EDITORIALS

'E Pluribus Unum': In There for the Long Haul

Professor Robert Putnam's recently published "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the 21st Century" asks us to take the long look at diversity and to envision the future where the potential of diversity has enriched this country, as demonstrably as it has in the past.

Mr. Putnam distinguishes between "immigration" and "diversity" - diversity often being a result of immigration - and he also distinguishes between forced and voluntary immigration.

Over time, he says, certain patterns emerge in both categories. And while the short- and medium-term results of immigration may be locally negative, he says the long-term results are beneficial for the country as a whole.

Mr. Putnam's analysis uses the term "social capital," which he defines as "social networks and the associated norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness." Studies have shown that where social capital is strong, economic productivity, health and happiness ensue.

In a cost/benefit analysis, the cost is local, the benefit, national. Mr. Putnam's study shows that the benefit of diversity is a social capital that strengthens the community and the country. But the cost of getting there - social isolation, increased need for education and social services, increased suspicion of outsiders - is often borne by the local communities.

According to Mr. Putnam's extensive study, one of the first results of diversity in a community is self-selected isolation, a tendency for the different groups to "hunker down" and stick with their own kind. Diversity, Mr. Putnam says, "seems to bring out the turtle in all of us." It does not, he said, "produce bad race relations or ethnically defined group hostility," but rather, isolation from and distrust of even friends and ethnically similar people.

Social capital is lowered, and trust, even among one's own kind, decreases. Also seen are less confidence in local government, less volunteering and charitable giving, but more involvement in protests and social-reform movements.

After this initial period of fear and isolation, though, Mr. Putnam says a diverse society can build social and cultural bridges among its several parts. From a base of ethnic or cultural identity, different groups find ways of interacting with others who are not like them. "Bonding" thus can pave the way for "bridging," and bridging is something we all need to work on.

Tolerance, he says, is only the first step. We need to expand ways of sharing experiences. Historically, Mr. Putnam says, shared experiences, education, popular culture and religion have served to help unify disparate elements. Schools, churches, music and athletic fields all play a part in this.

Some feel that our national identity is at stake, feeling overwhelmed by waves of immigration they did not seek and by diversity thrust upon them. But Mr. Putnam advocates riding out the storm and creating, rather re-creating, a nation that draws its strength - economic, cultural and other kinds - from our inalienable differences.

"My hunch," he concludes, "is that at the end we shall see that the challenge is best met not by making 'them' like 'us' but rather by creating a new, more capacious sense of 'we,' a reconstruction of diversity that does not bleach out ethnic specificities but creates overarching identities that ensure that those specificities do not trigger the allergic, 'hunker down' reaction."

Happenings

By Charles Wilkinson

Here is how they work:

Take a day, any day, or at least a half-day, and give it to yourself. Preferably mid-week. If you have a car, hop in and go. If not, start walking. Or jump on a bus or the el. Do not stay in bed or fuss around the house. Get moving. Go. But before you do, let go - of anything else you have on your schedule so you can be free to move on a whim. Give your self a gift. Have a "happening."

Easier said than done? Of course. But when you do it once you will discover how easily it can be done. A few tips (happenings have no rules) might help.

First, do not plan a happening; just do it. That is why it is called a happening. That does not mean you cannot block out time a week or month before. But keep the time open and free of any agenda.

Second, once you decide to go, let other choices follow but do not plan ahead. Happenings are all about spontaneity. A day in the Loop can be filled with all sorts of surprises if you just get yourself there. A car can take you any place your whims desire and even a walk along Evanston's lakefront can fill a morning with rarely claimed pleasures.

Third, when having a happening you never get lost or waste time. Maps and clocks are verboten. Asking directions is a no-no as is, when driving, using expressways or the same road twice. And you get home when you want to, not when a clock demands.

Fourth, happenings can be shared with friends only if mindsets are shared as well. However, when one person's whim becomes another's "Whoa!" there can be problems. And happenings are supposed to be problem-free.

Fifth, when happenings do not work it is usually because they become work. Happenings are meant to be pure fun - and fun is never work.

