Every serious city has a motto. Chicago has “Urbs in Horto” (City in a Garden), signifying its commitment to greenery, plus its historical roots as a wild onion patch. (It also has “I Will,” which sounds strangely like a commitment to procrastination.) Baltimore has “The City That Reads” along with “Believe” (making me wonder whether I can do the latter about the former).
But a quick call to the Oak Park village manager’s office revealed our town has no motto. “You’re certainly welcome to suggest one,” offered Johan Walsh, secretary to the village manager.
OK, I will. How about “WWFPD?” That’s “What Would Forest Park Do?”
Don’t laugh. I’m serious. And if you don’t agree with me, I invite you to take a one-mile walk. Start at Madison Street and Desplaines Avenue in Forest Park and head east to Madison Street and Oak Park Avenue in Oak Park. That’s half a mile in each town along a major commercial corridor.
In Forest Park you’ll be able to window shop outside numerous antique shops and boutiques. You can stop in for a drink at one of several small taverns, or choose to eat at a variety of restaurants, from the humble to the haute. You can also visit one of many small businesses that found refuge from Oak Park’s astronomical rents and property taxes-such as Two Fish and Team Blonde.
This stretch of Madison Street is a thriving corridor of small businesses that can truly accommodate your every need. In this half mile, you can take care of death and taxes, you can eat or exercise, drink tea or tequilla, pray or watch a play, get a manicure or a mortgage, buy music or mulch.
Cross into Oak Park and what do you find? You’re greeted by a godforsaken empty lot on the southeast corner that for some reason has been permitted to render the sidewalk impassible for pedestrians. (On a recent visit, the fence supports extended part way across the sidewalk and a tattered blue tarp billowed out over it.) Then, after passing the side flank of a hospital building, you reach a new senior-housing facility that the village allowed to build right up to the sidewalk.
There are a few signs of life on the north side of the street, most notably the wonderful New Rebozo, Mama Thai and Al’s Grill. But this stretch of Madison is mostly depressing and pedestrian-unfriendly with long stretches of uninteresting, if not downright forbidding, frontages, including District 97’s bunker-like administration building and the Village Players’ harsh concrete facade. It’s not a place where you’d be tempted to stroll for pleasure.
So in the spirit of our new motto, I called Laurie Kokenes, executive director of the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce.
“Forest Park has always been known as having small-town charm. That has drawn people for many years,” she told me. “We’re not big-box heaven over here. The mom-and-pop businesses are part of what makes this town solid.”
Kokenes credited Forest Park’s mayor and commissioners with reaching out to the merchants’ groups. “We just all work together and support each other. The people are friendly and the process is friendly and we still have the charm and affordability,” she said. (Forest Park’s motto, by the way, is “Village With a Smile.”)
So how, I asked, might Oak Park try to do what Forest Park has done?
“Working together is one of the keys, and having a village government that is really involved with their chamber of commerce and with their merchants’ group, finding out what they need and how they can make things smoother for them,” she offered.
It appears that incoming Village Manager Tom Barwin might provide just the kind of leadership in Oak Park that Kokenes described. He is credited with revitalizing the business district in Ferndale, Mich. (Motto: “Good Neighbors”). It looks an awful lot like Forest Park, with its healthy mix of small businesses and its inviting sidewalks lined with trees, street lamps and hanging planters.
“Healthy business districts are very key to the health of the entire community,” Kokenes said. “We really value all of our businesses. A vibrant downtown, as we have proven, is having an effect on the entire community.”
WWFPD. It has a nice ring to it. And it just might help focus our efforts to improve Oak Park.
Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin is a professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago.