There have been some bad choices and, as many equally bad non-choices, in Downtown Oak Park in recent years. That makes it easy for those not paying close attention, and it makes it tempting for those with an angle to wangle, to opt for simple but sweeping change in our central retail area.
It is in this unenviable environment then that a vote nears on whether to continue the Special Service Area #1 taxing district. In English, that is the mechanism by which property owners and residents within the narrowly defined downtown area have for years imposed on themselves a separate, additional property tax. The proceeds of that tax are used to pay for the Downtown Oak Park corporation. In other words, for the events and the advertising and the snow clearing and the holiday lights that have kept a positive focus on our downtown even as political nonsense and missteps have slowed or diverted progress.
The life span of that taxing area is coming to an end and must be renewed in order to continue the tax. We support the idea that such special taxes have a forced renewal. And we actively support its renewal.
It is just in recent months that political fortunes have turned in Oak Park and that reasoned, positive choices for the future of the downtown have begun to flow. Restreeting Marion, and opening Westgate are the start. An actual development plan for the rest of Lake Street is coming. New investments are coming at both the large scale – a new development at Lake and Forest – and the street level with several new shops and restaurants opening.
It would be nonsensical to finally make progress in downtown – to finally develop workable, respectful partnerships between private and public forces – and then to lose the engine needed to promote and nurture that success.
That is why we strongly support the continuation of the Special Service Area.
Preservation clicks
Just this once it would be OK to stuff the ballot box.
American Express has a million bucks burning a hole in its corporate pocket. Working with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, AmEx will drop that million into preservation projects in and around Chicago this year. Twenty-five worthy projects have been identified. Two of them, not surprisingly, are in Oak Park.
While the organizers, sponsors and some actual preservation pros will decide how most of that money is divvied up, the top vote getter as chosen by web voters will be assured of a sizeable piece of the largess. It is in the hands of those of us with a mouse and high-speed Internet. Partnersinpreservation.com is the address to click on if you want to see some of that money come Oak Park’s way.
Wright’s Unity Temple is properly on the list and it badly needs restoration funding. The other local target is Pleasant Home, the sometimes overlooked gem owned by the park district. The next major project at Pleasant Home is restoring the 106-year-old iron fence surrounding Mills Park.
So let’s be shameless. Let’s vote over and again for the hometown favorites.
