The “road diet” currently being discussed on Madison Street in Oak Park is an intriguing notion. Actually, we like the notion. From an aesthetic point of view, a sustainability point of view, a safety point of view, shrinking traffic from four lanes to two, adding wide sidewalks and handsome lights would all be lovely.
But will this ambitious streetscaping plan solve the enduring problems of Madison Street? Empty buildings and empty lots, many of them long-owned by village government, clog the street. Lots that were too shallow for the car dealers that lined the street from the 1930s to the 1970s are still too small for many current uses. Madison runs an enormous length and connects two disparate commercial zones: the urban/suburban chic of Forest Park and the urban challenges of Austin. The street has a plethora of unaligned uses, from the government headquarters of the village, the parks and the elementary schools, to fast food joints, a few of our nicer small restaurants, a hospital, a theater, as well as new and old multi-family residential housing. Diversity for sure.
And while the street has an expiring TIF fund with $4-6 million that needs to be committed this very year, we worry, as we did in the “downtown districts,” if too many precious TIF dollars are being poured into streetscapes. Madison Street must, over time, become an economic engine for the village. Is streetscaping the driver?
Yes, we admired the village’s effort of a few years back to craft a plan for the street. We liked the median strips installed from Austin to Oak Park Avenue at considerable cost. We acknowledge that the stiff economic downturn has made it impossible to realize goals such as bringing a contained “big box” to Madison and Oak Park Avenue.
Now, with the clock ticking on another TIF, with no particular plan for how to pay for improvements that will clearly cost more than the millions in hand, we worry that Oak Park is rushing forward with more faith than vision.