As I write this, it has been exactly 17 years since the first OPRF Friday night football game was played “under the lights” at the school’s stadium. The lights had been installed during the second half of August 2009 after a years-long legal battle.
As Wednesday Journal’s archives can confirm, this was a very controversial issue in the village. The campaign to install lights had taken literally years, championed by the high school and many parents of student athletes, and vociferously opposed by stadium neighbors, even those who lived multiple blocks away from the football field.
The pro-lights crowd argued that the lights would provide many benefits to the athletic programs by allowing extra practice time for soccer and other practices, which was sorely needed. The anti-lights contingent loudly proclaimed that the 4-5 Friday night football games would negatively impact the quality of their lives and their real estate values. They pooled funds to hire legal counsel to help them fight the lights. Many letters, both pro and con, were published in Viewpoints, including one from me (I’ll try to find that letter; as the parent of two varsity soccer players, I was pro-lights).
Sound familiar? This controversy was not dissimilar to the re-zoning fight that is raging as we speak.
So how did it all turn out for OPRF High School and its neighbors? Were innocent babies’ sleep schedules disrupted as some parents feared? Did real estate values for nearby homes drop? Did the Friday night games attract rowdy youth from Chicago who caused problems in our serene village? Was the quality of life in Oak Park negatively impacted as some so sincerely feared?
It would be fascinating for Wednesday Journal to revisit the controversy and interview those who live near the high school, local realtors who experienced the after effects to the local housing market, as well as OPRF students, parents and administrators, to see what their experience has been.
As we grapple with yet another polarizing issue on which reasonable men and women can differ, it would be interesting to see what 17 years of experience and perspective has taught us. High school neighbors, be honest:
Is it really as bad as you feared it would be?
Alison Nelson
Oak Park