continued

How Much to Rehab Civic Center?

In response, Council members placed a question on the ballot, asking whether the City should remain in the space if rehabbing the building cost $31 million.

But aldermen have now conceded that the $31 price tag probably overstates the cost of the job.

The figures, from a report submitted by City consultant U.S. Equities, reach the $31 million figure by including $6.3 million to build a 300-car parking garage and $3.1 million to relocate City offices while the rehab is underway.

The proposal also anticipated demolishing the oldest part of the Civic Center - the south wing, built in 1909 - and replacing it with a new structure housing a new City Council Chamber.

The balance of the building, constructed in the 1920s, would be rehabbed. The proposal pegged the cost of demolition, new construction and restoration of that section of the building at $20.1 million.

At a Civic Center Committee meeting Feb. 20, Alderman Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, said she did not believe the City would really needs to build a parking garage and could get by with an expansion of the existing 225-space parking lot. Public Works Director David Jennings said the parking lot expansion would probably cost about $250,000.

Most of the aldermen seemed to agree that a parking garage is not essential, but Ald. Tisdahl's contention that City staff could remain in the building while rehab work was underway was challenged by City Manager Julia Carroll.

"We're talking a gut rehab to make effective use of the space," Ms. Carroll said, adding, "It's probably possible to do it in place, but it would be very inconvenient. I'd much rather take the path of moving out for a year or two."

John Kennedy of the Friends of the Civic Center, the group that sponsored the other Civic Center referendum question, said he welcomed a dialog with the Council and City staff to develop an agreement about what a rehab job would cost.

Mr. Kennedy said he had spoken with the developer of the former Malinckrodt College property, an 80-year-old former girls' school in Wilmette being converted to condominiums. That developer said his rehab cost runs about $130 per square foot - or about $13 million for a building the size of the Civic Center, Mr. Kennedy said.

Other speakers said they favored building a new Civic Center on the City's west side. (See accompanying story.)

Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, said the aldermen are now committed to seeing the Civic Center preserved - which meets a major goal of the Friends group.

"If it doesn't make sense economically to move, then we won't make that move," Ald. Jean-Baptiste said, adding, "Why try to tie the staff and the Council's feet in trying to resolve these issues?"

However, aldermen have not revisited the vote taken more than two years ago to relocate from the Ridge Avenue property.

Meanwhile, both referendum questions remain on the ballot.

continued

Opponents of War Surge Take Protest to Senator Durbin's Office

Their activities were a local part of the nationwide Occupation Project, which calls itself a "campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience to end the Iraq war." It is coordinated by Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence, along with CODEPINK and veterans for peace. The project aims to pressure senators and representatives to vote against the proposed $93 billion supplemental war spending bill currently making its way through Congress. The project's campaign began Feb. 5 and is planned to last at least until the end of March, when the Senate votes on the bill.

Laura Bernstein, 59, of Highland Park; Katie Jean Dahlseng, 25, of Rogers Park; Marjorie Fujara, 43, of Evanston; and Rosalie Riegle, 70, of Evanston all dropped to their knees in the lobby of the Federal Building after the meeting with the Senator's staff. The four had a list of the names of the war dead. One sang aloud a name and all chanted in response, "We remember you. Not one more death, not one more dollar."

Police arrested the women within a couple of minutes: All recieved $175 fines for violating conformity with signs and directions, a misdemeanor, and were released in about half an hour.

The message from the women to the Senator and other politicians is, "You cannot say that you're against the war if you fund it," said Dickelle Fonda, 57, an Evanston psychotherapist who helped organize the event with members of CODEpink, the North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice, and the North Suburban Peace Initiative.

John Normoyle, deputy press secretary in the Senator's Chicago office, said in early February that although Sen. Durbin voted against the war, he "voted for every dollar requested for the troops, because if his son or daughter were in Iraq he would want to make sure they had the equipment they need." Occupation Project activists contend, citing a Congressional Research Service report, that equipment purchased with supplemental spending funds does not reach troops on the ground until one to three years after the funding passes, "We have reached a point in this country where we feel strongly enough that we are willing to sit down, kneel down, and not get up," Ms. Fonda told press outside the building.

Occupation Project participants visit representatives' offices and lobby them to pledge not to vote for the bill. In many cases, participants plan to stay in the office until the legislator signs the pledge - or until they are arrested. However the women who were arrested on Feb. 20 chose to protest in the lobby rather than in Sen. Durbin's office so as not to endanger the job of the staffer who arranged their meeting.

"I don't think the intent is to disrupt," Ms. Fonda said. To her, the important part of the action was drawing attention to the group's grievance.

"Women need to take the lead," Ms. Fonda said, noting that all-female groups have "a different kind of energy."

And groups consisting entirely of women can also engage differently with building security, she said. Ms. Dahlseng, who lived in Evanston for two years before moving to Rogers Park last August, said the officer who arrested her was particularly gracious.

"She told me really proudly that when her mother had been pregnant with her, she had sat down in front of a bus at the Democratic National Convention," said Ms. Dahlseng, who is six months pregnant. She considered that if an arrest made her go without food for a long period of time, it could harm her developing child. On the other hand, she said, a pregnant woman's arrest may be more powerful.

