Towers of books line the walls, desks and floor of Northwestern sociology professor Albert Hunter’s office. Unfortunately, the countless titles in the Evanston native and longtime faculty member’s library don’t include anything on resurrecting local town-gown relations.
A member of both the NU community and Evanston’s Plan Commission, Hunter said that the dialogue between city and university officials is as strained as ever and that there needs to be a genuine change in discourse before the exchange can move forward. The city’s NU-City Committee held its quarterly meeting Tuesday.
“A lot of egos (on both sides) are wrapped up in this,” Hunter said. “If one were to deal with the tone and the very culture, I think one could come up with a variety of different tools and mechanisms that could produce a sense of equity in the relationship.”
Hunter moved from upstate New York and attended primary through high school in Evanston during the 1950s. Though not exactly the “golden years” of NU-city relations, the situation then didn’t seem as tense as it does now, Hunter said.
“The general sense was that it wasn’t acrimonious,” he said. “It was much more benign.”
An “informal power elite,” who met behind closed doors at the Hotel Orrington, used to discuss matters such as new construction, right of way and land taxes, Hunter said. Contrast that with current practices: Officials at one of last year’s meeting spent just as much time arguing over the minutes of the previous meeting as they spent discussing new topics.
Since the Cornell University and University of Chicago graduate returned in 1976 to teach at NU, things have only gotten worse.
Evanston residents have repeatedly accused the school of freeloading because it refuses to pay taxes on its large expanse of lakefront property. NU was exempted from paying property taxes in an 1857 agreement with the city at its founding. Since then, whenever the university buys a building off-campus, it is removed from Evanston tax rolls. One of the latest purchases, a house at 1945 Orrington Ave., was a major issue of contention at last fall’s NU-City meeting.
“Throughout the City of Evanston in general there is a feeling that the city could do just fine without Northwestern,” Hunter said.
The city’s attitude prevents residents from seeing how much NU gives to the community, besides late night parties and a Taco Bell on Sherman Avenue, Hunter said.
For instance, campus police patrol Evanston proper and NU provides some educational services to the community.
Although the university shouldn’t go as far as to pay taxes, it should do considerably more to act like a good neighbor, Hunter said.
“It’s almost as if they’re too cosmopolitan. It’s sort of as if they’re ignoring their own nest,” he said. “I think this has indirect costs to the university that it’s ignoring at its own peril.”
Hunter suggested that each of NU’s 11 residential colleges could adopt an Evanston elementary or middle school and tutor or help with extracurricular programs. Hunter said it would help students gain an understanding of their community. During a recent conversation with students, he discovered they had no idea there was a gang problem in Evanston, he said.
“Even among the undergrads, there’s not an awareness of the nest we’re situated in here,” he said.
Hunter has served on the Evanston Plan Commission for the past six years. The group evaluates local development proposals before they make it to City Council. Hunter and his colleagues said they don’t feel the dual involvement creates a conflict of interest.
“His particular knowledge base as a professor at Northwestern and the kind of studies that he teaches is a wonderful balance with the Plan Commission,” Plan Commission Chairman James Woods said.
Hunter now is studying local ethnic institutions, the ritzy North Shore suburb of Kenilworth and how different communities react to gangs.
“Northwestern is one of the attractions (to Evanston) but its also one of the costs,” Hunter said. “The question is, how do you extract a certain amount of fair share in terms of the activities of the cities as a whole?”
Reach Danny Yadron at [email protected].