Naturally, happenings are not for everyone. Type A personalities would risk stroke or heart attack doing so, even though they need them more than most. But for those who give themselves the experience of this too-often unclaimed luxury, surprises await.

When anyone breaks out of the routines of daily living, they quickly discover how much their agendas control them. Having a happening, even for half a day, can enlighten anyone about the basic need of feeling in control of one's self. And having fun doing so is a great way to learn.

Try it. You will see what I mean.

Hijabs

By Peggy Tarr

It was excruciatingly hot and muggy. The temperature was in the low 90s, and the humidity was really high. Being outside under the sun was like being in an oven. Relief from the heat could only be found in air-conditioned places, which made browsing in air-conditioned malls a sought-after activity.

Ode to malls! I was waiting for a ride from a friend and decided to go outside as the time for my friend's arrival approached.

I left the coolness of the mall andsat down on a bench to wait. I snacked on a candy bar, but when I got up to throw the wrapper in the trash, a man came out of the mall and plopped down on the bench.

He sat with his legs spread apart and his arms draped over the back of the bench.

Since he left little space for anyone else to sit down, I decidedto just stand. I looked around for some shade, but there wasn't any.

The man wiped his brow with his hand and flung the perspiration into the air.
I wiped my brow, cheeks and neck with a handkerchief continuously.

A group of women came out of the mall and passed in front of us. The man watched them as they crossed the street.

"Whew! How can they wear all that stuff, as hot as it is?" The women were covered from head to toe, with only their faces and hands showing.

"Custom," I offered.

"Well, they're in this country now. They need to act like Americans."

"They are," I countered. "America. Land of the free."

"It's stupid to wear all that in this heat."

"My experience has been that sometimes clothing protects you from the sun."

"I don't believe that. They're just dressed that way because they're Arabs."

"Wasn't there a time when Catholic women in America had to wear something on their heads when they went to church?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Aren't there some Orthodox Jewish women who wear something on their heads when out of their homes?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man bobbed his head up and down.

"And you know what? I believe all the portrayals of Mary, mother of Jesus, show her with her head covered much like those women who passed."

The man stopped bobbing his head up and down.

"That's right!"

Mouth closed.

* Hijab is the Arabic term for "cover," based on the root meaning "to veil, to cover, to screen, to shelter." In some Arabic-speaking countries and western countries, the word "hijab" primarily refers to women's head- and body-covering.

Letters to the Editor

Is It Phallic Enough Yet?
Editor:
At last Wednesday's Plan Commission meeting at City Hall, the entourage of developers for the Fountain Square Monstrosity (McTower?) took up half the seating space and were allowed to run out the clock with a presentation so long that those of us who wanted to speak against it didn't get to the mike until nearly 11 p.m., when many people had left.

The long list of nay-sayers was cut in half. From the tone of the meeting it was apparent that the developers and those entrusted with protecting the public's concerns felt the tower was a done deal. Shameful.

Are we hoping not only to look like Chicago in the future but to run City Hall on the same model? Wiser future generations will look at this out-of-scale behemoth and see it as a silly symbol of masculine virility - Evanston's opportunity to say to the other 'burbs, "See? Mine's bigger than yours!"

Enough is enough.
-Paul Barker

Reflections on the Plan Commission Hearing
Editor:
Attending the Plan Commission's public hearing on Aug. 8 on the proposed Fountain Square tower, I was pleased to hear how matters of traffic flow, parking and economic impact have been addressed by the developers.

I was less pleased at the responses to the challenges posed by one commission member relative to affordable housing - essentially a dismissal of the issue with the assumption that the $800,000-plus proposed contribution was all the developers were inclined to do, with little care about whether this was an equitable return for the substantial benefit they will receive from the project.

I was most concerned, though, about the implication conveyed by one presenter for the developer that the height of the proposed structure was a non-issue. When asked why the decision to build 49 stories, as opposed to, say, 60, he said that, apart from financial considerations, the height was not really relevant. Specifically, he said that once you get above 20 stories, there is no difference between 20 and 40 stories. I beg to differ, as did several others in the audience, judging by the spontaneous verbal responses to his statement.

