Dear Mr. Biss,
The assembly line parade of heavy equipment 12 hours a day east on Central to Sherman and then south to Simpson is a disgrace. I challenge you to stand on the corner of Central and Sherman for just one hour and tell our neighborhood that this is acceptable. This should have been a route that doesn’t force a residential area into accommodating a commercial highway. The neighborhood is covered in grime and dust, and the recently resurfaced Sherman Avenue is being destroyed, as is Central Street, also recently repaired. All for a stadium nobody needed. Show some spine and support of your constituency and find an alternate route for the demolition debris and get us some relief.Â
Rick Ehrensaft
Stop your whining. The stadium was there long before you moved in. Like it or not it needed to be replaced. To say nobody needed it shows how little you care about the University and the value it brings to you and everyone. If you can not tolerate a small short term inconvenience move a new owner will not take long to find.
Thanks to all for your comments adding to the outrage. It is Friday morning at 8 AM before the holiday weekend and the heavy vehicle parade has been going non stop since before 7AM. The suggestions to call OSHA and EPA are spot on. Count on it.
Now Mr. Biss, what will you do? Perhaps at least get Mr Schill (the allegory with shill is way too easy ), once he is done being exposed by Congeress, to commit some of the 9 figure funds Northwestern received from Qatar to fix the damage that you allowed to be put upon Evanston taxpayers.
I support all of these statements. The truck traffic is out of control and no one seems to care. Many of the trucks are uncovered even though they contain full loads, they roll through stop signs, regularly exceed the speed limit, and ironically, won’t hesitate to blow their horns at you if you do obey the traffic laws. In addition, why can’t we stop them from using their engine and air brakes? The noise from such braking is incredible at times. Many communities ban the use of such brakes – why can’t Evanston? Oh, I know why, our Mayor and Council could care less in bowing to their collective north-star – Northwestern.
There is a lot of dust. That’s true. I need to wash my cars twice per week (live across from main truck entry). But it is a very minor inconvenience / expense and I look forward to the Stadium. It’s just not that big of a deal from my point of view. With a daily front-row seat, I can see they are trying. They sweep and water the road constantly and they are trying to control dust as well as they can. But it’s a dirty job. It’s a done deal. And it’s going to be great.
Evanston has a history of lacking oversight on work like this. Did’nt NU or the City say they’d be misting & wetting to keep the dust down? Why aren’t street sweepers employed to keep Central St. clean? Last year, there was H2O main replacement on more that 3 blocks of Dodge Av., followed by repaving etc., presenting the same type of conditions. There was very little effort to control the airborne dust, which can cause lung problems. The workers were’nt even wearing proper safety equipment to protect them, with those living on both sides of Dodge enduring these conditions M-F ? Because of the dangers, I contacted both OSHA and the EPA for inspection, but the work ended before they could respond. There’s still time to call these agencies out on this. They can’t penalize Evanston, but the certainly can deal with the contractors. Evanston and Northwestern need to announce and assume responsibility for any anticipated “Public Nuisances” like these.
I second that!
And further I will add that this dust, which subjects every living thing, whether animal, plant or human and the surrounding homes and yards to health damaging fine particulates; not to mention the lead and other toxic components it contains, is a disgrace as to the City’s so-called green policy.
One day in the future when the detrimental health and environmental outcomes of this ill-conceived enterprise will come to light, the scandal will hit the national fan. What a legacy.
I live quite close to Ryan Field. The schedule of 69 hours/week with all the noise and dust is very difficult for all of us, including those of us working from home, people with small families, and people with health challenges. In the past month we have washed our windows that we can reach twice and the windows need to be washed again. The Central Street Consortium is not telling the truth when they send out the monthly PR emails and the sporadic, brief posts on Instagram. There is substantial dust in our neighborhood. And, I’ve noticed fewer birds as well.
I full heartedly agree with all that Rick Ehrensaft has written about the lack of respect that Mayor Biss and Northwestern have shown toward my neighborhood! Mayor Biss, when you cast the final vote for this unnecessary project you accepted responsibility for the comfort and safety of the citizens you govern. I don’t see any sense of responsibility from the city! Streets and Sanitation should be washing the streets involved in the removal of Dyche Stadium on a much more frequent schedule, daily if there is no rain, than the rest of the city’s streets. (This is my first comment on Round Table about this issue despite Round Table saying otherwise.)
Here here! We are unable to open up the windows of our homes on Central St. Owners with breathing issues who are unable to go out of their own homes. There is a persistent dusty haze that lingers in the air nearly 24 hrs. a day. Our building has already spent significant amounts of money to clean our property inside and out. Our health is directly affected as is our property values and finances. Enough!
I couldn’t agree more with Rick Ehrensaft’s letter to the editor. I regularly walk on Sherman ave and have witnessed about 20-30 trucks in a 30 minute period kicking up dust and debris. I would not be happy living there and the street and Central street is being ruined. Who pays to fix all this?