On paper, the period of strained relations between Northwestern and The City of Evanston is supposed to be over. No longer do administrators and aldermen plot in their disparate bunkers. Gone is the era of “I’ll see your historical district and raise you a costly lawsuit.” That’s the past. We emerged unscathed from the Brothel Crisis, at least temporarily, after that fateful week spent huddled around our laptops, awaiting a decision from the Civic Kremlin. Evanston still has the option of throwing the book at us, but none of the informative public service announcements during Wildcat Welcome teach students to duck and cover. Such out-and-out hostilities are expensive and impractical. These days, we hold summits, form committees and engage in joint community service ventures. The University gives the city fancy presents, like fire engines. Elected officials make known their fondness for students and their blue jeans and their rock ‘n’ roll. But the photo ops and symbolic peace offerings that come along with detante can belie very real residual tensions, which, unacknowledged, can complicate things down the road. For this reason, I’m almost glad the aldermen voted against painting more of Evanston’s fire hydrants purple at Monday’s city council meeting. Ald. Jane Grover (7th) suggested the possibility, saying the University would chip in for the cost, but the council ended up unanimously voting in favor of sticking with red. Ald. Mark Tendam (6th) posited that the red hydrants are a “classic American icon,” more in line with the city’s aesthetic. I don’t doubt Tendam’s attachment to red, nor do I believe this particular issue to be of particular urgency, but I do think the topic presents an opportunity for two powers to drop the act and tell it like it is. Now, that’s a lot to ask from elected officials and University administrators, so I’ll start. Northwestern University and the City of Evanston are separate entities with differing interests that sometimes butt heads. NU has an athletic program in need of a local following, so it wants lots of things to be painted purple. Evanston has an identity separate from NU that it wants to preserve. Evanston is perfectly justified in that desire, but masking it simply proliferates the middle-school frenemy status that can get in the way of an actual meaningful relationship, festering for years. Evanston and Northwestern can air kiss each other all they want, but friends disagree. They have power struggles. They can work through such problems by telling each other how they really feel. C’mon. Let it out.
Forum editor Ali Elkin is a Medill senior. She can be reached at [email protected].
Correction: A previous this version misspelled 6th Ward Ald. Mark Tendam’s last name. The Daily regrets the error.
