Eli Hodapp’s large collection of words.

This was posted by “Andre” earlier today, in one massive block of text on the Naperville Sun’s Naperville Potluck blog comments. I added the paragraph breaks because my “enter” key is fully functional and I decided I’d give him a hand.

“While I respect that Eli has an opinion and the right to some reasonable amount of noise that he should have to deal with, I think he is a little unrealistic in his expectations. Naperville has become somewhat of the city away from the city. Hundreds of people pour into downtown Naperville weekly to take part in, what most people consider, decent nightlife without having to go to Chicago. With all that money that people spend, comes some noise, some bad behavior, and some inconvenience.

Get a clue! You move into a “DOWNTOWN” area, you’re going to have to deal with noise and people. It’s common sense. Yes there is a noise ordinance and yes it applies to Rizzo’s as well as everyone else, but at what point does someone has to be smart enough to realize what they’re getting themselves into before they do it. I assume the convenience of living in downtown Naperville is a luxury for Eli. The walking distance to coffee shops, retail stores, restaurants, bars, etc… doesn’t come without a price.

Continue reading »

News to me! I was fairly certain satellite radio had such high market penetration that even the Amish were listening.

After picking up my copy of the Naperville Sun and blogging about it I did my routine email checking and discovered this:

Hey Eli,

This is Brian Whitkanack, I work at 95.9FM “The River” on the Morning Blend. We read your story in the paper this morning, and we are interested in talking to you about your problem. We’d really appreciate a buzz. Our show is from 5-9am, if you get this today before 9am call us at 630.585.7529 (PLAY), that’d be great. But i understand, not everyone gets up at 330 in the AM, so if you don’t get this until after 9am, email us this weekend at morningshow@959theriver.fm. Hope things are a bit more peaceful for you.

-Brian Whitkanack

So I called, waited on hold for quite a while, and finally spoke with Geno Brien of “The Morning Blend“. I suppose I deserve the spin the story got, because when he asked me if I listened to “The River” I responded something along the lines of, “I didn’t even know FM radio was still around.”

Either way, I clipped out the Bon Jovi, U2, and 3 hours of commercials to get this:

Hot off the presses!

I suppose I can officially scratch “Be on the front page of the Naperville Sun.” off my list of things to do today. Read more about the story here or check out the related entry on the Naperville Potluck blog. One thing I’m not looking forward to is the inevitable tsunami of phone calls from everyone I know telling me I’m in the paper at about 7:15 AM.

Here’s the email that started it all:

To whom it may concern,

In the interest of not repeating myself, I’ve simply attached the two emails I sent to the Naperville City Council, ONE YEAR AGO. Since then, nothing has changed. To my knowledge, none of the issues with the noise level or Naperville’s metamorphosis in to some kind of drunken paradise after sundown have been addressed. A year later, I’m wondering if maybe the city just doesn’t -get- what I say when I explain to them how loud it is down here at night.

So tonight, I made the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVykLWpR9HQ (Note: Link no longer works.)

It’s a little over five minutes long, and features video from multiple locations in downtown Naperville exhibiting exactly how ridiculous it is after hours.

The Naperville Sun obviously cannot publish a video in their newspaper, but I’m wondering if any of your reporters would be interested in the invitation I’ve previously extended to any interested city official in coming over to my place to see exactly how charming Naperville is at night? It’s really quite amazing.

Regards,
Eli Hodapp

This was sent to the Naperville Sun, with every single relevant city official on the CC list and the two emails I had sent a year ago about this exact issue detailing exactly what the noise ordinances state. Six hours later I received a response from Peter Burchard, the city manager.

A few days later I took the video down because it had served its purpose and the only thing it was accomplishing was collecting comments from angry drunken frat boys. But… since the Sun published the video, I guess I will too.

I was also on 95.9 “The River” this morning, more about that here.