Council Voting on Downtown Plan Before Citizen Comment

Submitted by cjernst on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 12:08

The agenda for the February 9 City Council Meeting has been distributed. In a bold move, the approval of the Downtown Plan has been listed as a special item and will be discussed and voted on BEFORE Citizen Comment. An obvious move to reduce or censor the expected comment in opposition to the plan.

Forums:

psanche

Sat, 02/07/2009 - 01:06

I just wrote the following email to the six aldermen who may vote against the skyscraper. The other aldermen are for whatever reason in favor of the project and don't seem to care what their constituents think. This is a crucial time and the more emails they get the better our chances will be to stop this project. The emails of the aldermen are listed below. Even if you write a very short email saying that you are against the project it will be better than nothing.

Dear Aldermen,

I write to the four of you because it has been clear to me that you are the only aldermen who have some sense of representing the views of Evanston residents. The battle over the skyscraper has been very long and difficult. I have been studying and teaching political science for 19 years and frankly my involvement in this small issue in a small city has been an eye opener for me. I find it almost difficult to believe that in a city that has a long reputation for progressiveness (and this is part of reason why my wife and I moved here), where it is clear that residents are solidly against a development project, the city has taken steps to keep the project alive for so long, seemingly for the purpose of wearing out the residents and giving-in to and favoring a developer. The economic crisis and the pernicious effects that a large-scale building project will have on our city aside, voting in favor of this project will be a clear sign that for some reason (yet to be understood by any resident) Evanston's city government is going to move on with a major development project that most citizens reject. Our nation's current economic crisis is at least partly due to what happens when governments give in to the greed of private business and individuals with little or no regard for the common good. I urge you to please reconsider moving on with this project which is sure to damage the city not only economically but also politically. Please vote to maintain Evanston's unique character, vote in favor of your residents, vote against the skyscraper.

Sincerely,

Peter Sanchez

Cut and paste the addresses below to send an email:

ljean-baptiste@cityofevanston.org
mwynne@cityofevanston.org
ald4th@aol.com
dholmes@cityofevanston.org
ebtisdahl@aol.com
ahansen@cityofevanston.org