I suppose I’m obligated to blog about this even though this story is becoming quite the wet noodle.
“Dance Naperville / Shut Your Yap Hodapp / One man’s bad decision should not be the responsibility of all men to change. / Live and let live. / If you don’t like the music… Don’t move to it.” (Photo: Naperville Sun)
Apparently some time last week the Naperville Sun received a mysterious anonymous package on their door step which disappointingly enough turned out to be these shirts instead of someone’s severed head or something equally mysterious.
From the Naperville Sun’s Naperville Potluck:
Downtown Noise Plot Thickens
Someone has made T-shirts supporting Naperville nightlife in the wake of a controversy over a downtown resident’s complaints about noise.
Eli Hodapp is thinking, “Mission: Accomplished.”
The downtown resident wanted to bring attention to the noise factor downtown when he made a video of the nightlife from his window, posted it on YouTube and notified city officials and the media. City officials then issued several notices that some establishments were violating a noise ordinance, though they said they were in the process of stepping up enforcement anyway.
Eli got the attention he was seeking, and not all of it was favorable. In fact, some of the comments from supporters of Naperville’s nightlife were downright nasty.
Now, T-shirts are circulating saying, “SHUT YOUR YAP’ HODAPP,” and “One man’s bad decision should not be the responsibility of all men to change. Live and Let Live. If you don’t like the music …. don’t move to it.”
Some T-shirts were anonymously and mysteriously delivered to The Sun. (Thanks, but we have to decline your gift.) Were these created by owners of nightspots? One who frequents a nightspot?
We don’t know the answer, but we do know Hodapp is amused by the turn of events and would like a T-shirt for himself. “You know, if people want to single me out, that’s fine,” he told us.
It’s worth nothing that the city received numerous complaints about the noise before Eli’s video, and Jilly’s and Potter’s received the first citations the same night Eli posted the video – before anyone at the city saw it. Also, he moved downtown before Rizzo’s opened next door.
“No one will answer any of the questions I have,” Eli said. “If the noise ordinances are too strict, what should they be? No one will answer that. No one will answer why a nightclub was allowed to be built downtown with no soundproofing when those apartments have been there for years. Everyone just wants to whine, but no one wants to answer the questions.”
Basically, he’s happy to have drawn attention to the issue, but we’ve got to admit, YouTube videos and T-shirts are more fun than stodgy discussions inside stuffy city council chambers.
“That’s all I was trying to do – think outside the box,” he said.
“Look at all the text you’re generating” has been a long-standing catch phrase on the internet when someone has been sorely beaten and all they have left to do is whine. This sets the new standard of “Look at all the t-shirts you’re generating.” What is there left to be said at this point? Someone let me know when there’s a sign on local a tree house that says “NO HODAPPS (with the S backwards) CLUB.”
I’m debating walking down to the Naperville City Hall to sit around for the public forum of the City Council meeting, but I have a feeling no one will come, again. I already checked the minutes and don’t see anything mentioned for anything noise related. Why bother pleading your case to the one body of people in this entire city that can do something about it when you can just get t-shirts printed instead? Seems reasonable to me.
On the other hand, I don’t have much to do tonight and hate being out of the loop of which stop signs Naperville residents don’t approve of… So maybe I will.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
[…] Me Shut your yap, Hodapp! Aug […]