The height of this proposed structure may, in fact, be the most salient consideration. For we are talking here about the character of a city, its sense of self, its projection of itself to the larger world.

Surely another new residential and retail structure downtown will add to the vitality of surrounding streets and the tax benefit to the City. But "what does it profit a [city] to gain the whole world and lose its soul?" The quotes in the slick promotional brochure distributed at the hearing are very telling.

One said, "The tower would give the awkward Evanston skyline a clear focus." By what or by whose standard is our skyline awkward? And what is the solution, if it is? Does a focus, especially a cloud-piercing focus, compensate for awkwardness? Why not, for instance, a dispersed aesthetic projection as opposed to a central, pretentious focus?

The quote goes on to refer to the towering focal point as "a top, as it were, to the urban wedding cake." Somehow I have never thought of Evanston as an urban wedding cake, nor that it needed a top.

But perhaps the greatest fallacy in the proposal of such a soaring structure is found in the quote which suggests that Seattle, San Francisco, and Vancouver discovered benefit in lifting their height restrictions to allow for buildings of 500 feet - about 49 to 50 stories.

Evanston is not a large urban center, like these cities, that can accommodate the agglomeration of buildings of that scale. This town has a distinct persona, a character and essence that have drawn, and continue to draw, people to live and work here and make it their anchor.

A town's physical self is an expression of its essential self. I realize that life is not static; it does and should regenerate itself with the unfolding times. But it needs to preserve a sense of identity as a compass out of which to live thoughtfully into the future - an identity that, though unfolding, is not altered, chameleon-like, with every economic opportunity that comes along offering sparkling, lofty promises.

Evanston is not a city for 49 stories. I hope it will not become one.
-- Larry Murphy

Thanks for Addressing Poverty
Editor:

Many thanks to the 70 concerned citizens who came to the "From Poverty to Opportunity" campaign forum at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore on July 31. This forum was part of a partnership with Heartland Alliance and others such as Interfaith Housing to gather community input on problems we face concerning poverty. It is the beginning of a statewide effort to place the issue of poverty at the forefront in Illinois.

A report and recommendations for a comprehensive strategy to cut deep poverty in half will ultimately be presented to our legislature. What we learned at our forum is that, here on the North Shore, the barriers to moving out of poverty are not so different from those shared around the state: affordable and accessible housing, health-care, child care, education and public transportation. So many of the solutions suggested at our forum revolved around advocacy and community organizing. To this end, we are forming a working group to push the From Poverty to Opportunity campaign forward here in the northern suburbs. Even if you were unable to attend the forum, feel free to jump on board now. Anyone interested in participating can contact Loretta Line at the YWCA, 847-864-8445, ext. 20, or by e-mail at lline@ywcae-ns.org.

So here's what we know now: Activism is not dead. People ARE concerned. And you are proof that poverty really is an issue on the minds of community members.
-- Loretta Line, Advocacy & Education Director, YWCA Evanston/North Shore

Planning Doublespeak
Editor:

Re: New Zoning Proposal for East Central Street

Residents on Central Street and, I'm sure, other areas recently received notice of proposed zoning changes including areas of the Ryan Field parking lot. Despite assurances that no hotel or office building was "really" going to be built in the parking lot, the city seems to be sneaking in the first salvo towards that.

I'm sure there are many areas where the City and zoning commission's "Woody Allen world" (as in "Banana's" where residents of a Latin American country had to speak Swedish and wear underwear on the outside so the police could see it) plans will upset the residents.

If the City really tried to build these, Northwestern would surely tie up any effort for years and cost the City (taxpayers, of course) large legal fees (the City did not seem to learn from the Historic District lawsuit) and of course the residents would tie this up in hearings into the next decade - a waste of people's time and taxpayers' money.

The City hired "planners" to come-up with these plans. Then officials say, "These things won't really be done - they were only proposals."

Why then are we paying big money for these plans? I thought after the book "Dangerous Company" at least City officials would understand that consultants have "studies" they just put different covers on and deliver to their new client. It does not matter how silly the proposal is, they will just replace it with a new one if someone objects - and of course charge you for their "new" study, since you were not specific in what you wanted (them to tell you).

