Bolingbrook-by-the-Sea no longer apropos

Gasp! Did you hear the news?

Bolingbrook is a better place to live than Naperville.

In fact, it's the best place to live in Illinois, 43rd best in the nation, leaving its closest rival, Naperville, in the dust in 54th place. Only two other towns in Illinois - Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect - made Money Magazine's annual list of the best places to live in the nation.

To be sure, the list is a number cruncher's delight, with all sorts of qualifiers (for consideration, towns must have populations between 50,000 and 300,000, can't be more than 95 percent white, income can't exceed 200 percent of the state median, no retirement communities, etc.).

In short, it's not trying to identify the wealthiest, prettiest or most crime-free communities, but communities that show a little diversity and some positive growth in such things as the job market, along with the obvious trappings of quality parks, shopping, housing and schools. Likely, the list serves no real purpose other than to inspire water cooler discussions and newspaper columns.

When the word seeped through the newsroom of the Money list, I heard such reactions:

"Bolingbrook? Did they even visit Bolingbrook?"

"OMG. How is Naperville gonna take this?"

The implication is that Bolingbrook is some kind of unworthy sinkhole, and it must be Naperville's unmitigated shame to be passed by its neighbor to the south.

I found myself, as someone who lived in Naperville for 35 years, in the somewhat weird position of sticking up for Bolingbrook. "Have you visited Bolingbrook lately?" I said.

I think there's a residual leftover impression of Bolingbrook from its early days, when it abounded with cheap housing stock that fell into disrepair and that laughable Old Chicago, a weird amalgam of indoor amusement park and tacky shops. Throw in radio personality Steve Dahl's jabs at his then-hometown, Bolingbrook-by-the-Sea, and you've got a long road to pave over that image problem.

To be sure, Bolingbrook still has some worse-for-the-wear housing, some crime, the Drew Peterson saga, but it also has a new hospital, a fancy-schmantzy country club-style public golf course, some really nice new housing, the obligatory suburban shopping and restaurant chains and the Promenade, a 1-million-square-foot shopping compound with all sorts of upscale components. Even an Ikea store. If that doesn't say bounce back, what does?

We thought Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar might be eager to gloat at passing his well-regarded neighbor to the north. After all, Claar threw down the gauntlet several years ago when he cracked this joke:

"What's the difference between a Bolingbrook home and a Naperville home?" he asked at a League of Women Voters function. "A Bolingbrook home has furniture in it."

A not-too-subtle suggestion that Napervillians might be all about the outward appearances.

Claar didn't quite bite. He told staff writer Justin Kmitch that no other mayors had called to congratulate him on Bolingbrook's accomplishment. "And they haven't heard from me, either, as tempting as it's been."

We wondered, too, how George Pradel, Naperville's effervescent mayor, would react to the news. Naperville, you may recall, ranked second in 2006 and third in 2008. Of Naperville's fall to 54th place, Pradel all but called the rankings useless water cooler and newspaper column fodder.

"It's a routine rating, generic, even," he said.

I say let's all take a deep breath until the next kid-friendliest town rankings come around.

jdavis@dailyherald.com