If you spend any time in Oak Park listening to the conversations of its citizens, you'll pick up on some common threads. You'll hear passion about politics. You'll catch some snippets of a volunteer group planning an upcoming event. There'll be some chatter about the local schools. Someone will bring up the arts. Discussions about carbon footprints and going green will be thrown in the mix. But no matter where the conversation starts, you can almost guarantee that given a few minutes, talk will turn to the bane of Oak Parker's existence: the parking nightmare.
If you live in Oak Park and drive with any degree of regularity, you know exactly what I'm talking about. "Step out of line" may be Oak Park's official motto, but "Park legally if you can, we'll ticket you anyway" is what it should be. Everyone here has a story about the nightmare of trying to find parking. It's usually followed by a parking ticket story.
Here's my story. There are exactly three legal parking spots in front of the high school, where one is allowed to park for a full 15 minutes without penalty. These legal spots are sandwiched in between handicapped parking on one side and driver's ed parking on the other. Last week I was lucky enough to score one of the legal spots when I went to pick Kelsey up for early release. Or so I thought.
I returned to my minivan to find a $250 ticket attached to my windshield, claiming I was parked in handicap parking. I had the presence of mind to take this photo with my cell phone before I pulled away from the curb. I called Village Hall's Parking Adjudication group and got an in-person hearing, which was scheduled for today.
I showed up at Village Hall and pleaded my case to the judge. She saw my picture and agreed I was parked legally. She dismissed the ticket. 45 minutes of my time, and $250 still in my pocket, along with the very smug feeling that I won. Victory never tasted so sweet.
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