EDITORIAL

March 19, 2008

Today marks an anniversary we deplore. On March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. Five years later, the war goes on, anchoring both countries to a fate that daily appears less and less promising.

Five years: longer than our involvement in the Civil War, in either World War or in the Korean Conflict. Half the life of this publication.

These days our attention seems to be diverted by defaulting mortgages and budget shortfalls. Peace vigils receive little media coverage. Regrettably even this newspaper failed to fully chronicle local antiwar activities over the winter.

The damage from this war is devastating to both countries.

Despite the efforts of our servicemen and -women, chaos has accompanied the destabilization of Iraq. By one estimate, some 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. There is violence in the city streets, violence in the countryside. Not only is there loss of life, there is loss of culture, commerce and intellectual capital, as many of the best and brightest leave the country.

At home, the war on terror has diluted freedoms and eroded confidence in the institutions responsible for protecting them.

Joseph Stiglitz's book "The Three Trillion Dollar War" reminds us of all the dollars that could be spent on strengthening our schools, bolstering our infrastructure and setting this country on a firm path toward long-term stability and restored democracy.

At the earliest, it will be decades before historians can sort out these events and help us understand their meaning and effect.

Meanwhile, the war continues, wearing us down and numbing some into complacency. It is always on, always around us, like a white noise just a bit too loud for a truly comfortable sleep. And behind the white noise the great machines of war and consumerism grind on, beating out a hard rhythm of greed and fear that threaten to destroy this country from within.

"The world is too much with us, late and soon," wrote William Wordsworth two centuries ago. "Getting and spending we lay waste our powers." These words applied to the poet's contemporaries. We can take them as a wake-up call to demand an end to the mission in Iraq before leaving becomes our greatest accomplishment.

Loud And Proud

By Charles Wilkinson

"Hey, Evanston is playing in the Super sectionals. Wanna go see?"

"Sure. Where's the game?"

"Someplace called the Sears Center."

"Never heard of it."

"Me neither. But should be fun."

I Googled directions, and Tuesday a week ago three of us (the Stack boys, John, his son Ted and myself) headed west to the land beyond O'Hare to see the Wildkits play Mt. Carmel.

John and Ted have Evanston basketball in their blood. Evanston Township High School is in mine because of my kids. None of us got to Beardsley during the season, but we followed the team in the papers and knew they had something special going for them this year. We found out what it was in Hoffman Estates.

More than 5,000 fans were there to support their teams, but by the start of the Evanston/Mt. Carmel game we had to believe most of them were Evanstonians. The west end of the lower stands overflowed orange and blue, a color scheme in the crowd itself.

The game became predictable in the second half, after the Wildkits decided to play their kind of basketball, not the Caravans'. I cannot speak for the Stacks, but I found myself watching the ETHS students and cheerleaders as much, if not even more than the game. I called home at halftime to give the score; also my son Matt, with whom I connected in Memphis, Tenn.

I doubt if I was alone with such a feeling of pride for the team and the school.

By game's end, quite a few of the Mt. Carmel fans had left, so the place was mostly Evanston's. As for that "something special" mentioned earlier, what happened after the trophy presentation says it all. The team, after every hand held the trophy high, instead of circling the stands, ran it to the student's section, saying, in effect, "This is as much yours as it is ours."

As I write this, the remainder of the Wildkit's season has yet to be played. But whatever happens downstate can never diminish what the three of us witnessed way out west.

In the slow-moving traffic on the way to I-90, someone ahead of us in a van sporting a Wildkit sticker stuck his head out, shouting, "Is this the way to Evanston?" As if he didn't know!

P.S. Last Friday's dramatic, improbable loss to Zion-Benton ended a quest, but it created a memory for the ages.

Ida B. Wells

By Peggy Tarr

Since it's still National Women's History Month and since the Associated Press ran an article in February on George W. Bush's statements against the use of nooses and noose jokes, it seemed an appropriate time to write something about Ida B. Wells, the journalist who crusaded against lynch laws in this country.

Looking at various online sources I have compiled a brief biography of Ms. Wells. A civil rights leader, she was also a suffragist, newspaper editor and publisher, investigative journalist, co-founder of the NAACP, political candidate, mother, wife and the single most powerful leader in the anti-lynching campaign in America.

Ms. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Miss., in 1862 to the slaves James and Elizabeth Wells, during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. Her parents were freed from slavery at the end of the Civil War. After both parents and a sibling died of yellow fever when Ms. Wells was 14 years old, Ms. Wells dropped out of school and found a job as a teacher to support her six remaining siblings.

