I want QuikTrip.
Not that I don’t appreciate the beauty of a defunct concrete factory.
Harlem Avenue is a ridiculously perfect site for a convenience store and gas station. I’m sure QuikTrip sees how many cars drive up and down Harlem every day and drools to get in on that action. I too see dollar signs, only mine are tax dollars flowing into Oak Park.
Gasoline is still the most common car fuel. People are going to need gas for their cars for decades into the future, and they’ll buy it in Oak Park, or they’ll buy it somewhere else. We’re not protecting the environment at all by refusing to sell gas.
Also, convenience stores have their place, selling things all of us need, like food, toiletries, over-the-counter medicines, diapers. Not glamorous, but necessary.
I’m no QuikTrip expert, but I’m told by a friend that the stores are clean and well run. Successful businesses bring traffic. More people, more cars, more money spent. I’d hate to see that in a residential neighborhood, but I’d love it on Route 43, Harlem Avenue.
Oak Park is great at saying “no.” No to Aldi in the now-demolished Foley-Rice dealership, no to Taco Bell at Roosevelt and Austin.
Sidebar: Let’s hear it for Roosevelt and Austin, former bank site reduced to cracked asphalt, broken glass, and leftover bank parts! Extra points for squatting on prime real estate that could be bringing in the bucks.
OK, back to QuikTrip. Let’s learn how to say “yes” to a strong business on Harlem Avenue.
Anne Jordan-Baker
Oak Park