The mayor handed Northwestern professor Dale Mortensen a key to the city of Evanston during a City Council meeting Monday.
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl announced a short break during the meeting to present the key to the city to Mortensen, an economics professor who won the Nobel Prize in Economics last month. Mortensen accepted the honor amidst applause from the audience and joined them in eating “the largest cake ever to grace the City Council,” which incorporated the Nobel Prize in its design. Mortensen said he has been living in Evanston for more than 45 years and appreciates his neighbors’ acclamation.
“Dale has been described by all of his neighbors as a quiet, steady kind of guy, a family man, never creates a big fuss,” Tisdahl said. “Certainly blown that image, huh?”
In the Administrative and Public Works meeting before the council session, the council postponed the construction of a traffic signal at the intersection of Sheridan Road and Garrett Place after hearing the comments of resident Rosemary O’Neil. The proposed traffic signal would be built in O’Neil’s front yard and would affect her enjoyment, if not her property values, Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) said.
O’Neil suggested reaching out to NU’s athletic department to look into using a portable traffic light instead. O’Neil said the athletic department has six portable traffic signals, and the lights would be a better alternative as most traffic passes during peak hours in the afternoon. “A traffic light is like a monument or a cemetary,” O’Neil said. “Once it goes up, it’s not coming down.”
City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said the city would contact NU about trying out a portable light over a two-day period, taking photos and gathering comments from students. Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) said officials should try the portable lights, but it would not address the larger problem of O’Neil having to deal with a traffic signal next to her home.
“I would be out there screaming if they decided to build one in the middle of the block. Imagine how large those pieces of equipment are,” Rainey said. “I think we should try this little experiment, and I don’t think it’s going to address the real problem.”
Later in the meeting, six Evanston clergymen also spoke out against a proposed ordinance requiring religious institutions to apply for special-use permits in business, commercial and downtown districts, in an effort to regulate churches in business districts. The ordinance is too broadly stated, and the City should postpone the action until it has spoken to the religious community, said pastor Mark Coppenger of Evanston Baptist Church.
“You look at the Northwestern seal, and it says in Greek, ‘Full of grace and truth’ and ‘Whatsoever things are true’ in Latin,” Coppenger said. “That’s why we’re here; we’re trying to bring grace and truth.”
Rainey, who spoke against storefront churches on Howard Street earlier, suggested ministers opposed to the ordinance join her to tour the street soon.
