I strongly oppose a zoning change for Ryan Field. My husband and I have lived in our home on Broadway Avenue for 40 years. We’ve learned to appreciate home games in the fall, and then thank our stars that the season is over and our neighborhood and small businesses will not be so disrupted until the next year.
It is unthinkable to me that the City of Evanston would even consider a zoning change that would allow Northwestern to hold up to 10 outdoor concerts with possibly 35,000 people at each. Think of the commotion, traffic, noise, and rowdiness that occur outside the United Center before an event.
How is our neighborhood, with many, many young children, limited parking, narrow roads, and limited larger streets – which are only one lane in each direction – supposed to tolerate that situation? The disruption to our lives and quality of life would be enormous, as many others have explained.
We all bought homes in the area knowing there would be some home football and basketball games as well as some special events, but we were confident the quality of life in our area would still be high, and that has indeed been the case.
There has been an equilibrium between our neighborhood and Ryan Field, with each party getting much but not all of what it wants. To allow any commercial events at Ryan Field would obliterate that equilibrium to the severe detriment of our neighborhood.
I must also add that this is an issue that Northwestern has brought before the City Council many times, and each time the requested zoning change has been rejected.
Yet, Northwestern refuses to accept this outcome. Northwestern appears to be waging a battle of attrition, of wearing us down. We have been forced to repeatedly refight the fight against a zoning change. The residents of our neighborhood all have busy lives; how many times should we have to wage the same fight? And how many times must city resources go to addressing the proposed zoning changes?
Enough is enough. Proposed zoning changes for Ryan Field have been rejected in the past and should be rejected yet again.
Northwestern has no right to hold huge commercial events in its stadium meant for university and educational events, especially when doing so would be so harmful to our neighborhood. Northwestern should become a leader and role model for the community and stop trying to push the boundaries of acceptable activities at Ryan Field.
I urge the City of Evanston to reject Northwestern’s proposed zoning changes.
Linda Schneider
I support the new stadium and the zoning change. I live two blocks from the stadium. In my my opinion neighborhood obliteration, disequilibrium and severe neighborhood disruption is hyperbole. I also believe the disruption to our lives and quality of life will be minuscule not enormous. Please consider the overall benefit of NU and the new stadium to the City of Evanston relative to any incremental inconvenience that may impact the few who live in beautiful neighborhoods near the stadium.
Thank you for posting Linda’s comments. More people in Evanston need to know that this is NOT a done deal. So many residents I talk to do not truly understand what Northwestern in proposing. There has been erroneous coverage of this issue in the media that has misled our residents. So many people I talk to think it is just for events with 10,000 and do not realize how huge this rebuild will be. I hope the The Roundtable will continue to bring out the facts.
What scares me more than anything about the Ryan Field expansion is how little I’ve heard from city aldermen, with the exception of Eleanor of the 7th. Wonder why that might be? Don’t we have aldermanic elections coming up soon? Another comment related to Linda’s point about the congestion. Has anyone considered demanding the university build a danged parking structure of some kind before the next chat? I’m a Medill grad and I support NU, but we don’t live in Northwestern Illinois, we live in Evanston, Illinois.
How does this proposed new Ryan Field fits within Evanston’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP)? Isn’t the existing stadium a true example of sustainability? Why would NU build a new stadium (used for 6-7 home games) when one already exists?
From the executive summary, November 2018 signed by Mayor Hagerty:
In Evanston, the question is not whether or not climate change exits. The question remains, how do the City and community take actions that reflect the immediacy of the situation while centering the needs of those who will be most severely impacted locally? Although Evanston, as a Great Lakes city, is relatively insulated from threats such as hurricanes, sea level rise and wildfires, it is not insulated from increasingly intense storms, the influx of invasive species, hotter temperatures, drought-like conditions, human migration, threats to water quality and the relative instability of energy prices. Vulnerable communities and individuals will experience disproportionately negative impacts from climate change in the coming years and decades
Evanston has a long-standing history of bold climate action and a track record of making consistent reductions in carbon emissions. This strong history, begun by Mayor Lorraine H. Morton and elevated by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, is being taken to the next level under Mayor Stephen H. Hagerty. The Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) calls for ambitious reductions in carbon emissions and, for the first time, establishes goals to ensure Evanston is prepared for the daunting impacts of climate change.”
“Northwestern appears to be waging a battle of attrition, of wearing us down.”
Well said. They have more money and time than the City Council and Evanston residents and they want to exhaust us until we give in.
Fortunately, Evanston is our home and everyone who wants what’s best for the city has not stopped opposing NU’s plans to flood a residential neighborhood (and a major road to the Hospital!) with 35,000 people’s worth of traffic during for profit events.
Thank you, Linda. Your eloquent letter echoes my sentiments. NU has repeatedly attempted and failed at the same recurring script for 50+ years. But, here they are trying again to exercise their clout — this time, resorting to a professionally scripted PR media campaign and cherry-picked survey results to influence the outcome. It’s unthinkable that our city officials need to deal with this bullying, unneighborly behavior once again.
NU keeps coming back even when they say they won’t. Why would we trust anything NU says ever? This is why we need to keep the zoning protections, once they change we have no protection or oversight for our city. In 2019 Dave Davis is quoted in the Plan Commission meeting saying:
“Can I say on the record that Northwestern University will NOT be coming back here in two years to expand that amendment to 40,000 people, and go through this again. That is not going to happen. I’m saying that on the record. So, that is, NO, that’s not going to happen.”
and
“Now in regards to Welsh Ryan Arena, and you said that we are being vague, I just want to provide some little bit of history on how we came to this. We first proposed this, you are right, our original language did include Ryan Field, and I’m being totally transparent, and we heard very loud and clear from multiple residents that that was completely unacceptable; and so, we went and revised our proposal, and the residents told us that they wanted us to host these events at Welsh Ryan Arena, only.”
2:11:19 and 1:36:29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CasYwPwVK84
In today’s highlight of my letter to the editor, the RoundTable incorrectly states, “Linda Schneider, a 40-year resident, opposes Northwestern University’s proposal to rebuild Ryan Field.” I want to make it clear that I am not opposed to the proposal to rebuild Ryan Field. I have no issue with rebuilding Ryan Field. What I do oppose are the proposed zoning changes. This is a critical distinction that many people seem to not realize. New stadium: yes. Zoning changes to allow commercial events: no. I have asked the RoundTable to print a correction.
Yes, it is an important distinction and we got that wrong in the newsletter, Linda. So, while we corrected the newsletter from today on our website. We will also send the correction out in Tuesday’s newsletter as wel want it to go to the wider audience. We regret the error. Susy Schultz, editor
Good letter. I sympathize with Ryan Field neighbors who would be heavily impacted by the commercialization of that stadium. If I lived over there, I’d oppose this plan 100%. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, NU has made a lot of rosy projections in their quest to move this project forward. Until the city has completed its own, independent evaluation, which I believe has been commissioned, I don’t think we can adequately judge this project on its merits. We simply do not have enough information to make a good decision, and we certainly have no assurance of NU ponying up the kind of money that might make such a project worthwhile to the municipality. I urge the City to delay granting any zoning variances until we have a clearer picture of possible outcomes.