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All done, robocalls and software woes later
As I write this in my dining room at home on Monday, the day before election day, so far I have only had three robocalls. Thee first call was for a couple of Naperville Township candidates. The second was purportedly about FBI crime statistics and …
How much is that karaoke machine on the street?
Don’t leave your toys outside would be a pretty good reminder for people over at Naperville North High School who almost lost a rented karaoke machine and other game machines to an enterprising pair of thieves. The Sun reported the arrest of Humberto Coyt, 43, …
Attitude, not plan, will change downtown
Former Naperville City Councilman Dick Furstenau, who of the Mormon faith does not imbibe alcohol and who when on the council generally opposed measures favorable to alcohol, spoke in favor at Tuesday’s council meeting of increasing the number of late night permits allowed downtown.
Keeping up with a technology ‘traffic jam’
On election night, DuPage County’s election website became the equivalent of Route 59 at rush hour. At least that is one way to look at it if you were someone who just had to know who was coming in fourth in the Naperville City Council …
City embraces incumbency; condolences to a friend
Considering that Tuesday’s election had a referendum issue on it that was undoubtedly of more significance to our city than any candidate issue could have been, what was surprising was how low key it was. Or maybe it is just that there is so much …
Don’t turn Naperville over to the Luddites
As sort of a postscript to one of the nastiest non-campaigns I’ve ever seen in Naperville I got the following email a few days ago: “I’m a long time Naperville resident and I’ve been reading your column for many years. You’re pretty savvy about local …
Rowdiness may be decreasing in downtown
The good news is that Naperville’s downtown at night may be getting safer, thanks to the joint work of downtown saloon owners and increased enforcement by Naperville police. After last year’s increase of violent behavior, including the stabbing murder of a Naperville schoolteacher in a …
Early voting has started, so pay attention
Hard to believe it, but early voting started this week for the local elections. It will go on at the Municipal Center at Eagle and Webster in downtown Naperville. I like early voting because it tends not to be as crowded as a polling place …
Editors move, but The Sun keeps shining
Anymore, any move from one office to another seems to me to have elements of the last helicopter out of Saigon. It’s not that we’ve made any moves on the homefront for the past 26 years — we bought one house in Naperville in April …
In its persistence, NSMA FOIAs cost city $$$
The Freedom of Information Act is variously a law that is a boon to reporters and ordinary citizens who want to ferret out government wrong doing, a pain in the butt for governments that have to dig out memos, emails and so forth on vague …
Tim West: ‘Cost’ short but accurate answer to schools’ woes
I was channel surfing, and when I reached the city’s government channel, I came across a repeat of a Naperville Area Homeowner’s Confederation’s candidate forum for School District 203. I settled in to watch, and after a while, the 11 candidates were responding to a question, something like what would be the district’s three most important things in the future, and one of them said simply “cost.”
Hang tight, there is a lot of winter left to come
Anyone in the market for a very large snow blower? It’s not industrial strength, but when we finally get that foot-deep snow, and it comes complete with a good layer of ice, I think it might be able to handle it, though no guarantees. A …
Respect needs to be a coin with two sides
At Tuesday night’s Naperville City Council meeting one of the speakers from the audience complained that the council has been critical and demeaning of speakers in past meetings and should treat audience members with more respect. I certainly agree the council needs to be respectful …
West: Preparing to move more difficult than moving itself
Almost every day now, when I have a few spare minutes at work, I discard some more stuff that isn’t going to go with me as I prepare to leave our office on Commons drive in Aurora.
Chemo brain strikes and car name changes
The first thing when I got to work Wednesday morning, there was an email from Councilman Steve Chirico about Wednesday’s column. It read as follows: “As usual I enjoyed your column today, but I’m curious if you unintentionally misspelled Tesla three times or if this …
Rush-hour gridlock may always be with us
For my entire automobile driving life I’ve never had a very long commute. When I was in college I lived on campus and the furthest I had to go was when I walked to my car in its off-campus parking spot and then drove it …
