Naperville has been on the map since 1831, and during those 185 years of existence, a city motto has not been part of our culture. How did Joe and John Naper miss the opportunity. Imagine what Naperville could have been, if we would have had a city motto to guide our progress.
Having a city motto did wonders for Gravity, Iowa, where the population has blossomed to 186.
Of the 39 cities or villages within DuPage County, 29 have mottos or slogans, while ten, including Naperville are motto-less and slogan-less. Wouldn’t that make Naperville like a ship at sea with no destination. Naperville city officials enjoy being #1, however when it comes to city motto’s, if they choose to succumb to the pressure of adopting a motto, they would have to settle on being #30.
The Naperville city council will be under intense pressure to choose the perfect city motto, because the future of the free world as we know it today, depends upon the motto selected by the Naperville city council. This is no easy task because this motto could stay with Naperville for the next 185 years, or maybe it will only stay until the next city council is elected in 2017.
There is no shortage of suggestions for Naperville’s city motto including:
- “Naperville, the city of subdivisions”
- “Naperville, we don’t all drive BMW’s”
- “Naperville, we used to be family friendly’
Or Watchdog’s personal favorite,
- “Naperville, come for the alcohol; stay for the DUI”
It’s possible the Naperville city council will decide that Naperville doesn’t need a motto; ‘we don’t need no stinkin’ city motto’.
Mottos and Slogans are important marketing / branding tools, which is why most city have them. So the real question is does Naperville need these additional tools to market it’s brand or is it doing well without them?
Might I suggest -First in IL to eliminate Government redundancy and inappropriate non-government functions like owning it’s own power company, golf courses, kids museum, bell tower etc.
Government for government