It was a very boring Naperville city council meeting last night. Nothing of any consequence really happened. That’s always good news for Naperville residents. It’s also good news for residents when meetings are canceled, which happens once or twice a year. It’s like a snow day at school for teachers and kids. There were no feisty issues. No insults hurled at residents. No council members dozing off. There were your typical proclamations read by council member Brodhead again; she seems to be the official ‘proclamation reader’. She was more prepared than last time, but still was missing some paperwork when she took her usual position at the podium. There were no shout-outs for city manager Doug Krieger to resign. Nobody got tossed out of the meeting.
They did unanimously vote to add a couple of police officers to the force. This is always good when the city continues to increase the number of liquor licenses in Naperville. It makes me wonder if liquor is served during liquor commission meetings. Chances are nobody is absent from those meetings.
The council members did have some fun last night at the expense of Naperville’s only two street vendors, Joe the hotdog guy, and John the rib guy. The Naperville city council keeps stringing these guys along. Rather than the council giving the hotdog guy and the rib guy their blessing to do business in downtown Naperville so they can make a couple of bucks, the council keeps them coming back every few months to get city approval to stay in business for a few more months. Joe probably can’t even order a six month supply of mustard, since he doesn’t know for sure if the city will allow him to stay in business. Last year the Naperville city council approved four street-food vendors to do business in the downtown area, and two must have decided it wasn’t worth doing business, if the city was going to do to them what they do to Joe the hotdog guy. All Joe wants to do is sell hotdogs, make a couple of bucks after midnight, take care of his family, and make some hotdog eaters happy. The city of Naperville rewarded Joe for his entrepreneurial spirit by ostracizing him to the outskirts of the downtown area to a location more quiet than a sleep apnea testing center.
When the meeting ended chances are some of the Naperville city council members went out to enjoy a few cold brews at a recently licensed liquor establishment, while John the rib guy headed off to work so he could make a few bucks selling ribs on a street corner until 1:30am. Joe the hot dog guy was probably hoping he could sell a couple of hotdogs and not run out of mustard.
Wait, so you do want more businesses downtown? Just so long as they’re mobile? Sounds like you need some meds.