Naperville plan will draw more barflies

On March 2, six Naperville City Council members enacted a big government decision without any supporting data - at least none made available for public consumption.

The city has decided to provide free overnight parking for bars' overindulging patrons who aren't responsible enough to have a designated driver or take a cab home. No data was provided to indicate that there is a problem with the amount of overnight parking from those frequenting the bars, so I must assume that councilmen voting for this trial program instead think it is a good thing to draw more overindulging patrons to the downtown.

This is of particular concern as we already have, in my opinion, a problem with the patrons of these businesses, which requires police cars to be posted mid-street on Chicago Avenue during virtually all spring, summer and fall weekends.

Who pays for this cost? In passing this ordinance, councilmen opted instead to forgo any ticket or fee-based revenue source associated with providing this service to the benefit of selected downtown establishments at a time when our taxes will shortly be increased due to budget deficits at virtually all levels of government.

Further, the costs of the existing policing of the bar-related activity is borne by all Naperville taxpayers rather than by the businesses benefiting from these very necessary special police patrols and now the trial overnight parking program.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want innocent people to be harmed by those who drink too much, but I don't think the city should get into the big brother mode either - especially when it hasn't provided any data to indicate there's an overnight parking problem. Instead, by providing this free parking incentive, they will draw even more barflies to the downtown, requiring more policing at taxpayer expense. When will it stop?

Kathy Benson

Naperville