Usually one landing on the number 21 is a good thing.
In Las Vegas it means you were dealt a Blackjack.
On one’s 21st birthday it means one can legally enter a nightclub and have a beer.
In Naperville, however, the number 21 carries a terrible connotation. It is the stunning number of gun arrests that have occurred at Naperville’s TopGolf in the last year.
It would seem that this one location is positioned to obliterate Naperville’s crime stats…which the City has rightly pointed to as a source of pride for years. This one parking lot may account for more felonious crime than the rest of the City does all put together.
Why are criminals so attracted to this TopGolf? Better question yet, why are they stupid enough to not only bring illegally held guns to it, but to leave them in plain view in their car?
Here’s a scary question. If there are this many illegal guns left in plain view of police in this TopGolf lot, how many guns at TopGolf are not left in plain view?
This establishment places City officials into a terrible position. You can’t have this many criminals and guns in one location, this many times, without eventually something really bad happening. Once that inevitably occurs, a whole lot of people will rightfully ask why this establishment – which attracts criminals like moths to light – was allowed to remain open.
The Watchdog says TopGolf should be required to put in metal detectors and wand people at the door and to keep security in far greater abundance than it does now into this lot. The wisdom of letting TopGolf continue to serve alcohol – to what is clearly a well armed, criminal clientele – also is worthy of debate at a future council meeting.
In any event, City officials just letting this activity go on and on is starting to look increasingly … negligent.
Again, I ask, exactly how is placing metal detectors at the doors of TopGolf going to keep these firearms out of the cars in the parking lot?
As to why this keeps happening, that’s a good question. My answer is that it is probably happening at TopGolf for the same reason it used to happen at the old Odyssey facility, in this same area, years ago, until it went out of business.
I use to live in the Plaza area in Kansas City. This area is known for its high-end shops, multi-million dollar homes, center for the arts and community events, etc. But it also has a less-known reputation among people that have lived in this area, late night criminal activity. One of the amenities of this area is a scenic walking path along the water canal. This canal goes straight from the Plaza to one of the most criminally active areas in Kansas City, and this canal provides easy egress in and out of the Plaza.
Perhaps the Forest Preserve and its scenic walking paths create a similar situation in this area of Naperville that makes the TopGolf parking lot a comfort zone for these activities, the same way the Odyssey parking lot used to years ago. How do we know that targeting businesses in this area is not simply treating a symptom while leaving the “sickness” not only alive and well, but spreading?
Complex problems rarely have simply solutions, which is why simple solutions fail so often.
22 is the unlucky number, as in 22 million that the city will be paying for a wrongful conviction of a man wrongfully convicted of arson and murder. 20 is the next unlucky # that naperville will have to pay $20 million for the AirPod case, assuming the city doesn’t get their way in dismissing the case
Any other lawsuits against the city ?
How many children being gunned down by gang thugs from Chicago does it take for you to be satisfied that the attractive nuisance masquerading as a Golf facility is dangerous? Maybe 17 more fentanyl overdoses at Endeavour Hospital because it’s so easy to sell Death in the parking lot there will satisfy your blood lust?. Would the single drive-by attempted execution of the woman on the Northside be enough for you? Her ex probably picked up his gun at the Convenient Top Golf Unregistered Firearm Geocache from one of his gang buddies, drove over next to our Costco to shoot a woman in the stomach. That’s your parley on the 21. That Odyssey World was the same only shows the criminal negligence of our city planning apparat encourages in letting a similar business infest our town without suitable restrictions on their operations. Metal detectors at the front gate at a minimum, preferably with positive ID scans against an outstanding warrants database. License plate scans, and facial recognition checks at the very least. And a photo op with all Top Golf management taking a knee because Naperville Children’s Lives Matter.
And thanks to the ‘Dog for not marginalizing our voice when we first brought an awareness of this pervasive evil to the conversation. It is personally deeply upsetting to me when I must call out a fellow business in town for disharmonious practises, but I think we can all agree that this now 21 gun salute is enough. It’s time to seize Top Golf, demolish it and build a Memorial Park to the Victims of Entertainment Venue Thug on Kid Violence. Our children deserve a safe place to play, pause and meditate on the blessings of living in a free world, without the constant fear of unchecked Big City behaviors that might snatch their precious lives away from us before their time.
Guess that we didn’t scare them away with a stern talking to. August 13th, Gunslinger #22 makes his debut at Top Golf. We note that since the announcement of numbers 12 through 22 to date, Naperville’s City Council has done nothing to address this threat. Is it enough now that we can maybe get the safety of Naperville’s children to the front of mind?
Also- we raise the conundrum created by the on-going economic renaissance that is being spearheaded here in the Northern Realms of our village. The new Brew 5 location on Ogden is potentially the most dangerous approval ever given in urban planning history. The second most dangerous intersection in Naperville by accident count per thousands of cars each day, and somebody thought it was a good idea to approve a DRIVE THRU ONLY coffee shop??? On a blind uphill intersection feeding four lanes of coffee drinkers onto a single lane with stacking room for 2 cars is really not a good idea.