If we need "consultants," why in the world do we not use Kellogg and McCormick professors and students to do the analysis? Yes, the City has its conflicts with Northwestern, but at least they live here and have a stake in the City. They would also be much cheaper and, hopefully, more in touch with reality.

Their plans can't be any less practical than the consultants the City used.
-- John Fuqua

IDOT Will Look Into Safety of Illinois Bridges
Editor:

Understandably, the recent bridge disaster in Minnesota has brought renewed focus on safety concerns related to deteriorating infrastructure. IDOT will conduct extensive inspections of critical bridges, as directed by Governor Blagojevich.

Virtually every major newspaper across the nation has rightly questioned whether enough is being done to improve transportation infrastructure.

Bridges are just one part of the system's overall safety, and it's unfortunate that only a catastrophe like the one in Minnesota can bring public attention to the imperative of maintaining infrastructure in general.

More than 1,000 lives are lost every year on Illinois highways, a total that can be reduced with adequate funding. In 2005, a crash occurred somewhere in our seven-county region about every one minute and 46 seconds, with a fatal crash every 17 hours and 50 minutes.

Deteriorating roads lead to more crashes, which lead to more congestion, which in turn yields more crashes.

In addition to safety, there are many other reasons the State of Illinois is long overdue to invest in the transportation system as a whole.

The Chicago region's continued economic success depends on our ability to maintain and expand roads, transit, freight, and other necessary infrastructure. Residents spend an estimated 253 million hours per year in traffic delays, consuming 151 million gallons of fuel.

A total of $4 billion is wasted annually on fuel and productivity due to congestion. Without new investment dollars, we risk losing our competitive advantage just when we need it most - as the City's Olympic bid moves forward and as the global economy grows less forgiving.

Since last December, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has been urging the Governor and General Assembly to pass a new capital program for the State of Illinois. The last such initiative expired in June 2004. Recently, I joined the chairmen of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties in signing a letter to Governor Blagojevich calling for new capital infrastructure spending.

With such broad, bi-partisan consensus supporting the proposed capital program, now is the time for the Governor and the General Assembly to act decisively.
-- Gerald Bennett, CMAP Board
Chairman and Mayor of Palos Hills

Wow! And How!
Editor:

You build 49 stories and what do you get? Another big regret?

Once again citizens of Evanston are faced with a downtown project that is shocking in its dimension, which sets an ominous precedent.

The latest proposal is heralded as the Fountain Square Development (a.k.a. 708 Church St.)

Why is it called the Fountain Square Development? It has nothing to do with the actual Fountain Square as customarily defined by generations of Evanstonians ... a place where Sherman, Orrington and Davis converge. Up to the 1950', Fountain Square was a circle, a round-a-bout, in traffic lingo, until traffic and Council geniuses designed the present layout. The idea was an attempt to bolster Fountain Square since that new Old Orchard Mall was slowly killing the downtown businesses.

For the past year or so thousands of dollars have been spent on studies considered necessary to enable City staff and Council to rationalize, improve, finalize plans for the Central Business District, especially Fountain Square, the core area; for instance:

What of the study that discussed the latest hot city planning idea:

Form-based zoning? Remember that splashy public presentation? The gist of it was: be sensitive to surroundings, keep things in proportion and context.

What of that hefty study: "Downtown Transit, Circulation and Development Study"? An impressive tome.

What of the survey conducted voluntarily by the Evanston Preservation Commission concerning actual and potential landmarks in the Central Business District?

Was all this "busy" work ... a diversion for the citizens ... keep 'em guessing, as it were?

That elegant little color brochure coming from the Fountain Square development, is primarily a blurb passout ... not a sales pitch. It is something to see and read through. ... Especially the blurbs of Blair Kamin, a Jennifer S. Forsyth....

But the blurb from the Daily Northwestern, reporter, Peter Jackson, unwittingly seems to answer my last question: "The developers have worked for months with city officials to design a tower with a 'wow factor', they said at a Thursday news conference. [The City] said, 'Don't come back with an ordinary building.'"

