Downtown Oak Park — Local services in Oak Park

It's always a beauty to behold, Downtown Oak Park. It's only getting more and more beautiful over the years.

I remember back to when I was growing up as a teenager, and heading to Borders, or going to the frozen yogurt place that used to sit by the corner by the now extinct gas station mart, but without the gas station that actually was on the corner.

I even get some of that popcorn from the popcorn store that hasn't changed its flavor in over 2 decades from time to time. And to top it all off, they have my favorite ice cream in the world! Superman ice cream! And if you're not sure what that is, it's the ice cream that looks like a rainbow. But in a container. The flavors are black cherry, which is the reddish pinkish(?) one, yellow is vanilla, but more like a homemade vanilla, and blue is Blue Moon, which weirdly tastes exactly like it sounds. Like a blue Moon-ey ice cream I definitely and highly suggest you go to try it. I have been eating that particular ice cream flavor for over 25 years, and it's as good now as it was then. It's amazing. And so is Downtown Oak Park. Especially with all the super cool, new stuff popping up, and some of the stuff that I grew up with that still remains...

I used to love walking around downtown, but there are a large group of sketchy people lately who are clearly strung out on drugs.

Last week I was walking with my kids and a woman was vomiting by Target with her heroin tie still tied around her arm. I used to come here twice a week with my kids to eat, shop, and enjoy the ambience, but it's become too crowded with drug addicts lately. In April, there was a heroin needle by one of the benches outside the library.

I understand there will be people like this everywhere, it's the large groups begging for money, then at one point a man followed us asking for change because he was hungry. I offered him food he said "no cash only".

There is a huge heroin problem that needs to be addressed and not by allowing them to be strung out on every corner. If OP cannot address the issue, then at least make sure someone is tasked to look for sharps so we don't have any major accidents, especially...

My roots are in Rogers Park and Evanston. That said, even though 'You Can't Go Home Again'...Oak Park also has that essential mixture of thriving parks, small businesses, tolerance, and aesthetic beauty. Ethnicity, income inequality, and everything else that tends to divide the hateful masses seem much less evident here and where I grew up. Therefore, I have found it to be another true "Melting Pot", just like my beloved East/West Rogers Park. A bonus is the amalgam of robustly funded public services and quality efforts to inform anyone interested in the swath of notable Americans who once called this area home: Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright..and me, of course.

ONE negative is the remarkably small amount of parking...however, Oak Park is a historic 'Village' and it is admirable to make parking a lower concern than bulldozing various landmarks and...