With word that Bar Louie is not long for Lake Street, it becomes apparent that a confluence of factors is turning the stretch of Lake from west of Marion all the way to Harlem into a quiet zone.

Through errors of omission, commission, negligence or greed, the two public school districts serving Oak Park (and at the high school level also River Forest) have fairly drastically overtaxed citizens in recent years.

Racial equity. It has been a non-stop conversation in our three local public school systems for several years. And there is headway made on a long, hard road toward first acceptance and then action on equity.

You know him, even if you don't him. Jim Madigan, for so many years the deputy director of the Oak Park Public Library, is retiring this week.