Why does Oak Park want to discourage residents from helping the environment and taking public transportation instead of driving? The other day I headed downtown and went to park in the same spot I have parked at for 41 years when taking the Green Line at Ridgeland. It was No Parking 8 to 10, which was not a problem.
Unexpectedly, I noticed (fortunately) that there was a sign saying three-hour parking Monday through Friday. Why? There are no businesses on South Boulevard between Ridgeland and Austin, so why do they need quick turnover? I was only going to a matinee in this case, but in some cases when I go downtown, I go for most of the day and sometimes have to transfer. That means it is questionable whether I will now pay for parking plus the el here, which seems to be the only option, or simply drive downtown and use SpotHero to park there.
Furthermore, instead of hourly parking restrictions going until 5 p.m., as they used to, they now go until 8 p.m. On top of all that, there was no notification given. I was almost late for the show because this was an unexpected development, and I spent time first going to the four-hour parking area, which is now also three hours, and generally looking around for parking before I finally found a paid spot.
A final challenge was that I never had a reason to download the Oak Park parking app before. When I wanted to add time Wednesday, I did download it, but was unable to start a session because the zone wasn’t on my parking receipt. Couldn’t that be added?
I hope that whoever makes the decisions will reconsider. Help not only residents, but the environment. I also hope that in the future when parking regulations change, we will receive email notification.
Joyce Porter
Oak Park