Hence, the developers and City officials(?) worked for months to design a tower with a "wow factor"! How disingenuous can you be?

Aha, what this town needs is: a "wow" tower - all 49 stories of it; to summarily boot out the businesses/practices at 708 Church St.; to endure months and months and months of noise, dirt, trucks, traffic tie-ups (recall Sherman Plaza) as well as quaking ground, nearby tenants enraged and alarmed, etc. etc. ... you name it.

This proposal is urban overkill of 49 stories in a suburban setting.

It is a structure grossly inappropriate to and out of context of its surroundings and ethos!

Already, anxious chatter about the northeast corner of Sherman and Church is being bandied about; some bemoaning the "difficult" of getting occupancy.

Will our permeable zoning continue to enable, even encourage another high-rise on that, or any other downtown corner?

Look about you, fellow citizens... carefully.

Are we selling the character and soul of Evanston for 49-story-"wow"-factor pottage?

Do we want to be the joke of the North Shore?
Go figure... speak up.
-Ann C. Dienner

Protesting at Blackwater
Editor:

On August 11 several members of Evanston's North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice and Neighbors for Peace joined with others around the state for the first "Protest at the Gates" at the entrance of Blackwater USA-North just east of Galena, Illinois.

Blackwater USA is one of the largest private military contractors currently operating in the US ; they have forces deployed in nine countries and boast a database of 21,000 additional troops at the ready, a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gun-ships, and the world's largest private military facility - a 7,000-acre compound in North Carolina. It recently opened this new facility in Illinois and is fighting local opposition to a third planned domestic facility near San Diego (Blackwater West) by the Mexican border. It is also manufacturing an armored vehicle (nicknamed the Grizzly) and surveillance blimps. Blackwater recruits and trains individuals in the techniques and skills of attack, capture and interrogation for both foreign wars and domestic policing.

They are currently leasing 80 acres near the border of Carroll and Jo Daviess counties, and there is fear that they intend to expand. Many of the neighbors near the site feel very insecure about living near a military training facility.

Blackwater and about 150 other private contractors are being extensively used to conduct the war and occupation of Iraq. For every enlisted soldier in Iraq, there is one privately paid employee. Thus, to a great extent the war is being secretively privatized.

Privatization of the military takes the control out of the hands of citizens and gives it to private corporations whose interest is the bottom line; war profiteers and their lobbyists in Congress encourage war, not peace.

For more information about Blackwater USA and the continued plans to oppose its presence in Illinois go to www.noprivatearmies.org; The most well researched book on the subject is "Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."
-- Dickelle Fonda

Electricity Comes From Where?
Editor:

This question stopped me cold. I should know this answer but I honestly did not know. Then I asked several smart friends the same question -- they just stared at me. "From the wall switch" was the most typical yet embarrassed reply. Most of us have not given much thought to where electricity originates. Our interest is simply that electricity is reliable and immediately accessible.

The answer to the question is: primarily from coal and nuclear plants. In the State of Illinois, 99% of our energy is either coal mined from the earth or generated from nuclear power. Even though ComEd sends out annual flyers specifying their sources for producing electricity, for whatever reason, I had not connected the dots.

Recently Kilowatt Ours, a documentary by Jim Barrie, connected the dots for me. The film starts with the mountaintops of West Virginia being blown up. In order to access coal, five million pounds of explosives are used each day by the coal mining companies in Appalachia. As a result of this mountaintop-removal process, more than 1,500 miles of streams have been buried by rock and debris. A by-product of coal results in a thick black gooey substance called coal slurry that is accumulated in huge manmade holes made in the flattened mountaintops. In the fall of 2000, over 300 million gallons of this slurry spilled into the Big Sandy River in Martin County, Kentucky. Homes were buried, water severely polluted and fish killed as far as 100 miles away. This ecological disaster was 30 times greater than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Yet, very few people outside of Kentucky even heard about it. Why was there no mainstream news coverage or national outcry to this travesty?

