Viewpoints
Safe streets or lucky ones?
I have a confession many Oak Park drivers could make. More than once, driving north on Oak Park Avenue at night, I have rolled through the crosswalk at Thomas Street with someone standing at the curb, because I never saw them. I wasn’t speeding or on my phone. The crosswalk was dark, and the person waiting had learned, the way pedestrians here learn, to wait for the cars. That corner now has flashing beacons, and Thomas on either side has diverters that keep through-traffic off the block.
We need a quantifiable debate
The village trustees are considering a proposal to change Oak Park’s zoning code, allowing single-family lots to be converted into multi-family lots. The main reasons are to reverse a 1921 policy that promoted racial segregation and to increase affordable housing options and density and diversity, aligning with the village’s values. While we acknowledge the need for both objectives, eliminating SFH zoning for much of Oak Park needs careful consideration. The board owes homeowners a thorough plan, not a vague “we know what to do” and “we need to change this.”
The North Avenue mural
Thank you for last week’s story about the new mural on Beyond Hunger’s future North Avenue HQ [Meal by meal & piece by piece, News, Sept. 2]. I’m writing to clarify how this striking mural came to be. It was funded by a grant from Oak Park’s ARPA allocation.
And what do you think? We want to know!
One Views
9/11, Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah
Twenty-five years ago, September 11 became a date forever associated with tragedy. For my family, it also became deeply personal. My uncle, Stephen Lefkowitz, was among the nearly 3,000 people whose lives were taken that day. Each Sept. 11, alongside the collective memories we share as Americans, I carry a family memory as well. Twenty-five years may have passed, but some dates never become merely history. This year, it leads directly into another moment of reflection.
Shrubtown: Serenity Now
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Columns
Summer’s end, 2026
By Ken Trainor
Summer’s over. We mark it unofficially with Labor Day, as if to say, “Time to get back to work.” Summer ends not with a bang but with a whisper. Some bid farewell with a hushed “good riddance,” others with a more funereal release. We declare summer over, with relief or regret, and turn toward the year’s final third, with eagerness or reserve. The weather either overwhelmed or underwhelmed, climate change clearly altering a season we once cherished.
A pilot program we can all support
By Josh VanderBerg
Ravi Parakkat’s recent One View calls for a pilot study of zoning changes before we embark upon a village-wide rezoning project. This seems a reasonable compromise. It’s an opportunity to judge the impacts firsthand without subjecting the rest of the village to the potentially deleterious effects of new neighbors. We must of course pick the pilot study area carefully. Because we will be adding new housing, we want to pick an area that has space, with large lots to accommodate the new housing types.
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