We received the following from our friend Paul Zimmermann.  For those of you who haven’t met Paul, he wears a couple of hats around these here parts.  Firstly, Paul and a friend have invested in the community – they own a couple of commercial properties.  Secondly, Paul is a passionate supporter of the Roosevelt Road corridor.  And finally he’s currently the President of the Berwyn Development Corporation (BDC).

An Open Letter to the Oak Park Village Trustees

Dear Board of Trustees

I am writing to you concerning the current situation in South Oak Park and on Roosevelt Road as concerns public safety. With the Oak Park Police Dept. having to cut manpower due to the Village budget crisis, for the last 2-plus years the residents and businesses of South Oak Park have had one Resident Beat Officer for this entire district, from Austin to Harlem and the Eisenhower to Roosevelt Road. This is a zone that deals with burglaries, armed robbery, assault and domestic violence in greater frequency than other Oak Park zones due to it’s proximity to the city of Chicago, and includes a neighborhood that still suffers the memory and affects of an unsolved murder. In a recent incident, two streetwalkers were apprehended on the Oak Park side of Roosevelt Road and while we applaud the resident who notified the Oak Park Police Department as well as the efforts of the officers on this incident, we feel that it is only a matter of time before the Resident Beat Officer will be stretched too thin and the criminal activity in the zone will result in a crisis that we would all like to avoid. To help alleviate the possibility of such a situation, we would like to strongly recommend the placement of a Police Substation on Roosevelt Road.

With the nearest satellite station on the north side of the expressway at Austin, we feel that a substation on Roosevelt would not only provide the officers of the Oak Park Police Department with an office space to use for filing reports and taking bathroom breaks, but it could also be used as a community meeting hall for easier communication between the residents, businesses and the Police Department. Furthermore, this substation could be a shared venture with the Police Departments of the neighboring communities of Berwyn, Cicero and Chicago. With all of these Departments sharing the station, the police presence alone would certainly go a long way towards reassuring residents and would most certainly push criminal activity out of the district. More communication between the officers of these neighboring communities could only help to quell the criminal element and create a safer neighborhood for all.

The start of the Roosevelt Road redevelopment project is, after years of fits and starts, finally approaching. The tenor of cooperation between the three municipalities involved in this exciting, long overdue makeover has never been better. Now is the time to make this commitment towards the long term safety and viability of the neighborhood and the business district. With Oak Park being the largest stakeholder on the corridor, we feel that the impetus for this substation must come from you. If we do the surface work but don’t address the underlying problems in the area, we are doing a disservice to those that we are claiming to help. We have all worked hard towards the success of this venture. Let’s make sure that we see it all the way through.

In cooperation,

Paul Zimmermann, President
Roosevelt Road Business Association

We urge the Oak Park Village Officials to give every consideration to this low-cost and highly effective solution as soon as possible!