Odds and ends with some a bit odder than others
BIG GAY NIGHT: Almost a decade back, Oak Park passed a landmark Domestic Partner Registry. The front-page headline on that week’s Wednesday Journal read “BIG GAY DAY.” Big as life. All caps.
Saturday night, the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association posted a framed copy of that front page at its annual gala. It was one of several Journal front pages on display as OPALGA honored the paper with one of its OPAL Awards.
Newspapers win a lot of awards. Giving us an award is a near guarantee of publicity because we can’t help writing about ourselves. Then we enter a lot of editorial contests. We go for the wood-plaque-lining-the-hallways school of decorating.
Have to be honest and say, though, that this award has great meaning to me. We have made a conscious decision that the “ascendancy of gays”-a line from my speech Saturday night that brought prideful ribbing from Michael Cochran, a co-chair of the group-is a notable Oak Park story.
We have told that story well, fairly and compellingly. It is a civil rights movement, another indicator of this village’s diversity. More, though, it is simply a story of ordinary people making a home.
Thanks to OPALGA for recognizing our efforts. Thanks to so many people at this paper who have helped tell the story over 20 years. Thanks to gays in Oak Park for letting us capture their voices.
Learning new things: It is important to read the newspaper because there’s always something new to find out, some intrigue to sort out.
Last week, for instance, we reported that the developer who bought the parcel at Forest and Lake now has an option to buy the parking lot on Forest owned by the 19th Century Club. Not so fast, says another source. Negotiations, yes. Done deal, not yet.
Let’s count up the players. Way back in early 2006 Sertus Capital Partners bought the Pancake House building on the corner for a bundle. The village owns the decrepit parking garage that wraps the corner. Bad parking garage. Great real estate to control the deal. Grace Episcopal Church has sold an option for its parking lot on Lake Street to Sertus. The 19th Century Club owns the parking lot next to the village’s garage and always needs cash to invest in its expensive building.
Sertus wants to control the outlying parcels to squeeze the village into putting the parking garage into the deal. The village is holding out for the best deal it can get for new parking and to influence the shape of any development.
Keep reading.
