Parking and its discontents

After reading Wednesday Journal’s June 14 article “Mills Park Tower struggles after losing parking,” and receiving a letter from the Oak Park Transportation Commission to provide public comment on this, I decided to participate.

 On June 26, the village of Oak Park Council Chambers was packed. There were approximately 50 constituents, the vast majority from Mills Park Towers, and two who recently received 24-hour parking permits, and didn’t want their 24-hour permits to be taken away. Village of Oak Park staff provided background, and the commissioners listened respectfully to all who wanted to speak. 

Here’s part of my public comments:

I’m responding to a notice from Parking & Mobility Services, to provide public comment at the Oak Park Transportation Commission Meeting here tonight.

I am a neighbor, and live about two blocks away from Pleasant Place. 

I’m disappointed and unhappy that seven parking spaces at Mills Tower were taken away from a building with over 150 senior and disabled residents who need parking spaces for their caregivers, medical assistance, and families to visit, and made into 24-hour permit parking Lot 119. This has provided a hardship. 

I live near Mills Tower, and know how tight the parking situation is. Parking here in Oak Park can be a challenge on a good day, and a frustrating mess on other days. I also feel that taking those spaces away and making them 24-hour permit parking is a shortsighted and misguided plan. 

I love living here in Oak Park, a diverse, vibrant, and involved community. And I want Oak Park to be a community where people of all ages and backgrounds thrive. I work in the aging field, volunteer in local government, and love this community.

Please remember that aging is an equal opportunity process. Everyone who is not taken earlier in their lives by illness or an accident can look forward to aging. And many of us want to age in the Oak Park community. 

Parking in Oak Park is a huge, complicated and complex issue. We need to think strategically, and possibly “outside of the box.” But making parking a hardship for the Mills Tower residents is not the way to solve this issue.

I sincerely and strongly urge you to rescind the 24-hour permits and make this right. I believe that finding another solution, without taking these spaces away from the caregivers, families, and medical assistants of the residents, is the right direction to take in addressing the parking situation on Pleasant Place.

It was an exciting and energizing meeting. I was impressed with the volunteer commissioners, who after listening to the public comments realized that taking away the seven spaces provided a hardship for the residents of Mills Park Tower. They asked staff to investigate various alternatives, and I look forward to hearing how this gets resolved. 

Joy Aaronson is a resident of Oak Park, who lives near Mills Park.