For 30 years, Evanston resident Bonnie Lindstrom has watched the time that people reserve spots for the Fourth of July Parade extend from just the preceding night to weeks before the festivities.
Now, in an effort to prevent Central Street from looking like a “garbage pit” in the run-up to the parade, as one alderman put it, Evanston City Council could pass legislation as early as next week that would make it illegal for sidewalk hogs to reserve areas more than three days before the parade.
Although nothing is set in stone, the Administration and Public Works Committee last week tentatively set the date when people can start reserving spots as July 1 at 6 a.m.
Aldermen are not opposed to the Evanston tradition of placing a few lawn chairs along Central Street a couple days before the parade, but this year chairs and ropes started appearing three weeks before the parade. Reserving that far in advance is just downright ridiculous, some aldermen said, and a hindrance to both the community and the city.
“There were just great big clumps of area where a few people just decided they could stake out an area where 40 people could sit,” said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th). “It’s a little hoggy, there are other people who are interested in maybe getting a couple of spots.”
Moran said the plots — complete with multiple stakes, ropes and lawn chairs — become major obstacles for local residents, including many senior citizens. They also can get in the way of city workers who have to perform maintenance on the street curbs or in the parks.
Another reason to limit the reserving time is to give people who don’t live on Central Street an opportunity to get a good spot for the parade, said Ald. Gene Feldman (9th).
“There are people in other parts of town that said they didn’t have a chance to get up there,” he said.
Acknowledging that reserving spaces more than a week in advance was excessive, Mayor Lorraine H. Morton said she wanted to be sure that this year’s sidewalk-reserving frenzy was not just an isolated incident.
“I would not want to kill the spirit of the people who come to the parade,” Morton said. “I want to make sure that the allegations are correct.”
Perhaps the most potent force behind such legislation is the public. Moran said judging by the hefty number of complaints he received about the lawn chair rabble, most Evanston residents would probably support the measure.
For Lindstrom, who also is a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, the idea makes sense — especially since she doesn’t claim a spot along the route in advance.
“I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “There should be a limit.”
No matter what the City Council ultimately decides to do, Morton said there could be a bonus to having lawn chairs lining Central Street — it reminds people that on July 4, Central Street turns into a parade ground.
“When we got this criticism, we had more people out for the parade than ever,” Morton said. “I was just amazed, I think it was all the publicity that people gave to it,” she added. “It was wonderful.”
City Reporter Mike Cherney is a Medill sophomore. He can be reached at m–[email protected].
