Looking For Love? Cicero, Of All Places, A Top 'Burb For Singles

CICERO — If you're looking for love on Valentine's Day, don't sleep on Al Capone's suburban stomping grounds, according to a "new report" that popped in my email inbox.

Cicero "is getting national attention after being named one of the best [suburbs] in the U.S. for singles," a public relations spokeswoman said in a spammy note.

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The report analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data to determine which major suburbs across the country had the highest percentage of single residents.

Cicero clocked in at No. 6 on the list, with 57.2 percent of single, divorced or widowed people between 18 and 65. Cicero also ranked No. 4 for the highest percentage of single men.

When I think of Cicero, a lot of things come to mind. Ernest Hemingway was born there. Al Capone set up the Chicago mob's headquarters in Cicero. Since then, there has been a string of corrupt cops and politicians who have been fodder for disturbing tales of how public officials have conducted themselves.

An indelible detail in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against town President Larry Dominick, lingers, so to speak.

Dominick was accused in court papers of passing gas and groping the town's former director of animal welfare, among other disgusting things, while sitting next to her in a car.

Cicero officials eventually settled the lawsuit for $500,000 after Dominck's accuser dropped the sexual harassment claim.

Still, if anyone asks me about Cicero, I always joke that corruption there is so bad it smells like a fart in a car.

No offense to the folks at SolitareBliss.com pushing the new report, but I had trouble believing the validity of any data crunching that resulted in Cicero ranking in the top 10 suburbs for singles, as if all singles are looking for love.

So, I called one of Cicero's most well-known residents, former town President Betty Loren-Maltese — who was released from federal prison on corruption charges in 2010, and happens to be single — if she's noticed an abundance of eligible bachelors.

At 73, Loren-Maltese says she mostly hangs out with happily married friends and seniors attracted to an abundance of programs that Cicero offers for folks living their golden years.

"I find this thing about singles in Cicero hard to believe, like the real estate company that said Cicero was one of the safest suburbs in Illinois, when there's always shootings," Maltese said. "I don't want to see you walking the streets of Cicero looking for a date, because it's not true."

I called around to Cicero watering holes to gain the perspective of single life from a younger lady's perspective.

A 26-year-old bartender told me she believes Cicero indeed is home to a high percentage of singles.

"When it comes to people my age, it seems everybody is single," Jocelyne Zavala said. "When you break it down by different locations, I guess, yeah, it's interesting a lot of singles in Cicero. I've lived here my whole life and never thought about it that way."

Then, a thirsty customer demanded Zavala's attention.

I asked her for a quick take on Cicero as a destination suburb for single ladies looking for love.

“It all depends on what someone is looking for. If you’re looking for someone who wants to be committed, especially guys, Cicero is not the place,” she said. “So if that's it, don’t come to Cicero.”

Apparently, even the Cicero dating scene is corrupt.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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