Don’t quote me on this, but I’ve read that according to area, Joliet is the second-largest city in Illinois. In the population race Joliet lands somewhere between five and 10, but the place is not short on space.
Some of that space is being developed now, into new subdivisions and parks. Don’t quote me on this, either, but I also read somewhere that Joliet is the eighth-fastest growing town in the nation.
There are some great old street names in Joliet — names like Chicago Street (which is the main drag downtown), and Jefferson Street, the Western Avenue of Joliet (dotted with car dealers, enormous inflatable animals, and fast food restaurants).
But as these new developments take shape on the fringes of town, as the prairies turn into subdivisions with cul-de-sacs, street naming is usually left to whomever owned the land, or bought it and developed it. Thus, you see signs crammed with “Al Wilhelmi” and “Albert D’Ottavio” (two actual street names).
I also saw a green street sign at an entrance of a new subdvision that read “Pearl Harbor,” and I wondered how long it would be–how many years–before we started seeing “Oklahoma City” and “Nine Eleven” on street signs.