As an alderman, First Ward candidate Cheryl Wollin would work to improve safety and living conditions for Evanston residents and Northwestern students, she told an audience of five Tuesday night.
Wollin, who served as Seventh Ward alderman from 1989 to 1993, now lives in the First Ward and is running against Judy Fiske to replace Ald. Arthur Newman (1st). She met with residents and NU students at Evanston Place, 1715 Chicago Ave., on Tuesday to discuss her campaign and the future of Evanston-NU relations.
Wollin, who lives near Foster and Sherman, said she wants to keep transit stations open later and install more blue safety lights near transit stops.
"In a well-lit area, you feel more secure and safe," she said.
Holding NU students’ landlords accountable for keeping their property up to standards is another priority, Wollin said.
"It really isn’t fair for students," Wollin said. "Many of them are paying very substantial rents."
Wollin also wants to ensure that enforcement of the city’s nuisance premises ordinance is fair to tenants and that redevelopment in downtown Evanston includes stores that appeal to students, she said.
She said she wants to "work to rebuild that atmosphere of mutual respect" between Evanston and NU, pointing out that University Police and Evanston Police Department already cooperate and have a "very good relationship."
"We have to sit down and open a dialogue and address (our) goals in a very direct way," she said. "I don’t think animosity has gotten us very far."
Evanston resident Mimi Gilpin criticized NU’s tax-exempt status, saying it hurts Evanston financially.
Wollin said she and other Evanston officials had attempted in 1991 to come up with a formula for NU to pay for its usage of Evanston police, fire and ambulance services, but NU rejected the idea.
Tuesday’s audience was small — usually, about 15 people attend the meetings — and probably was due to the "unusual" location, Wollin said. Still, she said she had expected more Evanston Place residents to attend.
Weinberg junior Patrick Keenan-Devlin, an off-campus Associated Student Government senator who attended the Tuesday meeting and is helping with Wollin’s campaign, said information about the meeting was circulated on several listservs but most students did not attend.
"It’s the first night back, so students are settling back in, they want to see their friends, they want to unpack and unwind, I’m sure, after the first day of classes," Keenan-Devlin said. "My hope would be that another reason students didn’t show up is that they already made up their minds about the election, and that they already made up their minds to vote for Cheryl."
Keenan-Devlin said he wants to get 500 student votes for Wollin. Currently, he said, the aldermanic elections are not very important to NU students, but he plans to change that.
"It’s not a priority for the moment, and (making it a priority is) my goal," he said. "That’s my job."
Gilpin, who lives in Evanston Place and hosted the meeting, said prior to Tuesday she knew little about Wollin other than that both women are involved in the League of Women Voters. Gilpin said the meeting was an opportunity for her to make her views known about NU’s tax exemption.
"I do have strong feelings about tax exemption, that institutions should not be tax-exempt, particularly wealthy ones," she said.
Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].
