Oak Park Newspaper

Some of these items may never have been read or fully understood by those using Oak Park tax dollars. We toured
the Marion Street mall region the other day and took many photos and films of the evidence of neglect, and code violations.

Mr. Mike Fox (center) with W. Johnson at Board Meeting.

If this sounds like a serious problem you are correct, but there
is always a lighter side as long as you enjoy irony. Some of this town's leaders, both political and financial are up to their ears in troubled buildings. Downtown Oak Park's President is
Mike Fox of RP Fox & Associates, the same Mike Fox who
owns and manages a trust for the buildings below shown in
the photos. The building is in the heart of the Marion Street Mall and is 112 North Marion Street. Rotten wood, rusted
windows, peeling paint, decrepit metal, fallen plaster revealing
bare wooden structures and water damaged walls. Might this
kind of care shown to a building reflect on the environment for
business next door? Could so well maintained a facade not
attack others willing to invest in the mall? How did the
consultants miss this building? How have the code inspectors
failed to see this building for the years that these issues have
been present? Why are so many of these poor conditions given
a stealth filter for inspections....?

Here is a video from the inside of this building.

Does Mr. Fox want tax dollars from Oak Park residents to help him continue in his fine stewardship of his real estate? Tomorrow we shall file code violations against these properties and all others that we find this forgotten.

The number two man on the list is Mr. Armstrong, an
influential and regular supporter of the VMA. Mr. Armstrong
is a local attorney and owns a building in trust at 1111 -1113
South Blvd. Have a look at the outside in still and then enjoy
the film, note the size of the chips of peeling paint-some the
size of your forearm. I can remember years ago when I was
the only garage on our block that got a code violation to
paint and we painted instantly---and we just had some cracks
and were going to paint anyhow. Others on the block had
leaning garages and paint nearly as bad as below. Why are
all of these structures below invisible to inspectors?????

See the Video of Mr. Armstrong's Building.

The Mall itself is a failed system unless of course you like the look of white trash. A traveler having viewed some of these films commented that they looked like a slum in a third world country. When DTOP speaks at meetings they are proud of the Mall. Have a look in DVD quality of the Mall with all of its cracked concrete, filled garbage, garbage on the mall, stones loose, rocks loose, rusted grates, broken grates, ugly design, poorly fitted rocks, and the list goes on..... Is paint a word unknown to this region? Is this whole area stealth to DTOP.
I think others with money to invest have clear vision in this
debacle on neglect.

Marion Street Mall Area, March 17, 2007