Village parking officials seem to have listened to a programmer rather than critically assessing how their new system would work. I am all for eliminating stickers, but I strongly object to how we need to purchase our permits.
Here are some changes:
#1. You now have to create an account. Then they send you an email to check your email address, which they already used to contact you in the first place. This is supposedly for verification.
#2. Once that’s done, there are two selections, but they don’t tell you which to use for renewal. The “Link a Permit” tab is the correct one, but if you pick the other, you are into a whole host of proofs and verifications and lost time and confusion.
Security is one thing, but this is way overboard for a simple renewal of the village vehicle tax. Any village system needs to be checked, and it needs to be consumer-tested to see how it works and if all the do-dads really are necessary.
What they need to concentrate on are the real cheaters who have residences in Michigan/Wisconsin and purchase stickers there for their cars. If you are a resident and vote here, then you should have to purchase the vehicle stickers from Oak Park, not some other place. Same with license plates from the state of Illinois — not Michigan, Indiana or Wisconsin.
Charles Chauncey Wells
Oak Park
