Anyone familiar with Oak Park already knows of the village's hostility toward gasoline-powered cars and capitalism. So it shouldn't be a surprise that Oak Park has been cracking down on gas stations and convenience stores that offer extended hours to serve their paying customers. 

Last year the village enacted an ordinance limiting the business hours of "service stations," purportedly as a crime-fighting measure. Conveniently, it applies only to businesses that sell "gasoline or any highly volatile fuel for motor vehicles or internal combustion engines."

A few months ago, an Oak Park police officer caught a BP station allowing a woman to buy gas at 4:39 in the morning. The gas station's lights were still off, but the operator presumably had turned on the self-service pumps a few minutes early. The station was fined $100 for selling gas outside legal hours.

Oak Park 24-hour gas station ban violated twice, Wednesday Journal, May 26, 2023