Wade implores Palos Park residents to stop the infighting

By Jeff Vorva

Palos Park Commissioner Mike Wade has not been on the council for a year yet and hasn’t said much over that time except to talk about the business at hand with building and public property matters.

But Wade came up with a strong speech on Monday night regarding some of the controversy and ill-will that some citizens had with the council’s decision on Feb. 27 to grant Wu’s House restaurant a parking extension.

More than 70 people were at the Feb. 27 meeting and most were against the expansion. Prior to that meeting there were plan commission meetings that apparently got heated with reportedly yelling and insults being hurled.

For the most part, the Feb. 27 meeting was civil, though tense. Once in a while, audience members would try to speak when the council members were speaking and at one point Commissioner G. Darryl Reed scolded those who interrupted and said they should “shut the hell up.”

Commissioner Dan Polk also admonished some in the crowd that night and said, “That might work in Chicago, but we don’t play that way over here, homey. We respect people for what they bring to the party.”

Wade had no public comment that night but on Monday, he had his say in front of a crowd of close to 50 people – a majority of which were on the council’s side and applauded him after his speech.

“My public service record is not vast,” he said. “I have not used my voice as much as I should have. The one thing I have done, however, is observe.

“I have observed residents addressing council members, residents addressing committee members, council members addressing residents and especially residents addressing residents.”

And he hasn’t always liked what he has seen.

“I’ve seen a shift from civility to animosity,” Wade said. “In fact, these last three or four months, I’ve been blown away by the actions of a small section and it has gone on to affect our community as a whole.”

He also didn’t appreciate some of the things that occurred during commission meetings.

“This animosity and infighting, divisive language and rude behavior between resident has no place in a town of 5,000,” he said.

“As residents, we dine in the same restaurants, shop in the same grocery stores and we walk our dogs on the same streets. Therefore, I implore all of you to see the similarities and not the differences in each of us and put your village first by having self-respect and not self-righteousness.”