Wheeling paying homage to its backbone - the neighborhoods

Critics of the suburbs, usually people who don't live here, often bemoan the "sameness." You can't tell what town you are in, they complain, because there is no sense of place, because it all looks the same.

Suburban residents know that isn't true. Each community has a unique back story, its own economy and people who make the community distinctly their own.

It follows, then, that neighborhoods are microcosms, and in fact, the backbone of our communities. Living in a suburban neighborhood is a not just about buying a house you like. There's a compact that comes with the house payment - neighbors look out for each other.

By celebrating its distinctive neighborhoods, Wheeling recognizes this. The village has identified seven distinct areas that people know by name - like Dunhurst and Meadowbrook, Old Town and others - and will promote that uniqueness through signs and other small ways. Other enclaves in town could get the same treatment in the future.

Wheeling was incorporated in 1894, but for more than a half century before that, it was already a busy crossroads of commerce. It has a rich sense of its own history and progress - it has housing built around the original roads and railroad lines, and housing built to accommodate eager postwar families moving out of the city. In recent decades, it has been building again to accommodate the modern market.

The idea of this program is increasing neighborhood pride, and by extension pride in the village itself. It won't cost much - a few sign toppers declaring you to be entering Hollywood Ridge, or East Strong or West Strong.

One thinks of Chicago, where the neighborhood you grew up in speaks volumes to your identity and history. Your neighborhood was your home, your parish, your school, your ethnicity, your hot dog stand. It was also your color and your enjoyment of, or lack of, economic opportunity.

Civic leaders in Wheeling don't want to attach that kind of pressure, or tribalism, to a neighborhood name.

If there's one thing to be watchful of, it is not letting a simple neighborhood pride program devolve into territorialism, or to gerrymander boundaries around less economically advantaged areas.

We see no evidence this is meant to be exclusionary. Nor is anyone talking about making these boundaries political - drawing ward lines, for instance. Instead, Wheeling is illustrating it is not a sea of bland sameness, but a sum total of unique places and individual histories. To us, that is a truth worth acknowledging.