By Laura OlsonThe Daily Northwestern
Evanston must be louder than I realized. The city is too deafening for Ald. Anjana Hansen (9th), or her constituents at least, who complained to her about drivers who blare loud music. All the noise from her constituents prompted her to propose an ordinance silencing the pulse-pumping vehicles and their owners.
Now, any city populated with young people has some sounds, both friendly and unbecoming. Campus housing lets in conversations from passersby until all hours of the night, and the apartment complexes at Ridge Avenue and Davis Street provide a cacophony of garbage vehicles, postal trucks and boisterous partygoers.
Chicago, our southern role model, has a similar law already on the books. Its provisions empower police to impound cars, issue fines and dirty an otherwise blemish-free driving record. The insurance companies certainly will scold you for that – how dare you inflict a little Jay-Z into the lives of others?
The real problem here is how the City Council chooses to spend its time. Will the Human Services Committee really fall for this scam again? First we had the bees – a never-ending saga of “David”-like Gabriel Jacobs, battling the “Goliath” City Council, the menacing villain attempting to squash a young man’s innocent hobby. Now we have bass-thumping cars, another vice threatening to push our youth over the edge.
These ordinances baffle me. A state law is already on the books, prohibiting music loud enough to obscure the sounds of emergency vehicles. What is the point of the city’s possible proposal? Music loud enough to wake anyone from peaceful slumber would also drown out the screech of an ambulance siren.
If the current law doesn’t discourage this behavior, why would another? Some would say a law with bigger teeth would take a larger bite out of the current crime. But teeth are useless if they aren’t being used. Is the current law not being enforced? Or are noisy cars not as large of a problem as some might think?
Even when the council attempts to take on one of the biggest issues – the city’s relations with Northwestern – it continually misses the mark. Threatening to seize university land through eminent domain will not win friends or influence NU. Town-gown relations are important to residents and students alike, so why can’t we find a new site for the Civic Center amicably?
The council’s agenda is loaded with minutiae while discussions about NU are locked away behind closed doors.
Between the elms, the bees and now possibly the car stereos, this city has had enough nonsense. The council has wasted months idling over several neighbors who want to regulate beekeeping, because of one Evanston teenager. The neighborhood surrounding the intersection of Church Street and Dodge Avenue is in disarray, awaiting a plan and several good-willed developers. Police officers work tirelessly each day to find those breaking drug laws or driving drunk.
And what does the city government do? Continuously push back legislation to help provide more affordable housing, better development and progress throughout the city.
The loudest noise in Evanston is bickering over concerns that the minority of residents have an opinion on, rather than focusing on big-picture issues. Aren’t there better ways to spend the aldermen’s time than playing cat-and-mouse with the university and buzzing about bees?
Instead of trying to silence the noise, why doesn’t the city stop and listen first?
City Editor Laura Olson is a Medill junior. She can be reached [email protected].