Ms. Wells and most of her siblings moved to Memphis in the 1880s, where she worked and attended summer sessions at Fisk University. She was angered by the treatment African-Americans received and was forcibly removed from her seat on a railroad car when she refused to move to a "colored car." She sued the railroad and won her case initially but lost when the railroad appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1877. The Civil Rights Act of 1875, which "banned discrimination on the basis of race, creed, or color" in public accommodations, was declared unconstitutional in 1883, replaced by the "separate but equal" philosophy.

Ms. Wells began a career in journalism while teaching school, but she lost her teaching contract after writing articles criticizing the poor education given to African-Americans. Ms. Wells participated in women's suffrage parades but even then was expected to stand in the back because she was black, which she refused to do.

In 1889 Ms. Wells invested in the Memphis Free Speech newspaper. In 1892 she was forced to leave Memphis after writing a criticism of the lynching of three African-American businessmen, pointing out that they were lynched because they were taking business away from white merchants. She encouraged African-Americans to leave Memphis, which many did. Ms. Wells moved to Chicago.

She published a pamphlet entitled "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases," documenting lynchings. Ms. Wells and other black leaders boycotted the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and wrote and distributed a pamphlet called "Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition."

In 1895 Ms. Wells married a Chicago lawyer, Ferdinand L. Barnett, and adopted the name Ida Wells-Barnett.In 1906 Ms. Wells joined William E.B. DuBois and others to further the Niagara Movement, and she was one of two African-American women to sign "the call" to form the NAACP.

Ms. Wells spent a lifetime in the fight for Civil Rights and women's suffrage and broke bread and crossed swords with Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and President McKinley. She died in 1931.

Letters to the Editor

Too Costly to Live Here, Too Sad to Leave
Editor:

Several letters in the March 5 issue of RoundTable address the dismal performance of Evanston's management.

I have lived in north Evanston for 22 years and am appalled at the deterioration ofthe community in this time. When we moved here, downtown Evanston had the same old fashioned charm of the other North Shore communities and comparable service.

Now we have ugly, oversized condos downtown, streets so full of potholes that they look like they've been bombed, unplowed sidewalks, no leaf pickup in the fall, and a debt that was dutifully hidden from us all. Our taxes keep rising, and the quality of our services diminishing.

It's time we held our representatives and management accountable. It's time to stop building multistory monsters. It's time to reduce our City payroll and hire fewer - but more competent - people.

In the last few weeks as I struggle to get my car out of my snow-clogged and rutted alley onto an unplowed pot-hole filled street, when I finally make it the two blocks to Wilmette, I am amazed at the plowed sidewalks and clean streets and alleys. Same in the fall, when I see the Wilmette village trucks sweeping leaves their residents can rake into the street.

We are older people who are sadly discovering that it's getting too difficult and costly to live here, but we don't want to have to leave.
--Ann Mallow

Citizen Asks Why City Officials Want Tower
Editor:

Evanston should not be the precious cash cow of real estate developers who handsomely line their pockets from us. It should be and has been a City that people live in for its atmosphere, charm, culture and amenities.

It is one of the duties of our City government to raise revenue for the City in such a way that those means don't clash with our values, character and ethos.

Therefore, I am appalled and aghast that our City officials want to build a 49-story skyscraper in downtown Evanston.

A few years ago it was a marina they wanted - and it seems if they can't despoil our lakefront they have to have a go at our downtown area. Why is it that they just don't seem to "get it" about Evanston: The soul of Evanston is not for sale. Period.

Development, yes, progress, yes, but not at a Faustian price that undoes everything we live in Evanston for. Our officials are ticking off a series of "reasons" why a 49-story skyscraper would help "progress" - but the more reasons they give, the more bogus they look.

The Evanston Coalition for Responsible Development (www.evanstoncrd.org) does an excellent job of cataloging these "reasons" and de-mythologizing them one by one. They are on target to emphasize that true progress needs to be responsible, measured, harmonious - which the sudden and uncontrolled emergence of condominium developments and now a towering skyscraper are not. I encourage everyone to log onto their site and sign the petition.

Even if this monstrous, ugly project does not go through - which only citizen outcry can achieve - I believe all people of common sense and good judgment need to question if our City officials are suitable for their positions when they consistently put the almighty dollar and illusions of "development" over the charm and the lure that our City has to keep us here.

