Participation in the April 7 election is important to all Oak Parkers for many reasons and on many levels. Our current Village Manager Association village trustees have pursued a failed plan to invigorate downtown Oak Park made glaringly evident by the increasingly numerous empty storefronts, the difficult parking, and the empty TIF that looms in the absence of incentives and in the presence of high taxes.
District 200 is at a crucial academic juncture that requires a board that is willing to seek remedies and changes from the top down, rather than from the bottom up, and is willing to respond to the grassroots initiatives of the teachers. But I am running only for park commissioner of the Oak Park park board. The quality of life that defines Oak Park relies on the aesthetics of the parks and the programs of the parks. When your paper endorsed the incumbents, you endorsed the status quo, which includes the wasteful master plan that sacrifices trees to structures. This month another healthy old tree went down in Mills Park.
First, our park board needs a tree preservation ordinance that would make it difficult to eliminate any tree without a compelling reason. Second, Oak Parkers deserve complete financial transparency, reconsideration of the master plan, dog parks, gardens, and tot lots that are safe and beautiful. And three, I want to inspire versatile programming that is truly responsive to the villagers and includes the talents of our PTOs to further reading, writing and arts programs. The board believes that listening to the testimony of villagers without acting on that testimony is responsiveness and inclusion. I do not. Gregg Kuenster and I are running for the park board to save our trees and open spaces, to save money, and to versify the use of the parks.
Naomi Hildner is a candidate for the Park District of Oak Park board.
