It’s often fashionable, especially during election season, to claim the times are bad. That is, after all, how you encourage dissatisfaction and justify change. But I don’t happen to believe that’s true, especially when you look at our town.
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Sure, locally and statewide, there are some financial challenges. Instead of taking advantage of the incredibly cheap electricity being produced by natural gas generating plants, we got bamboozled into joining a costly consortium burdened by a white elephant of a coal plant.
And in Springfield the bill is coming due for many years of over-promises everybody knew could never be met. The question now is simply who is going to take the hit, the people to whom the money was promised or the taxpayers who might have to come up with it. However, both of these challenges are simply due to bad judgment. Neither has anything to do with the times themselves.
In fact, our downtown is a perfect example of how good these times are. Storefronts that have been vacant for years are now being rented by successful businesses like financial consultants and outdoor outfitters. Also, we now have an exciting new bakery and a tasty new pizza place.
Soon, we will have a new store selling all sorts of clothing, jewelry and other products that attract female shoppers. Later this spring, there will be more new businesses, including a new sandwich shop, a new delicatessen and a much-anticipated new tavern. Much of this is due in part to the efforts of organizations such as the Naperville Development Partnership, the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Naperville Alliance, but they could never have happened unless the times were really good.
That’s especially true for major investment projects, such as the Water Street development. While I admit that I worried that the project was too big, and perhaps too ambitious, I really admire the courage it takes to mount an effort like that, and sincerely hope it is a resounding success. It actually seems to be coming at just the right time.
And we would never have events such as this weekend’s Spring Style Weekend if we were living in bad times. We would never be able to shop in more than 75 stores during “three days of fashion, food, and fun” unless we were enjoying genuine prosperity. Nor would we, on Sunday, be able to enjoy a totally free concert by one of the most remarkable municipal bands anywhere just by dropping by Wentz Hall at 3 p.m.
As you can probably tell, I’ve grown a little tired of people telling me how bad the times are. Sure, things were bad when the stock market crashed and so many people lost their homes. Who could forget that? But we did not fall into the terrible abyss of a great depression, as we were just about to.
Now, the Iraq and Afghan wars are finally over. I just wish we had spent those trillions rebuilding this country. We cleverly made sure Iran will never have nuclear weapons, and helped Iranian reformers win a big election victory. American airlines are resuming scheduled flights to Cuba, where the Rolling Stones will soon put on a free concert. A record 195 countries have pledged to fight climate change. And the cease fire is holding in Syria.
The American auto industry is back and prospering, the Dow and our 401(k)s are restored, our credit cards can no longer have hidden fees, gays can finally openly serve their country and marry the people they love, unemployment is 4.9 percent, gas is a buck seventy-five, and you can’t (as I was) be denied health insurance because you were once sick.
So the world has changed. There may be some who want us to see these as bad times, but the times are plenty good enough for me.