I urge all readers to speak out to your alderperson, the Mayor and the City Manager to express your outrage; if our City officials think skyscrapers are so important to "development" why don't they work for Donald Trump - not the City of Evanston?
--Michael Zucker

So Where Were the Outdoor Ice Rinks?
Editor:

Doug Gaynor has done it again - no ice rink flooding in any of the Evanston parks.

How much does it take to flood a park? With one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record, Mr. Gaynor and his stalwart crew have again dropped the ball.

I grew up in Evanston, and every year the parks were flooded from late December through February, providing the people of Evanston with wonderful, inexpensive outdoor fun.

One of the best outdoor rinks was the lagoon, a natural for flooding. Not everyone can go to Crown Center, and it isn't available for open skating very often. We need neighborhood ice rinks that are maintained throughout the winter.

In case Mr. Gaynor doesn't know, to flood a rink you connect a large hose, turn the water on and spray, and follow-up periodically while it is cold. You just have to get off your duff and do it.
-- Brian Bourke

Readers Support ETHS Initiative in Freshman Honors
Editor:

As white parents of achieving students, we support the new initiative to move all freshmen to either enriched, mixed or honors classes.

We are mothers of children that have graduated from, are going to, and will soon attend, ETHS. Our kids thus far have had the benefit of a great education from regular, mixed, honors and AP classes.

The new proposal put forth by District 202 leaves us with some questions about how curriculum for our best and brightest will be affected. But, frankly, our greater concern is what is not happening for the students who are not achieving. How much longer will we tolerate this glaring achievement gap? It is time to try a new strategy.

Statistics recently published in the student newspaper confirm that most of the kids who populate the upper-level classes are white. These students typically have support or resources at home and will continue to do well under the new plan. On the contrary, most students who languish in lower-level classes are African-American or Latino. Many of these students face multiple obstacles at home, on the streets and at school and need extra help and inspiration in order to succeed.

These are the students being left behind. This is the community being underserved. And from what we can tell, their parents support this program. That is good enough reason for us to say "yes!"

Of course there are questions. This will not be a simple transition. But we believe our resources and energy are best spent answering the question "how best do we support this change?" instead of "should we do it?" We are way past the point of "if."

We will weather the bumps that change brings. Support change at ETHS. Let's all get on board.
-- Joan Kelly, Cristie Traina

North Suburban Regional Budget Hearing on March 24
Editor:

This year, the General Assembly faces the challenge of crafting a balanced state budget and closing a $750 million deficit. As we begin our work, it is important for us to hear from residents of Lake and northern Cook counties about the programs, services, and resources that are most important to our communities and what our funding priorities should be.

Please join us for a North Suburban Regional Budget Hearing on Monday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. at the Northbrook Village Hall, 1225 Cedar Lane. We expect to hear from community leaders, business owners, labor officials, service providers, advocacy organizations, health-care facilities, school districts, colleges and local residents.

All are invited to attend and encouraged to share their views. For more information, please call Rep. Karen May's office at 847-433-9100.
- State Rep. Julie Hamos, 18th District, State Rep. Lou Lang, 16th District, State Rep. Karen May, 58th District, State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, 57th District, State Rep. Kathy Ryg, 59st District, State Rep. Eddie Washington, 60th District

Unhappy With Stroger

Open letter to those elected to represent us: Jan Schakowsky, Larry Suffredin, Julie Hamos, Jeff Schoenberg, Barack Obama, Dick Durbin:
Two years ago, I received a letter signed by all of you, requesting my vote for Todd Stroger as Cook County Board president.

The main tactic you used was the fear of abortion cutbacks at Stroger Hospital. That secret weapon worked to help get Todd elected. However, what many of your constituents still insist on is reform, and Todd is not the man for the job.

Congratulations - Chicago now has the highest sales tax rate of any large city in the nation. Our CTA is in disrepair. Little has been done to change the cronyism and patronage that Chicago and Cook County are infamous for.

We still need reform. My fear is that, with Democrats continuously in the majority in Cook County, we will be stuck with Todd Stroger for years to come. Please, I beg you - let's get rid of the albatross of corruption and patronage that eats up our precious funds.

Chicago is a world-class city, vying to be an Olympic host city. Show us what you're made of; exert your influence to fix Cook County - and don't be afraid to get rid of Todd Stroger in the process.

