Property transfers p. B10
December 11, 2019
Homes
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Turning the page to a new chapter Tom Gallagher Talks development and Oak Park’s future By LACEY SIKORA Contributing Reporter
He might have been born in River Forest, but at this point it seems fair to call Tom Gallagher an Oak Park native. Living in the same house since 1978, where he and his wife raised their five children, Gallagher has made Oak Park his life’s business. He started working for the village in 1981 as a community development officer, served on the board of the Oak Park Development Corporation and its successor the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation (OPEDC,) and worked for years in Oak Park banking with First Bank of Oak Park and Community Bank. Along the way, he spent 10 years on the board of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center. When Community Bank was purchased by Byline Bank earlier this year, Gallagher moved across North Avenue from Oak Park to Old Second Bank in Galewood, where he says his practice retains the basis of community focus that has been his entire career. As he transitioned to different banks and wore different local government hats, Gallagher remained focused on housing and economic development. In his continuing role working with the village through OPEDC,
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
TALKING DEVELOPMENT: Tom Gallagher, now at Old Second Bank in Galewood, has long been involved with development and housing issues in Oak Park, through his profession as a banker and as a board member of Oak Park Economic Development Corporation and the Oak Park Regional Housing Center. Gallagher thinks that the key to making relevant change is to focus on one’s home community, noting that economic development in the village continues to be intertwined with how people are able to move to and stay in the village as residents.
Old-timers vs. newcomers In decades of working in and for the village, Gallagher has the advantage of seeing Oak Park make a lot of changes. “Our world has changed such that people
who are moving in now don’t have that institutional memory, and they don’t care to have that,” he said. Gallagher notes that the forward-facing attitude can be effective for those who are new to Oak Park, but can be harder for longtime village residents. “Walk on Lake or Marion or Oak Park Avenue, and it’s jammed, but people who just moved here before have no idea we used to have a mall here,” Gallagher said. “I think that’s OK. The longtime residents, some of
them cherished the memory and some of them are glad to see it in the rearview mirror.” As development focuses now on transitoriented residential buildings, he says it can further divide more established and newer residents. “With that [development] comes traffic and noise that people hate, but with that comes 2,000 new people who go out and shop and eat and buy a new pair of socks,” GallaSee GALLAGHER on page B7
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