Naperville continues to be one of America’s stand out suburbs. Today, the Watchdog offers 10 of the many things residents have to be thankful for as we wind down 2024. These include the following:
1. 5th Avenue. 5th Avenue is finally being discussed again. Naperville spent many millions on this real estate. Because of Councilman McBroom, this critical economic development opportunity is back on City agendas. Hopefully McBroom and team can move this along and are able to fend off any excuses offered by his colleagues which attempt to punt this decision off into future years.
2. Washington Street. After a terribly slow start, Washington Street road work is finally moving along faster. It does seem that having the crew on site leads to more work getting done!
3. Low Crime. Miraculously, Naperville crime stats were not impacted by the 25 felony gun arrests at Top Golf. Statistically, Naperville remains one of the safest cities in America.
4. Gaming. Still no gaming in town despite marijuana dealerships being approved at multiple high visibility areas in our City. Why it’s ok for people to throw their money and health away on marijuana but not on gaming remains a mystery.
5. Grocery Tax. By order of the King, the grocery tax will soon be gone. Though this will leave a massive budget whole in municipal budgets across Illinois, it will be a very nice talking point for Pritzker when he’s running for President in 2028.
6. Real Estate Taxes. So far, word is that our tax levy will remain relatively flat. This will come as a welcome relief to residents and to the councilmen who haven’t exempted themselves from having to pay these taxes.
7. Migrants. Naperville remained relatively unscathed by the migrant crisis. No residents took McBroom up on his offered sign up sheet to house migrants. Naperville schools and public safety were left relatively issue free as the powers that be shoehorned most of the migrants into already depressed low income minority neighborhoods in Chicago (a/k/a the reason Trump won).
8. DEI. DEI programs are on the rocks in Naperville as it is pretty much everywhere else. The Watchdog notes McBroom’s repeated calls to end it as well as White’s repeated calls to keep it. Even if DEI remains for another year, the writing is on the wall. These programs have accomplished nothing and will soon be gone … only question is when.
9. Affordable Housing. Recently Council football spiked a staff proposal that would have brought an assortment of affordable housing mandates to Naperville. The most controversial of which would have allowed such projects to move forward around public hearing. The proposal went down handily. A good thing,
10. Naperville Didn’t Bend to Pro-Palestine Supporters. Council was deluged with speakers demanding a pointless, yet very dangerous, resolution opposing Israel’s defense of its country in the wake of arguably the worst terrorist attack in recorded history. Not one council member and not one 2025 council candidate appeared to support the resolution idea. They should ALL be credited with standing with our Jewish community during this difficult time.
Naperville residents, you have much to be thankful for. Another important election looms in 2025. Please keep an eye on all of the candidates. You know the Watchdog will be!
Thank you for reading and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/dei-training-increases-perception-of-non-existent-prejudice-agreement-with-hitler-rhetoric-study-finds/
I am thankful for Josh McBroom. He nails it again. Benny, Ian and Allison are left looking like reactionary followers who can’t make a cogent argument.
Great calling this waste of a program out councilman McBroom! Only wish we had more like him on city council who aren’t afraid to call out Kim White.
It’s kind of funny watching Tim Thompson stalk Josh McBroom online. Remember Tim’s wife, Allison, tried to stifle McBroom’s free speech right on the Park Board but her attempts were crushed (anyone with half a brain knew she was going to lose.) You would think Thompson’s would know what the 1st amendment means but they had to learn the hard way, and they have never forgiven McBroom for the humiliation.
It’s funny watching mcbroom get called out for being a poser. Never once did mcbroom post about little pops, but now because he thinks the owner is a Trump supporter (and because Kevin Coyne told him to) so he makes a post about it. The guy has zero original thoughts. Then mcbroom has his troll friends who don’t even live in Naperville (or illinois) go after Mr. Thompson.
It still to early to determine if the latest efforts to restart the 5th Avenue development is something to be thankful for.
When Chirico originally initiated the effort to develop these properties, it also looked very promising and the initial proposals by all the developers looked good. All held the promise of something the city could be thankful for.
But unfortunately, this original effort did not work out for many reasons, none of which had anything to do with a lack of commitment by the mayor or anyone else on city council. It was simply a case of too large in scope and too many chefs in the kitchen that resulted in a lot of unproductive use of resources and time.
This project was very important to Chirico, and he tried during his time as mayor to move the re-development of these properties ahead, but there were no signs that the problems that had stalled the original effort have been solved and nothing McBroom has said indicts he has a solution to these problems. Simply ignoring them will not solve them.
So, until McBroom provides information on how he is going to solve these problems, there really is nothing here to be thankful for. Unless, of course, you consider scoring points for a self-serving political agenda, something Naperville residents should be thankful for.