"Children's innocent presence is a good witness," she said. "It reminds us of our own vulnerability and our own humanity."

Dr. Fujara, a pediatrician on the child abuse team at Cook County's Stroger Hospital, decided to participate after County budget cuts pushed her to "a point of desperation."

"I was voting, contributing to candidates who I thought would represent my values, writing letters and e-mails and visiting their offices in Washington, and it wasn't really making an impact," Dr. Fujara said. She went to Washington, D.C. twice to lobby for children's health issues in conjunction with American Academy of Pediatrics meetings. "I was told then ... that [because of the war] we're not going to have money to be doing what we should be doing in our society in terms of taking care of children."

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, has a law office overlooking Federal Plaza, and has noticed the anti-war gatherings. He called civil disobedience "a time-honored means of communicating a message."

"Anybody who has a humanistic instinct ... is going to look upon the initiation and continuation of violent hostilities with certainly, at a minimum, a great amount of skepticism," he said. "One should always question why it is that we should be at war."

However, he feels that it is important for the United States to stay in Iraq.

The day after the women's arrest, Ash Wednesday, a different group held an ecumenical prayer service - asking for forgiveness for the war - outside the Federal Building. Tim Salemme, 17, of Chicago, a student at St. Ignatius College Prep, was there. He said that when the group tried to enter the Federal Building to deliver their letters to Sen. Durbin and Senator Barack Obama, they were not even allowed into the lobby. As they approached the Federal Building's door, they said, security officers locked the door to prevent them from entering. After two phone calls, three of Sen. Durbin's staffers came outside to collect the letter.

When the women who went to the Federal Building on Feb. 20 caught wind of this, they planned a "mock office" event for March 1, sitting outside the Federal Building to receive complaints and letters from those unable to reach Sen. Durbin because of the locked doors. The group may continue to work together in the future.

"I'm not quite sure what it will mean for me to have a child, how that will enable or disable me from activism," Ms. Dahlseng said. She and her husband have thought about working with Christian Peacemaker Teams, which sends volunteers trained in nonviolence to conflict zones around the world. But they are trying to figure out what the demands of a family will be.

Dr. Fujara hopes to build a coalition of health-care professionals to work for peace. "I've never met such a dedicated group of people in my life," she said of her co-workers at Stroger. "I think if we tap into that we can really make a difference."

Ms. Fonda said, "We have this group, this really strong affinity group of 20 women from all different organizations. ... Every action will evolve out of a previous one. ... So stay tuned. I have no idea."

Pros and Cons, Some Angry, Aired Over High-Rise Proposal at 1890 Maple

By Bill Smith

At the Feb. 21 Plan Commission meeting angry verbal exchanges broke out during discussion of the proposed 14-story project at 1890 Maple Ave.

The current proposal by developer Carroll Properties calls for a 158-foot-tall building with 152 rental dwelling units and 40,000 square feet of retail space.

The project would have 313 enclosed parking spaces, about 40 of them provided under an existing lease agreement at the City's Maple Avenue garage.

The developer's attorney, David Reifman, said the only variation the developer is seeking is for additional height. He said the proposed density is allowed under existing zoning.

With the added height, the developer would offer substantial setbacks for the tower from the street and create room for roof-top gardens on the mid-rise portion of the building.

Neighbors who favor the project note it would replace a vacant three-story office building that they say creates a dark and unsafe environment in the area at night.

While opponents said they feared traffic congestion would result from the project, City traffic engineers and the developer's traffic consultant said current traffic conditions could be improved with several steps, including installing new traffic signals and eliminating parking on the south side of Emerson Street to permit four lanes of traffic.

The hearing on the project is scheduled to continue on March 14.

A hearing on a proposal to build a new headquarters for the Methodist Pension Board at 1200 Davis St. was postponed at the pension board's request until the Commission's April 11 meeting.

This rendering of the proposed high-rise at 1890 Maple Avenue looks southwest from an imaginary helicopter hovering just above NU's Englehart Hall.

City Budget Has 3.35% Property Tax Increase

By Bill Smith

At the Feb. 26 City Council meeting, the aldermen unanimously approved the City's 2007-08 budget for $188 million, balanced with a 3.35-percent increase in the City's portion of the property tax. The tax increase is higher than the 2.92-percent increase in last year's budget, but lower than increases in the two years before that.

The budget calls for a net reduction of seven full-time-equivalent City employees. It eliminates 26 existing jobs, 10 of which were already vacant, and calls for filling nine new positions.

Max Rubin, whose position as facilities manager was eliminated in the current budget, was rehired effective March 1 as emergency services manager. The director of human relations, Paula Haynes, did not see her position restored, however, although two human relations staff members will remain.

City Manager Julia Carroll has said it will take at least two more years for the City to eliminate a structural imbalance between its annual income and expenditures that she has estimated to be at least $3 million.

Getting to a balanced budget
The aldermen began the budget process with a 5.47 percent increase in the City manager's proposed budget and had trimmed it to 3.9 percent by the time they went into their final budget session on Feb. 26. Most of the aldermanic changes came from raising estimates of projected revenue rather than cutting expenditures.

