Evanston’s mayoral hopefuls debated a wide slate of issues at a Tuesday forum hosted by the Central Street Neighbors Association.
Incumbent Mayor Daniel Biss and his challenger, Jeff Boarini, are squaring off in Evanston’s upcoming April 1 consolidated elections. The two faced questions Tuesday from longtime CSNA President Jeff Smith about issues ranging from government transparency to affordable housing and zoning.
Early in the forum, the candidates exchanged lighthearted jabs, but the congenial tone shifted once they moved to the topic of Ryan Field.
Biss has encountered community backlash since his October 2023 tie-breaking vote in support of the commercialization of the Ryan Field rebuild. At the forum, Boarini criticized Biss for his alleged lack of transparency in this deliberation process.
“I believe that you certainly missed an opportunity with Ryan Field on being transparent with the Evanston public,” Boarini told Biss.
Boarini said he has constructed his campaign around the transparency he sees as lacking in Evanston’s government.
Biss, on the other hand, said he’s “proud” of the Ryan Field decision and said he views it as one of the many examples of the ways he has increased transparency during his tenure as mayor. He also pointed to his efforts supporting participatory budgeting and his push to translate public meetings into Spanish.
The two candidates also touched on rezoning, which has been a prevalent topic of discussion as the city deliberates the newest draft of the Envision Evanston 2045 comprehensive plan. Throughout the forum, rezoning efforts were tied to affordability initiatives, environmental goals and diversity.
Biss emphasized he isn’t density-averse. He said he sees zoning as a chance to diversify housing stock, which is a step toward affordability and increasing the availability of missing middle housing.
“Zoning changes alone certainly can’t fix everything,” Biss said. “In fact, zoning changes by themselves, without other smart policy may not fix much, but they create the foundation on which we can address our affordability crisis.”
Biss said that the recent effort to strengthen the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance was an example of these necessary corresponding policy initiatives.
Smith critiqued this support of housing growth.
“If we’ve been building and building and building, we’ve added thousands of units, but during that time, Evanston has gotten more expensive and moved in at least some directions away from the diversity and climate that we cherish,” Smith said. “Why do we think that doing more of the same will have a different result?”
Smith said part of the problem with growth lies in the effect of the construction of taller buildings on the climate.
Boarini seemed to agree, focusing his remarks on the need for preservation.
“The greenest building is the one that already exists,” Boarini said.
Biss countered this claim and said that there are evolving techniques by which the construction of tall buildings can be done in a way that lowers climate cost.
The candidates also turned to the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center relocation. Both candidates expressed their support of finding the most cost-effective option, but with diverging ideas in mind.
Boarini questioned the validity of current cost projections for moving the civic center, saying that the process again needed to be more open to the public. Biss dismissed this critique.
“The truth is the truth, and the numbers are the numbers. We don’t benefit anybody by pretending otherwise,” Biss said.
The two candidates, however, found consensus in their respect for public participation.
Boarini repeatedly referenced his plans to harness the expertise of Evanston residents, in part by creating working groups underneath current boards and commissions.
“People have deep expertise on a variety of topics, from affordable housing to economic revitalization to housing to all kinds of things construction, and we can utilize that to make this city better,” he said.
While Biss thought these working groups would further convolute Evanston’s government, he did point to the need to gain productive feedback from the entire broader Evanston community, not just those that regularly attend council meetings.
Throughout the event, both candidates referred to the challenges Evanston may face from the new presidential administration in Washington, with Biss highlighting his desire to resist and stay true to Evanston’s core values.
Boarini, for his part, is optimistic.
“I think that the future will be challenging, but it’s bright at the same time,” Boarini said.
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