As residents of Oak Park know, our property taxes are high. All of us who have received tax bills recently know this all too well. Accordingly, we should expect that our village board would be taking a hard and sober look at how our tax dollars are spent, and prioritizing projects and services from essential to “would be nice to have.” Essential services start with maintaining excellent police and fire services, maintaining our streets, sidewalks, sewers, etc. Next-level priorities should include updating village hall and construction of a new, separate police station.
The Oak Park Village Board recently set aside $1,000,000 for the purpose of rehabbing Percy Julian’s house, and [perhaps] paying the overdue property taxes of Dr. Julian’s daughter, who currently lives in that house. The board also decided to go ahead with the plan to make a celebratory Percy Julian “Streetscape” on Chicago Avenue near Julian’s East Avenue house. Far from being essential, these are “feel good” projects and should not be funded by the village, given the current state of our tax burden. The Julian family home is just one of thousands of private homes in our village, but seems to have been elevated to the level of shrine because a prominent Black scientist once lived there. Likewise, it’s unfortunate that Ms. Julian cannot pay her property taxes, but the rest of Oak Park taxpayers should not be on the hook for her debt. No doubt many cash-strapped Oak Parkers would also like to have the village of Oak Park pay to rehab their house and to pay their property taxes.
It seems that all of this is another one of the village’s attempts at “restorative racial justice.” These projects, rather than being funded by the village, should be crowd-funded instead. Ten thousand households (out of 23,000 in Oak Park), contributing $150 each, would more than cover it. Given that Oak Park comprises people who are both relatively affluent and (by reputation) progressive and compassionate, it would take only modest contributions by like-minded folks to fund these Percy Julian legacy projects.
Mark Knickelbein
Oak Park