RIP George Pradel (Chicago, Naperville: appointed, 2015, buy)

[pvande55]

Amidst the news that Emanuel decided to step down, few seemed to notice the death of former Naperville mayor George Pradel. True, Naprville does not face the issues of violence or poorly performing schools, but the issues of growth from 1995-2015 were certainly there. No, commuter parking is not the only persistent problem. Generally everyone liked him, amazing for a city larger than some metro areas (though it exists in the shadow of Chicago).
http://www.friedrichjones.com/obitua...#/obituaryInfo

[chet everett]

Not to take anything away from Pradel, who truly seemed like the kinda of mayor who had deep affection for Naperville, but much of the foundation for Naperville’s success was laid decades ago. The various decisions about what was annexed by Naperville and what was left for other areas (or even remains unincorporated today...) shaped where / how Naper’v would grow. The decision to invest in a very well trained, professional planning / zone staff meant that whatever disagreements the elected & appointed Plan Commission / ZBA / City Council had with developers rarely resulted in litigation or animosity. Though there are certainly some who did benefit monetarily from the direction of development there was little of the kind of sweetheart deals that enrich insiders in less than ethical ways...

Naper’v never really any truly problematic areas that saw folks trapped by poverty & crime. Nor did they buy into some the myths that have proven problematic for other large suburbs — they’ve not excluded multi-family but they’ve rejected many of the sorts of efforts that have resulted not in “affordable options for folks in transition” but poor quality complexes that cause issues with over crowding.

Commercial space issues have mostly been no worse than the general trends that are seen darned near everywhere for retail & non-urban office space — no “secret sauce” to avoid those problems.

There are lessons - mostly in keeping municipality government focused on the needs of residents not the “insiders first, last, always” thievery of Chicago...

[ToriaT]

Naperville has been blessed with lots of land for growth and a really nice downtown area with the Riverwalk that helped distinguish it from other towns.