Traffic issues are also important in election

The Naperville municipal elections will soon be upon us. While we often read in the news about late-night, hourslong meetings of the City Council discussing things like ordinances for puppy mills, controversial housing development proposals, and whether to grant more liquor licenses, there are other important issues, fundamental to city government, that voters should be asking the candidates.

One of those elephants in the room is the growing crush of congestion from traffic and on-street parking, and the conditions of the streets in and surrounding the greater downtown. Traffic is often at a halt on Washington Street, with the result of more cars diverting to Mill, Eagle and Columbia, not built as through streets but which have become so de facto.

City lots are always full, and street parking is block end to end in both downtown and in the Historic District from shoppers, workers, diners and commuting North Central students on a daily basis. Almost every alternative proposal for developing the Fifth Avenue land will involve more traffic of some sort around the train station. In all of this, the near downtown streets are rapidly deteriorating - you can see many as a patchwork of tar stripes holding them together.

What are the plans for addressing these issues, which affect many commuters and all the neighborhood residents? What's being done now? What will it cost, and when? I'm anxious to hear what all the candidates say.

Kent Schielke

Naperville