Thirteen neighbors of Ryan Field filed suit Thursday to overturn Evanston’s rezoning of the property to permit music concerts at the new stadium planned for the property.
The suit claims city officials “cut a backroom deal” with Northwestern University to grant approval of the stadium in return for millions of dollars in payments from the school to the city.
Such payments were a demand that some critics of the university had made as a condition of supporting the project.
“Our elected officials failed to follow the law, and that’s why we’re bringing this suit, said David DeCarlo, president of the Most Livable City Association, which is also a named plaintiff in the suit, filed in the Chancery Division of Cook County Circuit Court.
What Council Member Harris said.
Just curious what these elite neighborhood residents would have done to oppose the redlining that created their peaceful little enclave. This isn’t about the law, and they know it.
Elite? What makes us elite exactly? What do current residents and U2 zoning changes have to do with injustices of 50 years ago?
I’ve lived in Evanston for 11 years and invested my life savings to move to the 7th ward for the past 3 years where I’m now raising a mixed race family very close to the stadium. We’re a two working parent household hustling to get by every single day.
This IS about the law. It’s quite literally about folks fighting to protect their rights and their investments. You’re tying to make it about something else entirely and in doing so playing right into the hands of the billionaires trying to divide us.
I congratulate you on achieving your dream of living in arguably the nicest neighborhood in Evanston. Yes, you indeed do struggle given the high cost of living where you do, but regardless of your own personal struggles, your inability to recognize the struggles of those less fortunate than you (like the 11% of our community living below the poverty line, often in neighborhoods with high crime rates) proves my point. I stand by my comment.
Now we can’t recognize the struggles others have because of where we live? Even if we lived in those same communities you mentioned for our entire life? Folks that were fortunate enough to yes work and and make it out of the higher crime areas and take great pride in having done so.
Please!You need to check you own bias about people as your making huge assumptions about a whole community full of different people, with different backgrounds, at different income levels and with different beliefs! What they have in common here is not wanted their rights to be trampled by NU and an incompetent city government.
Correct. You cannot recognize the struggles of the less fortunate among the 77,000 residents of Evanston. The least fortunate struggle every single day under harsh conditions created by even more grotesque government policies than the ones you now criticize. And your only concern is the inconvenience you may face by allowing 6 concerts at a world class stadium that will generate $30 million of economic benefits annually and improving the lives of Evanstonians. I stand by my comments.
Headline: “Well to do Neighbors Sue City of Evanston to Raise Taxes and Deny Opportunities to Marginalized Communities.” Sounds like an Onion headline. Nope just another great idea from Dave DeCarlo and MLCA.
Please tell David DeCarlo et al that he lost and to stop this BS .
These lawsuits will just cost the City of Evanston money; and that is money being paid by me and you – taxpayers.
Thank you for the effort Most Livable City. We are a City of neighborhoods. We are also a roughly 3 mile by 3 mile area that we all share. If you include Wilmette south of Lake and East of Green Bay it’s a bit bigger.
My point is that, what the lawsuit will help uncover is what actually happened with our City’s approach to the negotiation. Maybe it will explain the reason Council Members directly representing the wards had a marginalized role. It begs disbelief that they just didn’t want to be involved given their statements in meetings. Council Member Reid’s comments throughout the process were extraordinary for someone representing the residents of Evanston. A little discovery will enable residents to understand the role and legality of City Council Members and the Mayor. I for one look forward to the process. If through discovery we find out it was legal and just a really poor process and communication fine. If there were parts of the process that were questionable, we can take action. Hope we get the answers on NU’s role beside requesting the amendment, Council Members holding meetings with NU that did not include all Council Members and why this approach was the one endorsed by the Mayor.
Hi Neighbor,
One reason for not having all, or most, council members participate in a private negotiating session with any entity is the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
Of course, if council members thought they could have had more successful negotiations in public, they could have tried to do it that way — assuming the university would have agreed to show up for such a carnival where they were the piñata.
— Bill
Why was a negotiation necessary? Past experience with zoning amendments seemed to suggest that the requestor (NU) for a variance/amendment and the statue itself was the basis for approval or denial. If the requestor had a legitimate request then the City could have it approved. When did negotiation for other considerations enter the process? Including a MOU along with the requested amendment sure gave the appearance of “buying the amendment” especially after the Land Use Commission voted NO.
Hi Neighbor,
There has quite frequently been a negotiation process regarding public benefits for planned developments. And it often has involved sweetening the proposal at the City Council stage.
For one recent example you could look to the decision earlier this year to cut one floor from the height of the affordable housing development in the 1800 block of Church Street in an effort to appease neighbors.
— Bill
Thank you for your additional thoughts on the matter.
So basically DeCarlo and his gang are suing us, the taxpayers,because they didn’t get their way? This reminds me of family game night when I was growing up. If one of my siblings was winning, another one would invariably accuse them of cheating!
Unlike family game night the stakes here are enormous and life changing for some. Luckily we have a system of government that allows for an expert of the rules to determine if anyone cheated.
We shall see what happens and if anything was truly illegal or not, but having painstakingly read all 56 pages of legal jargon last night, it seems obvious that many city and NU actors were not being forthright with our community at the least (as the foia’d results clearly show) and that lack of transparency and honesty in our elected and appointed officials should be a concern for all of Evanston no matter how you feel about the outcome.
Enormous and life changing stakes is a monumental exaggeration relative to serious issues many Evanstonians face every day, not to mention throughout the world.
Nobody said life and death so please keep this in the context it was clearly written in regards to the analogy of cheating at family game night.
But since you want to go there… up to 66 new concerts a year 100’s of feet from your home. Property value loss to your biggest lifetime investments. Thousands of vehicles on your streets and parking illegally in front of your home. Local businesses losing all their regular customers 59 extra times a year as they lose parking in the business district. (Should they all just apply for a liquor license and become bars? ). Literally 100’s of shuttle busses before and after concerts in front of your home. Vehicle pollution. Noise pollution well beyond state law. 10’s of thousands of revelers walking though your quite residential neighborhood late at night while your kids try to sleep on school and work days. For some, their only nearby street parking being lost for days at a time. 30-45 minutes travel time to leave your own block.
Much of this is what we already deal with today during football games and the countless events in the U2 district that already fill our streets. And we put up with it as that’s what we signed up for based on 100 years of zoning protections.
You define it however you want to yourself, but it’s clearly not a ‘monumental exaggeration’. I stand by my very practical examples of life changing impacts. Its one of the most extreme examples of what local zoning changes can do to damage what is otherwise 99% of the year a quite residential neighborhood.
And for heaven sake, can we please stop using injustice elsewhere as a defense for injustice everywhere? It’s a terrible mindset that makes it a zero sum game and misses the opportunity to lift all boats. There are serious issues in this town (and across the globe) that we should be addressing, but it doesn’t make this any less consequential for the folks directly impacted.
This gang of 13
Hubris defined!
May I suggest you understand that you and those who live near this temple of sports and massively limited, albeit world class super entertainment, are blessed to live on your particular dirt at this particular time.
Enjoy the blessings!
6 days – oh the humanity!