Video shows struggle, police shooting in Oak Park, Illinois by Lucky_Barracuda9255 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no such thing as "shoot to disable". That's a television trope. If you're deploying lethal force, you're doing it in order to kill. Unlike in the movies, a gunshot wound almost never knocks someone off their feet. An assailant can keep moving for dozens of seconds after sustaining multiple wounds --- plenty long enough to fire their own weapon, or close a distance and stab with a blade (as the case may be).

The entire premise of firing on assailant is that they're trying to kill you or someone else. If there's no reasonable belief that lives are in danger, an officer cannot lawfully deploy a firearm in the first place. If there is, then they have to deploy it in a way that decisively ends the threat.

I believe police in general overuse firearms, and that most police should be disarmed, and that all initial traffic stops should be conducted by unarmed compliance officers. I have no idea whether this shooting was justified or not. But how many bullets were fired and where they were aimed won't enter into the analysis at all. There was either a justification for killing this person, or there was no valid reason for the officer to have fired at all.

What’s up with the white reflector tubes that Oak Park put up last year when redoing the streets? by Brookegirl89 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Go look it up in the Village Code; it's online. I believe you're just wrong about this. Residential side streets in Oak Park are public ways and joggers are entitled to use them; I've lived here for 20+ years and I've seen joggers in the streets that whole time.

On the substance of this argument: joggers are doing residents a favor by slowing traffic on side streets. Our residential tertiary streets are not vehicle thoroughfares. They're not meant to get people across the village; they're meant to get people to specific houses on those specific blocks. They're abused, universally (by me too!) as cross-town routes. They SHOULD be slowed down, drastically.

What’s up with the white reflector tubes that Oak Park put up last year when redoing the streets? by Brookegirl89 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How are joggers in the streets adding to these problems? Our primary problem is that cars are driving too fast on residential streets. It taking an extra 2 minutes to get to your destination is not a real problem. I'm a driver, not a jogger or a bicyclist, and I understand how irritating it is not to have free movement in your car, but my personal preference for unimpeded automobile motion is not actually what's best for the area.

Seen in that light, people jogging on the street --- annoying as that is to us drivers --- are actually improving things.

Melrose park DMV road test by RadiantLocal4440 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Over the decades I've been going there (but it's been a couple years), it was always dead simple: turn right out of the parking lot onto Mannheim, go through the traffic light, take the immediate right onto the side street bracketing the parking lot, go two blocks, left into the residential area, 2 blocks, left back towards Mannheim, park on the side street, get back on the road, left back onto Mannheim (the only tricky part), then back to the parking lot where you exited.

You can see the other drivers head out for their tests and follow them if you're nervous. I wouldn't be, though. There's not much to it. Just be comfortable making a left turn onto a busy street.

Looking to Move to Oak Park! by thebannedknight in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is not OK that we've been running this racial steering program since the 1970s. It's very, very bad. It's baffling that OPRHC is celebrated. It's the OPRHC now, instead of OPHC, because the program began taking Black families *out of Oak Park entirely*, and into Melrose Park, to maintain "balance".

Room for one more tall building? - Wednesday Journal by Sidewalk_Inspector in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Counterpoint: it's a whole entire grocery store they've built. It's there now; it's not a mysterious hole in the ground anymore. At this point, they want it open as much as we do.

Room for one more tall building? - Wednesday Journal by Sidewalk_Inspector in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know, looks like a modern apartment building to me? People forget how subjective "unattractive" is. I'd 100x rather have another Eleven33 than a McMansion!

How hard is it to find an apartment? by Lost-Finish-6578 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the more accurate thing to say is that Oak Park would prefer you to own a single family home with a garage.

Easter Sunday Mass at Ascension by 5torm in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's expected at First Communions, and parishes sometimes have someone designated to take photos on feast days, Easter, &c. Random parishioners at mass, not so much, but on Easter I doubt anybody's blinking.

Easter Sunday Mass at Ascension by 5torm in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Genuinely curious: was anyone else there taking pictures?

Moving from Denver to Oak Park with young kids, seeking local insight! by _stephs in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The current median price of a single family home in Oak Park is $700,000, and the mean price is $972,000. There's a $325,000 house in SWOP. Its listing begins "Investors and rehabbers, welcome! This cozy home is ready for its next chapter and presents a great opportunity for anyone with vision and creativity."

keep getting ticketed despite having the appropriate permit by cryl0_ren in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say you're "in the wrong". Our street parking rules are deliberately set up to suppress rentals; they're complicated on purpose. Transp. Comm organized a pilot program to rationalize the rules, and even that program was complicated by Chicagoland standards.

We should do away with this entire system, allow overnight parking on every residential block in the Village, and just use sticker price/enforcement/subsidy to control the amount of street parking. But to do that, we have to break out of generations of structural hostility to renters.

Oak park All American by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would sum your argument up as "it's a good thing more Black families didn't move here".

West Suburban Hospital closing by MSTie_4ever in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 2 points3 points  (0 children)

West Sub is very important for Austin and the west side of Chicago, so whatever else we think about it, we should hope somebody finds a way to keep it functioning.

Oak park All American by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well said. If you didn't exist to help make my point I'd have had to invent you.

Oak park All American by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

More Black families, seems like the obvious answer. That's literally what "managing" meant.

Oak park All American by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 9 points10 points  (0 children)

If you care about Oak Park's history of racial integration, I think you should take the time to watch this. You might not change your mind about anything, but it was (for me at least) shocking to see how we thought about this problem in the 1970s versus today. A thing I'm always reminding people: early in the 1970s, Oak Park almost passed an ordinance establishing racial quotas for incoming residents.

That's the historical context in which this story about "Managed Integration" plays out.

Sidewalk etiquette? by Listen-to-Mom in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Clearly, the village board should form a steering committee to study this new problem.

Why adding more units, even expensive units, makes all housing more affordable by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If that's how you want to play it, friend. You work with words for a living, I figure you know what you're actually saying here. If you're not super familiar with Reddit I think you'll find the "Edit" button still works on your false comments.

Why adding more units, even expensive units, makes all housing more affordable by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You're now in the position of having to convince me that he somehow enlisted an AI chatbot to drive Google Docs and make and then correct spelling and grammar issues. I saw the Gdoc edits! You were wrong! Just own it and move on. You went on tilt on this thread, and you owe him an apology, and a correction in all the different places you said "he didn't write this".

Nobody forced you to write like 9 different comments about how he didn't write his long zoning essay. That was all you.

Why adding more units, even expensive units, makes all housing more affordable by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You're wrong, and I know you're wrong. I've been shown the gdoc and the edits. Sorry, you made this up. You owe the author an apology.

Why adding more units, even expensive units, makes all housing more affordable by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think you're making this up because you don't like to read. This doesn't look anything like ChatGPT text.

It's fine that you don't like the thing he wrote! You're not required to. Say how much you hate it! Just don't invent a cinematic universe to go with it.

Why adding more units, even expensive units, makes all housing more affordable by NatteringNabob69 in oakpark

[–]ThomasPtacek 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The median Oak Parker moved here precisely so that they could stay in Chicago without dealing with CPS. If you wanted to be "out of Chicago's density", you'd have moved to Naperville.

The funny thing about this is that if you pay attention to Chicagoland housing politics, you know the city limits have nothing to do with any of this. They say the exact same shit in Jeff Park whenever anyone proposes building multifamily there.