordability, and diversity.”
Since then, Midtown Eye Care has served the community as a comprehensive eye care facility that provides eye exams, contact lenses, and a wide selection of frames and urgent care services.
Nearly one year ago in March 2020, Midtown Eye Care closed due to Covid-19. They remained closed until the civil unrest destroyed any hope of a quick reopening. Akmed describes the damage on their GoFund Me page:
The business was looted and then later burned and has had extensive fire and water damage. The current space will not be suitable for reconstruction because of the fire damage and a new location must be found nearby. The business did have insurance, but it is only covering a fraction of the cost to rebuild. It is estimated that the total loss of materials and rebuilding costs will be over $150,000.
With funding from the community and the Lake Street Council’s We Love Lake Street fund, Midtown Eye Care was able to relocate just two blocks away inside Midtown Global Market.
While being in a new location has helped the business considerably, the battle is still not over, “we are still not at a fully operational capacity; we’ve had to reduce our services and add spacing between appointments. Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact on our services and bottom-line.”
Akmed asks the community to support his business by taking care of themselves so we can move past the pandemic. He also hopes people visit the clinic and support other small businesses in the area, both emotionally and financially.
Midtown Eye Care is using funding from Lake Street Council’s Healthy Lake Street grant to continue to pay down the cost of moving the clinic and pay for future rebuilding expenses. They also plan to use the funding to upgrade and/or add additional equipment to expand services in critical areas such as glaucoma management and screening for diabetic patients, which they see in many of their elderly and low-income patients.
Akmed is hopeful for Midtown Eye Care’s future, “we hope to remain an important part and asset for the community. We pride ourselves for being part of the community and we want to demonstrate that by being as resilient as the rest of the community and continuing to provide critical healthcare services that we have been providing for the last six-plus years.”
