This year Money magazine ranked Naperville the second best place to live among small cities. Naperville moved up from third place in last year’s rankings. What has changed in the last year?
Positives
Money magazine points out that both ConAgra and OfficeMax now have major locations in Naperville - both moving here in 2006. ConAgra located its largest division headquarters, outside of its Omaha headquarters, in Naperville. More recently, OfficeMax relocated its headquarters to Naperville. In both cases Naperville will benefit from more high-paying jobs.
Another major positive change is that Naperville politicians are starting to discuss and even embark on long-term mass transit solutions to our traffic congestion problems - one of the biggest problems we face. In a recent county board primary for District 5 (covering Naperville), the candidates and press mentioned traffic congestion as one of the major issues and a number of candidates supported mass transit solutions. We’ll have to see where the winner, Michael Connelly from the neighboring town of Lisle, stands on mass transit. There also has been a real change in the way that local public officials (and the press) discuss and focus on traffic congestion. Naperville’s Mayor George Pradel told Chicago Magazine in February that his “vision is a bus system that takes you anywhere at any time.” While Naperville is far from that ideal, we are getting closer to functional, comprehensive mass transit. One positive just over a year ago was the purchase of land for a Naperville station on the proposed 55-mile commuter Suburban Transit Access Route (STAR) rail line at 95th Street. Unfortunately, the new rail service won’t be ready for a decade. Moving from the future to the present, this year marks the second year of an experimental free local bus shuttle program transporting people between a handful of subdivisions to downtown Naperville on Saturday’s for part of the summer. Naperville also surveyed residents this year about proposed updates to the city’s bicycle route map, part of the Naperville’s overall Transportation Plan. Discussion and implementation of Naperville transportation solutions may be slower than we’d like, but at least the trend is towards mass transit and alternative transportation (e.g. bicycles) improvements.
What Needs Improvement
Money magazine points to three specific downsides - two of them are transportation related (traffic congestion and insufficient parking at the train station) that I’ve already addressed above. The third is Naperville’s median price for a home of $329,000 - which is too high for many people to access. Affordable housing is a real problem not only in Naperville, but also in DuPage County. In the past I’ve advocated trying a number of approaches to make housing more affordable. One proposal on property taxes that I’ve read about recently which impressed me is a way of keeping down short-term property tax costs (pdf file). Yes, it’s certainly true that the taxes will ultimately have to be paid - and it’s not a substitute for frugal budgeting - but it does have the advantage of not pricing out seniors and long-term residents who are otherwise driven out of Naperville (and even DuPage) by the high cost of keeping their homes.
In sports the way you play your best is not by playing to the level of competition - but playing your best each time regardless of the competition. Naperville residents know that traffic congestion and housing costs are major challenges for the community. The way we will become our best is to take up the challenge and find solutions. I’ll offer ideas and progress reports during the year - that’s a lot of what this blog is all about - and then I’ll report what Money magazine has to say in 2007.
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