At the last budget session, Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, persuaded aldermen to raise staff revenue projections by $230,000 for the home rule portion of the state sales tax, by $100,000 for the City's share of the state income tax and $5,500 for revenue from a state amusement tax. But she lost efforts to increase budgeted projections for the natural gas utility tax, the housing demolition tax and parking ticket fines, after those changes met opposition from the City manager and the finance director.

Reversing an earlier budget vote, the aldermen decided not to use $250,000 from water fund reserves to reduce the property tax increase. City Manager Julia Carroll had opposed tapping the fund reserves, which she said will be needed to reduce borrowing for water main replacement projects.

Council members also rejected a proposal from Alderman Anjana Hansen, 9th Ward, to take the quarter-million from general fund reserves instead.

Ms. Carroll said that money is needed to help fund a long-term plan to reduce under-funding of the City's fire and police pension fund, which she plans to present to the aldermen next month. She said the City needs to find $98 million to cover the pension obligations.

Aldermen Split West Side Plan Into Sections

By Bill Smith

Aldermen have decided to split into several parts the plan for developing the City's west side, into several parts, making some parts mandatory and some advisory. In addition, the aldermen suggested at a special Planning and Development Committee meeting Feb. 22 they would like to see other parts reworked before deciding whether to adopt them at all.

It was not entirely clear from the discussion which parts of the plan would fall into each category. The aldermen asked City staff to come up with recommendations about that.

The plan
Plans for areas 1 and 2 - from Simpson Street South to Church Street - drew the most skepticism from aldermen. There the plan calls for several new streets. Existing property owners complained the new streets would dramatically reduce the value of their properties. Developers said the streets would make new housing on the properties much more expensive unless the City paid for the roads.

In area three - from Lake Street to Church Street - the plans call for pedestrian paths rather than full streets to reknit the neighborhoods split by the rail right-of-way, and the aldermen seemed closer to approving plans for that area.

The area-three plan also calls for rezoning the intersection of Church Street and Dodge Avenue to encourage development of three- and four-story mixed retail and residential buildings.

It proposes town homes for industrial property, provides for a bike path along the old rail-bed and would expand an existing Evanston Township High School parking lot at Lake Street and Dodge Avenue to permit residential and commercial redevelopment of a school parking lot at Church Street and Dodge Avenue.

Aldermanic views
At one point Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, suggested the aldermen might make the entire plan advisory.

But Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, said too much effort has been invested in the plan "to just say this is a vision and not do anything more serious."

She proposed splitting the discussion into different parts. That way, she said, "staff could give us some better guidance, people could reflect more on specific aspects of the plan and maybe more neighbors could buy into the process."

Alderman Steve Bernstein, 4th Ward, said he wanted to take time to walk through the area to further study what impact the plan would have, but said the plan seemed to be "one of the best pieces of work" he has seen in his time on the Council.

Alderman Anjana Hansen, 9th Ward, said she wanted to see at least parts of the plan - those dealing with height limits and setbacks - made mandatory. If not, she said, "I think we are taking all the work the community has done on the plan and telling them your work doesn't count."

Alderman Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, said "I'm happy to have some of it be mandatory - but not tonight. I'd like to have staff pick and choose" what portions are ready for adoption.

Community comment
Although the planning process involved at least a half dozen extensively-publicized community meetings attended by an average of 50 people per session, several people at the Feb. 22 meeting, including John Cahill, the owner of Cahill Plumbing at 1515 Church St., claimed they had not heard about it until recently.

Mr. Cahill also asked whether it was prudent to totally eliminate industrial zoning in the area.

Community Development Director James Wolinski said he hopes Cahill Plumbing will be in Evanston another 100 years, but added that the City has lost many industrial uses in recent years and has been unable to attract new ones because of high business tax rates in Cook County and the availability of larger land parcels in outlying communities.

"So we need to prepare for when this property is no longer industrial," Mr. Wolinski said, "otherwise it's likely to stay vacant for years."

Joan Safford, 1618 Wesley Ave., was among speakers who voiced support for the plan, saying it is important to think about how new developments will integrate with the neighborhood so new people will "feel part of the neighborhood rather than part of a virtual gated community."

Iké May Dickson of the West End Area Block Club said members of her group had attended all the planning meetings. "We found the process to be very fair. Everyone had an opportunity to express their thoughts. Nobody got all they wanted, but we came together to come up with a plan for our area. ... It would be a great disservice to our children not to approve this plan."

But Minnie Edwards, who lives in the 1900 block of Dewey Ave., said, "We need more policemen, not more condos. We have a lot of havoc on the west side and need to hire another 100 police officers."

Carlis Sutton, 1821 Darrow Ave., called the planning process a charade and said the meetings "stifled citizen participation rather than encouraging it."

Although the plan does not cover the land on which his home sits, Mr. Sutton insisted that "your plan shows me being eliminated."

And even though many developers who have acquired property in the area are Evanston residents, Tina Paden, 1122 Emerson St., claimed that "these people, the developers, do not live in Evanston.