Oak Park is magical for me, and I look forward to sharing some of my favorite things about it during 2024.
I am an Oak Park transplant who lived in both the city and the suburbs before settling here. On my street in other suburbs, people often casually waved to their neighbors driving down their street on the way to their attached garages. Very few people walked with a destination in mind, as there were few sidewalks and to get to places, you needed to drive. In the city, with ambulance sirens, bus traffic and people talking loudly as they walked outside my window, it was sometimes an assault on my senses.
Oak Park’s sidewalks, on the other hand, offer the opportunity to do walking errands and chat with people, which is so much better than living in either the city or the suburbs.
And while I do like Oak Park’s two favorite sons, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway, they are only part of what I love about my adopted hometown.
Here are some of the things that I especially love about Oak Park: Independent businesses; a plethora of restaurants; dedicated volunteers asking residents to sign petitions; residents sharing their thoughts and convictions in Wednesday Journal’s Viewpoints section; and village and township government filled with volunteers. In fact, when I applied to serve on a local government committee, I not only had to fill out an application, but I was also interviewed by several people. It was a more rigorous process than many job interviews for pay.
For me, Oak Park is filled with vibrancy and diversity. Many times, I walk down the streets and start to smile, as if I were seeing a wedding or a cute baby. It’s a family-friendly community where you can find a Root Beer Garden near the Beer Garden at OaktoberFest, which takes place in September. There is a vibrant Farmers Market (which I wrote about in depth this past spring, summer and fall) and many other happenings.
In Oak Park, I see people of different skin-color hues, old and young, able-bodied and those in wheelchairs and those who carry canes. I smell more acceptance in the air than in other communities I’ve visited or lived in.
What I don’t like so much are parking and property taxes. A friend coming to visit recently called from her car with desperation in her voice, frustrated that there were so many parking signs with so much different information that she couldn’t read them without parking her car. I gave her suggestions on where to park and she was able to visit me without getting a ticket. To park overnight, you need to download an app and can get only a limited number of free times each month. All in all, Oak Park — or as it is sometimes called “Oak Park, No Park” — is not too welcoming for drivers.
Also, property taxes are high and many people can’t afford to own a home here. It makes me sad that some longtime residents who love Oak Park, raised their families here, and are now on fixed incomes, can’t afford to remain here when they retire.
But for me, the wonderful parts outweigh the not-so-wonderful parts of Oak Park. In the next months I will share some of my Favorite Things. In these essays, I invite you to come along with me to visit, and if they pique your interest, perhaps later you can visit them and put them on your Favorite Things list too.
Joy Aaronson is an Oak Park resident who wrote stories for the Wednesday Journal in 2023 on the Oak Park Farmers Market. Previously, she contributed to Chicago Parent and written the Kids’ World column for the former Logan Square Free Press.