We’d like to thank the Daily Northwestern for helping us promote discussion about the local economy. The editorial in yesterday’s Daily does a good job in demonstrating the exact point our campaign and its supporters have been trying to make-there is an Evanston that even well-informed Northwestern students do not know about-and its one that needs our help.
Invest Evanston is not the result of academic theories-it is a result of real conversations students have had and relationships built with struggling entrepreneurs that live in our community. With those we serve in mind, we’d like to address some of the points made in yesterday’s editorial.
“LEND is not an effective use of student donations.”
Many student groups will ask you for donations of your time, interest and money. When it comes to fiscal donations, no other student group offers as sustainable a model as LEND. We build strong relationships with our borrowers, as is evidenced by a story published on The Daily’s website one month ago documenting our organization. Your donation to Invest Evanston will cycle through different borrowers and have impact long after we have left Northwestern. If every student donates 1 dollar-we can impact 16 entrepreneurs in the the next 5 years. With donations of 5 dollars-less than the price of a sandwich at Lisa’s Cafe-we can impact 80 entrepreneurs in the next 5 years. As these businesses grow, they will in turn provide jobs in the community, and provide for its economic growth. I cannot think of a more effective use for donations.
“The necessity of such funding in the generally affluent community of Evanston is questionable.”
LEND, which has been in operation for over a year, and the Invest Evanston campaign, were both born out of our relationships with people in the Evanston community who have welcomed our organization with open arms. A sit down with the Evanston Black Business Association opened our eyes to the opportunity we had to be impactful with our programs. The steady number of applications have only confirmed what we suspected-there is a real need for our services in Evanston.
Proof of economic disparity just down the street can be found in the pages of The Daily itself. Just one year ago, the paper published a fascinating feature-length story by Brittney Wong that drew attention to the fact that the image students have of Evanston is flawed. In “Evanstons Westside Disparities” Wong writes “Northeastern areas of Evanston such as downtown and the lakefront began to blossom with the help of city funds. Meanwhile, on the west side, middle class families were moving out, mom-and-pop store owners were retiring, and money just couldn’t seem to flow over Ridge Avenue.”
Perhaps most telling are quotes from two of Evanston’s Aldermans. Said Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste: “There is disparity and inequity in the City of Evanston.” Furthermore Ald. Delores Holmes tells Wong that “No development has been done in the ward. We’re always fighting for equity.”
We can only hope that the current Daily editorial board only erred due to hurrying to put out an editorial on the campaign two days after learning of it and one day after it launched. I offer the editorial board the opportunity to join me when I next visit one of LEND’s client on Saturday, so they can see the community we are working in.
“Students already provide economic support for Evanston businesses through patronage.”
Students do not often travel beyond Maple and Davis with their business. The businesses we support are not Barnes & Noble or The North Face. They are very rarely patronized by Northwestern students based on their inability to compete with larger businesses like the ones most of us patronize in the area directly near campus.
-Sahil Mehta
McCormick junior
Founder of Invest Evanston, LEND’s Director of Internal Strategy