The United States generates 50% of our electricity from coal. In Illinois this percentage is higher at 54%, while nuclear is 45%. Less than 1% comes from clean, sustainable and renewable sources. The burning of coal has resulted in air pollution that translates to smog-forming NOx, soot-forming SO2, toxic mercury contamination and carbon dioxide, all of which settle into our soil, water and fish, atmosphere and air. The result of the discharge from both coal and nuclear plants reveals increased respiratory diseases particularly for our children, altered earth and water for healthy living beings and global warming. Asthma, a crippling disease, has become the number one cause for chronic illness in our children. The fact that Chicago harbors some of the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation only aggravates the health issues for our citizens and all other species.

The quality of our lives quietly diminishes as we consume more and more electricity with little understanding of what turning on that light switch means. One pound of coal can run 10 light bulbs for one hour, an air-conditioner for 30 minutes, a water heater for 15 minutes. This translates to over 8,000 pounds of coal used by the average home in a typical year. Lights account for 40% of electricity usage in many homes. That is 270 pounds of coal per house per month that must be burned in order to keep the lights on. The national average of electricity used by the average home is 25 kWh per day or 750 kWh per month. At a cost of .0732 per kWh (the energy supply charge rate only), the average ComEd home pays $55 per month or $660 per year before other ComEd charges and taxes. Add these additional charges and the cost doubles. Schools spend more on energy bills than they do on computers and textbooks combined.

The good news is that all of us can immediately impact this outflow of electricity by changing our habits: not turning on the light switch when we are not in a room, unplugging appliances not in use, using power strips to eliminate "bleeders", namely, electronics created to respond instantly when switched on like computers, televisions, radios, thus never really turning off. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs use 20% as much electricity as a 100-watt incandescent bulb. Unfortunately these new bulbs contain mercury and I have not yet seen a recycling plan to address this problem. Still, if just one room in every home in America were lit by Energy Star lighting, it would be like removing one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere - thus, less coal-burning and nuclear power would result, assuming that we continue to use less electricity.

I strongly suggest investigating the website www.Kilowattours.org to learn more ideas for personal efficient use of our electricity. Jim Barrie created his film, Kilowattours, out of a need to speak up about the devastation of our mountains and the lives it directly and indirectly affect. This documentary should be viewed by all who love the places that we thought would always be there. Mr. Barrie dedicates the second half of his film to simple solutions that we can all enact.

Another powerful website is www.illinoispirg.org that advocates for a strong, mandatory renewable energy standard in Illinois. By passing statewide efficiency standards, we lay the ground for the quickest and cleanest way to address energy use and waste that impact our children, our state and ourselves. Power companies, manufacturers, business would be required to meet new energy efficiency standards that do not exist today within Illinois. Another resource is www.environmentillinois.org that addresses numerous environment issues within our state.

Many of us feel paralyzed by the weight of these earthly problems. Yet, we all can start to do something this minute. Just by the flick of a light switch, or not, we can begin to lessen our current impact on the planet. My parents were always yelling out to us kids, "Turn off the lights!" This is wisdom that we can pass onto to our children too.
--Kitty Nagle

History in Jeopardy
Editor:

Fountain Square is as much a part of Evanston as Northwestern University and Lake Michigan. We have become indifferent to it however over the past few years.

When the fountain was dedicated in our nation's centennial year, our forefathers had so much hope in this young city. They gave us this fountain to be a meeting place and a source of pride in the community.

Have we lived up to their expectations? The answer is sadly no. The poor condition of the fountain and the fact that it doesn't even pump sends a clear message. The fountain, and the war memorials honoring our fallen dead from World War II, the Korean War and the War in Vietnam, are about to undergo a major facelift.

We must not let the developers decide the fate of this truly historic link to the past. This fountain has been the gathering spot for countless celebrations spanning generations and the spot where five-star war hero Douglas MacArthur spoke in 1951.

There is some talk of moving the engraved memorials to another location.

We, as a patriotic community, need to be sure that great care and reverence will be the guiding principles in determining what will become of this sacred site and to the brave men listed here.

The time is now to take an interest to decide what legacy we will leave here for future generations.
- Laura Wolff-Rust