To those of you out there still wondering why we have leaf bagging, I offer this timeline:
1. Street-sweeping was safe and efficient in Oak Park for decades without significant complaint. It continues now in River Forest.
2. In 2022, LRS replaced Waste Management.
3. In 2023, a cost-cutting move reduced the frequency of leaf pickup, resulting in large piles of leaves accumulating in gutters and especially street corners. This produced numerous legitimate safety problems, including car and bicycle visibility issues, and dramatically increased probability of a car fire from motorists parking over leaf piles.
4. We don’t know what conversations occurred over the winter between LRS and Public Works, but by March, 2024 we had a new initiative on the village board table declaring unsafe not LRS procedures or cost-cutting measures, but leaf street-sweeping itself. Voila! LRS problems became your problems!
5. On March 12, 2024 President Scaman fell for this hook, line, and sinker, declaring street sweeping “not working”*. Resident feedback was bypassed to enable implementation in 2024. All trustees followed suit except Trustee Parakkat, who recommended a village-wide voter referendum.
6. Amid howling resident blowback, President Scaman reversed course, voting in late April with Trustee Parakkat to delay implementation. But the damage was done, 5-2.
7. In early June, I presented a 1,875 signature petition to delay to 2025 and create a referendum.
8. At the following board meeting, Trustee Enyia moved to delay to 2025, but the measure was defeated 4-3 after an announcement that village sweep support equipment had already been sold! No time wasted!
Residents handled 73% of annual leaf fall in 2024 at their labor/dollar expense. LRS picked up 27%, with the same fees as in 2023!**
Voter advice: pay close attention to candidates. Decide who really recognizes what happened.
*Wednesday Journal Article, 1/7/2025
**Wednesday Journal Article, 2/19/2025
Robert Parks
Oak Park