According to an Oct. 7 article in the Journal, the village wants to know who likes the traffic diverters. Based on my conversations with others, my guess would be very few residents indeed. Whether I am right or wrong about that is beside the point, compared to a major issue: If village government really wants to know what we think, and is actually willing to listen, why are they going ahead and implementing these measures all over before the results are in?
One oft-repeated refrain in recent Viewpoints letters about affordability is the high rate of taxes in Oak Park, so it is frustrating to see our government potentially wasting what could be a significant amount of money. We are told these measures can be reversed, but if they are, think how much money will have been spent putting in those diverters, speed bumps and other measures, only to spend more money removing them and repaving where they were when they may find out that snow plows and emergency vehicles can’t navigate them or that people want them out.
The sensible thing to do would be to try them in a small test area, see what input is received and what problems occur over the winter, and then if all goes well, continue the process next year.
However, that is a far cry from the hurried, intense project happening now. A potential big waste of our tax dollars.
Joyce Porter
Oak Park