Last month, two dozen mayors from across America arrived in Oak Park for show-and-tell. These are public officials looking to innovate, pledged to sustainability, who seemingly share good-governance values with our village. So it was a happy choir that David Pope and Anan Abu-Taleb, presidents past and current, were preaching to in August.
As they talked up Oak Park’s breakthrough in funding early childhood education innovations, the Smart Grid initiative, the Hemingway and Wright tourism successes, the walkable urbanism efforts, it is worth noting that Oak Park has played a true leadership role on many fronts.
We’re close to the gibbering and the jabbering and sometimes lose track of the earned reputation Oak Park has for innovation and leadership.
