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Residents bring heat on NU’s Ryan Field plans, then walk out [1]
['Duncan Agnew', 'More Duncan Agnew']
Date: 2023-04-12
More than 40 people who had crowded into a room at the Morton Civic Center on Wednesday night walked out of a meeting with Northwestern University and city officials after about an hour of public comments at which Northwestern representatives refused to answer questions on a plan to overhaul Ryan Field.
First Ward Council Member and Committee Chair Clare Kelly looks out at nearly 50 residents, city officials and Northwestern representatives gathered for Wednesday’s meeting. Credit: Duncan Agnew
The Northwestern University-City Committee was created nearly 20 years ago as the result of a consent decree mandating cooperation between the two entities.
Technically, that committee has direct purview over the T1, T2 and U1 business districts in Evanston, but Julie Johnson, a community representative on the committee, pointed out that conversations at meetings have involved issues extending far beyond just those district boundaries.
Nonetheless, when pressed by community members about committing to a community benefits agreement or a payment in lieu of tax, Northwestern representatives repeatedly said they could only discuss the three business districts and nothing more about the Ryan Field renovation project, even though the districts are involved in things like parking and tailgating for events at the stadium.
“We wouldn’t have come here if you had said, ‘These are the things that we can’t talk about.’ You didn’t do that, so you, in a sense, covered your being here,” Evanston resident Robert Hopper said. “I’m not taking it out on you. You’re being paid to do that job, but maybe you need to talk to the people that pay you, and tell them that, if you really want to work with [us], you need to be honest and transparent, and you need to have somebody here who can talk to us about what we’re asking.”
Dozens of Ryan Field neighbors and students representing the Northwestern Graduate Workers union, environmental justice group Fossil Free Northwestern and Students Organizing for Labor Rights spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting in favor of a community benefits agreement between the city and university. That contract would create a binding mechanism for accountability and transparency from Northwestern when it comes to their development projects in the future, activists said.
At a meeting of the same committee last month, Northwestern’s Executive Director of Neighborhood and Community Relations Dave Davis did not rule out the possibility of negotiating a community benefits agreement. But Wednesday night, Davis, along with Vice President for Operations Luke Figora and Vice President for Facilities Alex Darragh, would not address any elements of the stadium project.
Trisha Connolly, standing in the back, opened the meeting on Wednesday by criticizing Northwestern’s engagement efforts on the stadium project thus far. Credit: Duncan Agnew
Sarah Plum called Northwestern’s public relations efforts and surveys “garbage propaganda.” Credit: Duncan Agnew
Aaron Cohen, a Seventh Ward resident and former Northwestern employee, speaks to the committee. Credit: Duncan Agnew
Yui Russell said she is worried about the environmental impact of the stadium development. Credit: Duncan Agnew
From left: Community representative Julie Johnson, First Ward Council Member Clare Kelly, Northwestern official Dave Davis and Evanston City Manager Luke Stowe. Credit: Duncan Agnew
At the end of public comment William Tong, a student journalist for The Daily Northwestern, asked university officials in attendance about a statement he had received from Assistant Vice President of Communications Jon Yates.
“There are no current plans to move forward with the stadium redevelopment unless the university can obtain these entitlements,” Yates wrote to The Daily Northwestern, suggesting that Northwestern will not pursue the new Ryan Field project without all of the zoning amendments it is seeking, including the provision for hosting full-capacity concerts.
But Darragh, Figora and Davis would not talk about Yates’ statement. City and university officials are meeting next week to talk about the jurisdiction of the committee, Davis said, and he described Wednesday’s gathering as “not the appropriate forum” for answering Tong’s question, as well as questions from residents about a community benefits agreement or payment in lieu of tax.
Later in the meeting, residents expressed other concerns around the take-down and setup time required for each concert that the university is seeking to host at the new stadium.
Hana-Lei Ji, a representative from Students Organizing for Labor Rights, told attendees that their concerns “are completely justified from our experiences” with Northwestern.
“I have asked questions, directed to you [Davis], President [Michael] Schill, to the trustees, to Mr. Yates. How many of those questions have been answered? Absolutely none. A big, round zero,” said Seventh Ward resident Aaron Cohen. “I understand, having worked for Northwestern, for Kellogg [School of Management] in public relations myself. I get how it works. You’re doing an admirable job, according to the standards of your job description, which has been to absolutely obfuscate … to lack even one iota of transparency.”
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[1] Url:
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2023/04/12/residents-bring-heat-on-nus-ryan-field-plans-then-walk-out/
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