While I was having my coffee the other morning I was watching the Naperville local t.v. station, NCTV 17. I was shocked to learn that Naperville is now planning on changing the downtown area to extend it all the way to Washington Jr. High School which is basically a block or two from the train station on the north end of town. I went online to see what more I could find about this project.
As you know my family moved here in 1968. I am certainly not a stranger to change when it comes to this town. I've seen it grow from a small farm town to what it is today. I believe the population was around 14,000 then and today it is over 144,000! I was the first to get married at the riverwalk (that's what I've been told anyway). I thought the riverwalk was a beautiful addition. However, I'm just not sure this is going to be 'good' for Naperville. I wonder what the parents of the students at that school will think and how it will affect them. It's already hard to drive in this area but that school (from what I'm seeing with this project) will be right smack in the middle of downtown. My son went to this school and I was lucky to get a parking place back then (2004).
I went into my photo albums and found some pics I'm going to share with you. I didn't publish them before because the traffic was so bad I didn't think it did the town justice. For this post and for this discussion I feel it's good to see what the traffic is like right now on a Saturday afternoon.
This photo is on Washington street and was taken mid October of this year. I was facing South which is Jefferson. You can see the traffic is like gridlock.
As you know my family moved here in 1968. I am certainly not a stranger to change when it comes to this town. I've seen it grow from a small farm town to what it is today. I believe the population was around 14,000 then and today it is over 144,000! I was the first to get married at the riverwalk (that's what I've been told anyway). I thought the riverwalk was a beautiful addition. However, I'm just not sure this is going to be 'good' for Naperville. I wonder what the parents of the students at that school will think and how it will affect them. It's already hard to drive in this area but that school (from what I'm seeing with this project) will be right smack in the middle of downtown. My son went to this school and I was lucky to get a parking place back then (2004).
I went into my photo albums and found some pics I'm going to share with you. I didn't publish them before because the traffic was so bad I didn't think it did the town justice. For this post and for this discussion I feel it's good to see what the traffic is like right now on a Saturday afternoon.
This photo was taken on the same day and is on Jefferson street just west of Washington.
I don't know, maybe it's just me. I know these mixed use development plans are going on all around us but there has to be more thought as to what that extension will really do. I used to tell my husband that I feel Naperville has a goal to be bigger than Aurora. I'm afraid I may be on to something. Is that what we really want here? I think you can definitely ruin a good thing. Naperville was always a nice town even back in 1968. If you end up with more people moving out than coming in then perhaps you may not be making the right decisions. I hope that doesn't start to happen here. Read more about Naperville Il 2030 plan at www.naperville.il.us/napervilledowntown2030.aspx