“Single-family residency” is code for “whites only,” according to the Oak Park Board of Trustees in their meeting on July 21. I am in favor of more housing, and more affordable housing, in Oak Park and nationwide. However, according to the board, the purpose of the move to eliminate single-family residency zoning and increase the number of multi-unit residences in the village is to make Oak Park accessible to a broader range of incomes. Why is this needed? Because, according to the board, “diversity” in Oak Park is declining.
The facts state otherwise.
According to the U.S. Census, in 2010, white residents accounted for 71.1% of the village’s population. In 2020, it was 64.5%, and the 2025 estimate is 63% (and “White alone, not Hispanic or Latino” is 61.5%).
So Oak Park’s “white” population has fallen, from 71.1% to 63 (or 61.5) percent since 2010; while Asian, “Black alone,” “American Indian and Alaskan,” Hispanic-Latino, and “Two or More Races” have risen to 37%-38.5% of Oak Park’s population. If, as the board insists, single-family zoning is designed to maintain some sort of “whites-only” hegemony in Oak Park, it is failing miserably.
Board members repeatedly referred to “living up to our community values” and to our “alleged ‘commitment to diversity.’” However, the data show that in the normal course of events and without any extraordinary changes in zoning, Oak Park has, in fact, become more diverse over the past 15 years.
Perhaps in the board’s enlightened view it isn’t the “right kind of diversity?”
What, then, is the real agenda for this proposed change in zoning?
Sources:
2010 and 2020 U.S. Census: https://www.oakpark.com/2023/08/15/oak-parks-diversity-and-inclusion-success
The 2025 U.S. Census – Quick Facts, for “Oak Park, village, Illinois: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/oakparkvillageillinois/RHI125225
Charles Colson
Oak Park