The heads of the two women’s groups that flank the property the city wants to sell adjacent to the downtown library presented an idea of their own to the Economic Development Committee of the Evanston City Council Wednesday night, if only the city or some wealthy philanthropist could pony up the cash.
The idea? A women’s history park, honoring the Evanston women, such as Frances Willard, who played a prominent role for women’s rights in America.
And, oh yes, with parking underneath.
The suggestion was made by Louise Knight, president of the Frances Willard Historical Association, and was echoed by her counterpart at the other end of the lot, Chava Wu, president of the Woman’s Club of Evanston.
The two groups are headquartered at opposite ends of the block, adjacent to the 74-car parking lot at 1714-20 Chicago Ave., that the city plans to sell.
The committee gave its blessings to the staff’s recommendation to solicit bids for the property.
Alderman Judy Fiske, 1st Ward, told the two women that “if we had the money, I would love to have an underground parking lot with a women’s park on top, but we do not.”
Another costly and useless idea
Leave it to another Evanston group to come up with another costly and useless idea. Maybe the would be better off building a training school for economics and finance to train city government, "preservationists" and all the other people who keep coming up with ways to sink the budget and dig into taxpayers wallets. Also train the government in how to get real jobs going and build businesses instead of fighting them.
What about white men? Nah!
How about a park and tribute dedicated to the accomplishments of white men? Computers, software, the internet, TV, cameras, telephones, rockets, eyeglasses, sea navigation, nuclear technology, modern agriculture, etc. etc.
Nah.
Aren’t there enough dedication to white men?
You mean like 99.9% of all parks in the United States? I hope you are aware that those accomplishments you list are also the byproduct of numerous civilizations' histories completely erased by white men like yourself.
Parks named for women in Evanston
Here's a (likely incomplete) list of parks named for women in Evanston…
Out of roughly 87 total parks, that's considerably more than 0.1 percent — though nowhere near a 50/50 split.
— Bill
Yeah my bad. I forgot the
Yeah my bad. I forgot the huge amounts of technology white men stole from native americans to develop spaceships and massive global telecommunications networks.
Skewed Reporting
In defense of the two leaders of the historic properties near the library lot, these women were given less than 12 hours notice to prepare for a rushed meeting that was set by the Economic Development Committee to rush a process to sell this property. The women were asked to outline a "best case scenario" plan for the use of the space and a "worst case scenario" use of the space. The "best case" was the idea of a park. It is almost as if the developers, the city leaders, and the press set this up to make the smart women of these organizations look like fools. Yes, a park would be ideal. The city is rushing to sell a property that will impact downtown. How many citizens even knew that this library lot is probably going to be developed? The women of the two historic organizations that flank the property represent an important part of Evanston. The Woman's Club of Evanston has been a force of positive change in the community for a very long time. Seed money raised by the Woman's Club is what started what is now Evanston Hospital. An large office building would impact two very historic buildings. In a city that won't allow a homeowner to replace windows in a historic home without a process through preservation committees, it baffles me that they are quick to build an office building between two historic buildings and cut off a large amount of accessible parking to the public library. Clearly the press also wants this building to happen since they twisted the intent of the ideas of the women that attended the meeting to represent one part of the community's interest.
Notice
Hi Marci,
The same to two people from the same two groups spoke in opposition to the parking lot sale proposal at the City Council meeting on July 11 — a month and a half ago. And it was at that meeting that the aldermen voted to seek proposals for the sale and development of the property.
So your claim they only had 12 hours to come up with an alternative plan before Wednesday night's meeting is not credible.
The packet for the Economic Development Committee meeting was released publicly late last week. Perhaps the 12 hours you mention is based on when Evanston Now published its precede story Wednesday morning about the Wednesday night meeting?
As explained in that story, the EDC meeting was to review the process for entertaining offers on the property, not to decide whether to entertain such offers. That decision had already been made in July.
Anyway, the process the EDC approved calls for a Sept. 30 deadline for submitting bids for the property. Perhaps the neighboring property owners will have come up with a viable plan by then?
— Bill
Neighboring property owners
Yes, the neighboring property owners were asked their concerns. They voiced it. They will not be the businesses that are building an office building on the lot. The organizations have been communicating concerns about a construction project which include concerns about access to a large office building in an already congested alley way, height of a building, construction impact on the historic buildings, increased congestion and safefy in an area with heavy pedesterian and bicycle use, and parking capacity. I would have liked to hear more about why the city is rushing the proposal process and sale of this property. It seems the city is moving forward on developing this property, and at this point we can only hope that the voices of the community are heard in what will be built. I would have liked to see you report on these concerns that impact many Evanston citizens. I personally felt the tone of your piece did not demonstrate an equal concern for these issues which was a disservice to your readers.
I want a commercial office building
The current parking lot is an ideal location for a commercial office building. Very convenient to the EL and Metra Train so you can attract employees from northern suburbs and Chicago. Many younger employees want to live in Chicago, so having an easy commute to Evanston is attractive for this demographic. A commercial office building would not only generate significant taxes for the City, but it will also be filled with employees who may eat lunch at one of the fine establishments in the area, they may shop in downtown Evanston, and they will also bring in other businesses to meet them and on these visits they'll likely stay at one of Evanston's hotels. A well designed commercial office building has the potential to add to the vibrancy of downtown Evanston and be a positive contributor to the ecosystem in our community.
Who knows, maybe one of these future employees will decide that Evanston is an interesting community and decide to buy or rent a house and live here.
Why other office buildings not lived-up to promises
The one that most puzzles me is why all the Research Park buildings could not find tenants. 1890 sat vacant for years until torn down. People in the area, and the few I see leaving the buildings, tell me the remaining building westward are practically empty.
Is the Rotary, office building at Davis/Hinman, old Chandler, Chase bank building, others building fully occupied ? Did NU completely fill the Sherman/Clark building ?
What about the perpetual plans to re-develop the building between Church/Davis, Sherman/Orrington ?
It sounds like there has been a lot of “build it and they will come” but they did not.
Office vacancy rate
The latest figures on vacancy levels from Co-Star say the office vacancy rate in Evanston is 7 percent, compared to over 10 percent in the rest of the north suburbs and nearly 12 percent in the Loop. (See the chart on page 151 of the latest Economic Development Committee packet.)
Your informants perhaps are ill-informed or providing dated information?
The 1890 Maple building sat vacant for years because the developer planned to replace it with what's now the E2 building and didn't want to have it occupied.
The City Council in November 2013 refused to extend the time limit for starting construction of the planned development of a condo — not office — development in the block bounded by Church, Orrington, Davis and Sherman — commonly referred to as the 708 Church project or "the tower" — thus killing that project.
— Bill
708 Building
Since the city fumbled the 708 project, they have pretty much allowed builders free rein to do as they will, making downtown the city of canyons with more congested. The 708 building is becoming the last of the low-rise buildings
Free rein?
Hasthefloor … your claim about developers having "free rein" would certainly come as news to the developers of the 831 Emerson project rejected by the City Council earlier this year.
And 708 as "the last of the low-rise buildings" is disproved by construction of two new buildings finished this year in the 1000 block of Davis Street. One is a one story structure, the other has two stories.
— Bill
Tall vs. short
Thanks Bill,
It is ironic that 708 was to be the tallest building in downtown Evanston and now it is one of the shortest. It would be nice to know, in last 10 years, how many short buildings vs. tall buildings have been built or planned.