He's a lightweight, inexperienced manager who's riding on his father's coattails. Shame on all of us for letting this go on.
-- Barbara Carlson

Little Recycling at Crown
Editor:

I was at the Robert Crown Center on March 1 and was disappointed to notice that recycling seems to have almost been forgotten at the center.

The only recyling container I noticed was a small blue basket near where pop is sold.

There were no recyling containers in the kitchen area or near any of the other trash bins or any indication where people could recyle.

I also noticed a lot of aluminum cans in with the regular trash.

Everyone and the City of Evanston needs to get serious about recyling. This is a small step to begin to deal with climate change here in Evanston.
-- Hal Mead

D65 Should Have Left Geometry at ETHS
Editor:

District 65 Superintendent Hardy Murphy has twice tried to eliminate the honors geometry program at ETHS. Both times the D65 Board - presumably Mr. Murphy's boss - has said no.

The Board finally buckled when Mr. Murphy offered an "option" for geometry at the middle schools - with little apparent regard for the possibility that this new policy may undermine D65's only accelerated instructional program.

Had there been such an option four years ago, we probably would have chosen the convenience of keeping our then eighth-grader at Nichols. Instead, the experience of being in the geometry classroom of an experienced ETHS teacher inspired our son - a prospective college math major - to pursue a course load that impresses admission officers nationwide.

Dr. Murphy claims that "by serving our most able learners in our own schools, we will enhance a climate of high expectations for all children." But demands for excellence cannot be so easily replicated as the D65 administration wants us to believe.

The vast majority of participating families want their children to be able to continue to utilize the expertise of ETHS teachers. D65 plans to use small class size to make the new middle school program more attractive. Given Mr. Murphy's track record, is it any wonder that parents question his commitment to maintaining the ETHS "option?"

D65 should work harder to enhance a climate of high expectations for all middle school children, but not at the expense of such a successful program.

And the Board should demand that Mr. Murphy make a genuine effort to ensure the viability of the ETHS geometry "option." After all, the challenge of improving achievement levels for all students will be best addressed by making the most of all of our community's academic assets.
- Bob Heuer and Julie Simpson

Why Build Tower Nobody Wants?
Editor:

I would like to voice my opposition to the proposed 49-story skyscraper at the 708 Church St. site for the following reasons:

1. Visually, it is a nightmare. The height and design is totally incongruous with the existing buildings and character in downtown Evanston. Simply put, it's too tall and way out of proportion.

2. Overwhelmingly, citizens in Evanston are opposed to the building. I have been carrying around a little clipboard with a petition to the daily events of my life - church, the gym, yoga class. I have easily gathered 100 signatures in a very short period of time. I could not get out of the dressing room at my gym because the ladies formed a line to sign it.

Now I have not taken a statistics class in a long time, but it seems to me that I have been in enough public this must qualify as a random sample. Take it from an unofficial pollster with a clipboard: People in Evanston aren't neutral about the tower. They really hate the idea.

Comments were made like these:

"The condo market is already oversold. Forty percent of the apartments in my condo are rented out."

"Kick out Williams Shoe Store? I don't think so."

"Downtown Evanston is already too congested."

3. From what I can gather of the economics, it makes no sense in this regard, either. The funds, as I understand it, do not become available until 2019. And what is this I hear about the developers asking the City for $3 million to help renovate the Hahn Building?

What is wrong with this picture?

I hope that all concerned citizens will contact their alderman about this critical decision that will affect the quality of life
-- Linda Hoff-Hagensick

Reader Opposes Moran's Immigration Resolution
Editor:

I'd like to suggest that the vast majority of Evanstonians still aren't aware that this has been staged and in process. They may or may not take lightly the underlying premise that we are UN-humane and UN-just in our "...treatment for immigrants and their families." They might be equally surprised that our Human Services Committee now wishes to identify us as more than a mere municipality. As of our most recent open meeting at the Civic Center this week, we are now holier than thy FED, and by God, our Congresswoman will flaunt full credit. Using us in the name of Human Rights and with no regard for potential legal fees to defend us from outrageous egoism (if not profiteering on the part of Committee members) is both insult and folly.

And with specific regard to our most recent open meeting at the Civic Center this week ... "What would Martin say?"... I remember what he told us at SDS, SNCC and CORE in the late 1960s. Martin would say, Martin did say, in so many ways for so many days across so many state lines to bring down the full force of federal law to enforce our existing laws.

