Partying and parking were the central issues at a heated community forum that drew about 50 Evanston residents, students and Northwestern officials Wednesday night.
The first of two unstructured community forums allowed community members to discuss issues of mutual concern at the Family Institute.
“I think it was important that we heard all the anger,” said Catherine Whitcomb, assistant to the vice president for student affairs. “I am new to the university, and it was quite shocking. But we had to do it this way the first time.”
Residents — who outnumbered student representatives — were especially concerned with off-campus parties.
“Banning alcohol on campus has pushed parties off campus,” Evanston resident Dianne Miller said. “Northwestern has now made it the city’s problem. What’s emerging as an issue is the lack of a party place on campus.”
Another concern expressed by residents was illegal parking that occurs on residential streets. Lucile Krasnow, NU’s special assistant for community relations, said the university is trying to solve the problem by providing more parking, but it is limited by finite space.
University Police and Evanston Police Department also came under fire from residents complaining about the ambiguity in jurisdiction, especially with the issue of parking tickets.
Although students are held responsible by the university for ticket issued by UP, tickets issued by the Evanston Police Department are not enforced by the university.
Even though these problems were discussed, there was no consensus on any solution. But Jane Lee, a Weinberg sophomore and Associated Student Government senator, said, “It was important to get the dialogue going.”
Last spring, university officials, city officials and students met to discuss solutions to community problems. One of the suggested solutions to come out of the meeting was the possibility of a community forum, Whitcomb said.
“The purpose of the meeting is just to reach out to people in the neighborhood surrounding the university to try to see if there are some issues they want to talk about,” Krasnow said. “Hopefully we can have them on and off throughout the year.”
At the next meeting, Whitcomb said she hopes to have more input from city officials because many of the issues concern the city and the university.
Whitcomb said she hopes to see more students and attributed the low student turnout to poor weather and lack of advertising. She said she was not allowed to post the event to class listservs, which would have reached more students.
“Students are busy but when it has to do with where you live, you have to get involved,” Whitcomb said.
Students should be involved in these forums because “they often have the best solutions to problems in the neighborhood,” Krasnow said.
A few years ago, several students and Evanston residents met with Ald. Joseph Kent (5th) because some residents complained that when students moved into apartments, they left a lot of garbage in the streets, Krasnow said. But students said that previous residents of the apartments often left things there, forcing the new owners to trash them.
As a response, the university decided to post dates for garbage pickup around the dates when students primarily moved into apartments. The city and the university then split the cost for additional dumpsters for the off-campus students, Krasnow said.
“The residents really appreciated it,” she said. “By having students at the meeting, we learned something and they came up with solutions.”
The next meeting will be held at the Family Institute, 618 Library Place, Monday at 7 p.m.
