Speaking as someone who has twice visited Alaska but failed to see a bear in its natural habitat, I was interested to see another breed by the same name is considering a move to Naperville.
Earlier this month, Chicago Bears officials met with our new mayor, Scott Wehrli, in response to a letter he sent them suggesting our city would be a much better fit for a new football stadium than their current plan to build on the site of the old Arlington International Racecourse.
Since I’m obviously a bigger bear deterrent than a bucket of freshly ground cayenne peppers, I believe this is never going to happen. Like many others, I think they only listened to Naperville’s pitch because it might provide some kind of leverage with their ongoing negotiations with Arlington Heights. Besides, who doesn’t enjoy having a reason to visit our fair city?
In a statement, the team said plans to build “the largest single development project in Illinois history” are at risk for the race track site they’ve already purchased. They’re objecting to a recent property assessment that set the tax value at much higher amount than what it was when the track was actually open and operating.
Personally, I applaud the mayor’s decision to let everyone know Naperville has plenty of benefits to offer to businesses throughout the Chicago area. Even if nothing comes of it, he got our name out there by linking us to a big Chicago story.
Of course, in the extremely unlikely event this opportunity was investigated more seriously, it would be no teddy bear’s picnic. Considering the outcry when anyone wants to build a new housing development or even a car wash, can you imagine what people would say?
Despite America’s love of the automobile, no one can “bear” the thought of another reason to add traffic to the local landscape. Since the Bears’ current home, Chicago’s Soldier Field, can hold 61,500 people, the fear of even more descending on Naperville would have most residents hibernating from September to June.
You may not be surprised to learn I know nothing about NFL football. But oddly enough, I do know quite a bit about living in a town regularly under siege from soccer and music fans. Although I was born in central London, I lived the first 50 years of my life in a London suburb called Wembley. I’m not going to assume it’s a name instantly recognizable to most Americans, but anyone living in the remotest parts of Europe knows it as the Buckingham Palace of English soccer.
While it was nice that everyone immediately understood where I was from when on vacation, living in Wembley did come at a price. We were within a mile of the stadium as the ball flies. That meant on game days you were lucky if visiting cars didn’t park across your driveway. When the stadium opened in 1923, it held 125,000 people in a town that had a population at the time of about 16,180.
In 2002, the old stadium, which was built for the British Empire Exhibition, was demolished to make way for a shiny new one. As someone who had had a love-hate relationship with the place her whole life, I’ll admit I was very sad to see the old building and its famous twin towers come down. It’s replacement, a huge circular building under an arc of lights that makes it look like a basket, opened in 2007, about the same time I was moving here.
I grew up knowing to avoid the area on game days. As a teen I was wary of even walking around there because of the number of drunks on the street. Although Wembley didn’t have its own team, it was the site of many championship finals.
And I admit, it was exciting to hear the roar of the crowd when goals were scored. On July 30, 1966, I ran out into the garden to listen when England won the World Cup. On July 13, 1985, 72,000 people gathered there for the Live Aid concert. On Nov. 3, 1977, I was one of thousands at the smaller associated venue, the Empire Pool, when Elton John announced his first farewell tour.
It was exciting to live in a place that was really on the map, even if it that map was often littered with empty beer bottles and cigarette ends.
Since the stadium’s opening, the once leafy suburb with glorious parks and impressive houses rebuilt after World War II have largely been replaced with towering blocks of apartments and offices, especially around the stadium. You only have to look around to see how much prosperity the stadium has brought to the town for the past 100 years.
Whether enticing the Bears here with an economic honey trap would be an improvement to Naperville remains to be seen. All I know is in the unlikely event this move does come to fruition, I, for one, will be happy to grin and bear it.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007.
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