Our existing laws are UN-humane and UN-just? Not worthy of enforcement? Not worthy of Evanston? Not worthy of us? Ask Human Services Committee member Mr. Moran, with the law firm on LaSalle. He just motioned to approve version 3 of 11-R-08, and (hey) the rest of us just have a little life by a big lake. How do you like it?
-- R. J. Dickerson
Ed. Note: Ald. Moran's resolution was defeated at the March 10 Council meeting.

Unanswered Questions on D65 Geometry Proposal
Editor:

District 65 Board endorsed March 4 planning efforts to offer on-site geometry as an option along with the ETHS program in Fall 2008 for one or two middle schools. The D65 endorsement failed to address critical questions raised by the community including:

1. What is the minimum acceptable class size per school to offer on-site instruction cost-effectively?
Currently the largest interest the District could identify would have less than 15 students in a class.

2. How will the small class size for geometry affect other classes, given the District's plan to redirect teachers that are already in the budget?

How many students will be added to their math classes as a result within the targeted schools?

3. Where will D65 obtain funds for increased program costs of this option, including teacher coaching and professional development?
Additional costs to D65 were estimated to be $10,000 for a program that will serve fewer than 25 kids.

4. How will D65 communicate alternatives to parents so that they can make an informed decision?
The confusion over the District's initial survey makes communication critical prior to any decision deadlines for parents.

5. How will any geometry pilot be measured for success?
This is a group of academically strong students who all score in the top 10 percent of any standardized tests, so alternative measures are needed.

6. What is the drop-dead date for this program to be determined viable?
By when must parents commit before the Board authorizes fund expenditures?

7. Are there other unintended consequences this change may cause?
The last time the geometry program was changed, problems for band students resulted.

8. How will management implement this new effort without diverting District 65's administrative focus from other critical issues?
Is focusing on development of an optional geometry offering at one or two middle schools for a few kids what District 65 should be doing when we are failing to prepare many students for basic high school algebra today?

Before the Board and management go off approving expenditures and focusing energy there need to be more answers to the Board and to the community. For more information and updates go to www.EvanstonKids.org/.
--Pam Waymack

Website Reveals Facts of Skewed Tower Process
Editor:

Just about one year ago, the Evanston City Council met in two private, illegal meetings with developers of the proposed 523-foot tower (taller than the Washington Monument) for 708 Church St. These private meetings were convened for the developers to pitch the advantages to the City of an "iconic" tower and create excitement for more growth in the expanded Tax Increment Finance (TIF) area.

One subject under brief discussion was a possible sale of the City-owned Fountain Square property.

The Illinois Attorney General's office, in July and again in October 2007, found that the Evanston City Council had violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act. It required the Council to release the minutes of two meetings held secretly in February and March 2007. Some Council members continue to posit that the Attorney General was mistaken in overruling the City of Evanston's Corporation Counsel.

After these meetings, and before the release of the minutes, the City Council on June 11, 2007 declared a moratorium on building in the downtown. However, they specifically exempted the 708 Church St. parcel. This deliberate action allowed the current proposal to proceed with its planned unit development (PUD) project and its request for four times the current zoning requirement for height, to move to the Plan Commission. The Plan Commission then was placed in the peculiar position of reviewing recommendations for the Downtown Plan and the "iconic" tower concurrently, and separately.

The Plan Commission hearings were controversial and ended with a 4-3 recommendation to the City Council. Oddly, however, many of the standards and criteria for such a project were not met, nor were they well-explained by the members who voted in favor of moving the project to the Council. In contrast, the dissenting members of the Plan Commission have written a "Minority Report" which clearly articulates standards not met and their concern for the perception of a flawed process.

As the project is now moving toward the City Council for final approval, I encourage Evanstonians to visit a website established by the Evanston Coalition for Responsible Development to reveal these facts to the community: www.evanstoncrd.org. There, taxpayers can read for themselves the documents I have cited and learn how to become involved in preserving what is left of the character of Evanston.

The public process regarding this project has been less than open to the residents of Evanston who are being asked to relinquish the character of their community to the interests of private development. Based on the skewed process alone, the approval of this development should stop immediately.
-- Mimi Peterson

Bad Weather in Evanston Only?
Editor:

A friend of mine, a well-coordinated young man, saw a woman fall yesterday on an icy Evanston sidewalk. He rushed over to help her, fell and twisted his ankle.

Weather in Evanston must be so much worse than the weather in Rogers Park, where sidewalks are totally clear of ice and snow.

Thank goodness Evanston homeowners and store-owners are not forced to go out in this weather to clear their sidewalks. After all, who would be dumb enough, or suicidal enough, to go for a walk in winter in Evanston?
-- Ruth Granick

Evanston Should Face Actual Facts Regarding Pensions
Editor:

Where did Mr. Windsor's retirement age of 56 years come from? Year after year, Mr. Windsor's report showed 75 percent of police and firefighters retiring between the ages 63 and 70, and 50 percent retiring from 65-70, when in fact working past age 65 is prohibited by law. One does not have to be an actuary to see what effect "assuming" employees work ten years longer, investing their money ten years longer, and drawing out pensions ten years fewer has on City contributions: It drives them way down. Future taxpayers continue to be the losers. Mr. Windsor testified about his actuarial model, twice mentioning corporate bonds, which we cannot hold.

Alderman Cheryl Wollin is quoted as identifying four benefit-increase bills, "all of them disastrous for cities, in my opinion." The cities' own Illinois Municipal League (IML) sits at the table in Springfield, and no bills move forward until they sign off on them. Probably the most disastrous bill changed the funding method in 1993. The principal architects of that bill? You guessed it - the IML.

You quote Evanston's former finance director, Bill Stafford, as saying, "It was not until the year 2000 that cities were required to put in an actuarially determined amount." That is not correct. The ARC has been legally required since 1980, but Evanston officials decided it did not apply to them. It was in 2000 that the Illinois Appellate Court ordered the City to stop making up contribution numbers, and to follow the law.
--Timothy Schoolmaster,
President, Board of Trustees Evanston Pension Fund

Of Awkward Skylines And Symbols
Editor:

John Macsai has written often about architecture in the City of Evanston. As one of his teaching colleagues in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the late 1980s, I enjoyed many conversations with him about architectural issues.

Of late, his creative writing efforts, mostly in the RoundTable, have been directed toward his and my hometown: Evanston. His defense of the building located at the northwest corner of Chicago Avenue and Main Street several months ago was both surprising and disappointing.

Excusing the failures of the bleak design by blaming the developer for eliminating certain finishing touches planned by the building's architects is an insult to anyone with good vision. The building is an aesthetic and urban failure because of its overall composition and material palette, not its details.

It fails to respect its context and instead is an essay in aggressive contrast. It employs many of the architectural conventions of the 1960s, a time universally understood to be American architecture's low ebb, demonstrating a nostalgia for the institutional banality of that period.

The building is already aging poorly, turns a horrific blank facade to the CTA tracks (and consequently west Evanston) and thereby forms a sterile Neo-Modernist entry gateway to the southeast corner of the City.

But Mr. Macsai is creative, so I read his essay as a test of his ability to persuade against all odds - aiming to convince all of us that the Emperor indeed has new clothes and they're quite refined, even though you can't tell when you look at these structures.

He takes us along for a ride, hoping to achieve a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of Evanstonians, who are privileged to live in the midst of much great architecture (though the ugly is gaining prominence as we recklessly press forward with ill-considered development).

I am confident Evanstonians can spot an architectural failure when they see it, regardless of Mr. Macsai's employment of "architect-speak" to tout virtually anything new.

Now, unfortunately, the creative leaps of his writing have crossed into a misleading form of fiction in his latest "Eye on Evanston" essay about the 49-story tower proposed for the center of downtown.

Mr. Macsai summons up our collective awareness of (and, presumably, affection for) the Eiffel Tower in a flawed attempt to justify an inappropriate proposal that has no merit architecturally or urbanistically.

Citing a number of renowned Parisians who came to love (and, he tells us, even paint the Tour Eiffel, he carefully crafts his seduction to conceal one obvious, but singularly essential, distinction: The Eiffel Tower is an open-air public viewing tower, a tracery set against the sky for the common use of Parisians.

It became a symbol of the City of Lights, precisely because it is a grand piece of classical sculpture that can be ascended for views over the city to the distant countryside. It occupies a vast urban park which it ornaments like a monumental fountain of iron.

The Eiffel Tower's urban park, superimposed on Evanston, would stretch continuously from Church Street south to Dempster, and is two Evanston city blocks wide. The Evanston tower is a private concrete and glass behemoth.

How many times will we allow architects to mislead the public by claiming that high rises with vast expanses of windows are "transparent"? We see artists' renderings that make the structures seem to dissolve against the azure sky.

Floors and interior walls preclude any real sense of transparency. To a pedestrian, not one building in the downtown actually seems "transparent" beyond the first row of furniture stacked against the windows.

It is well known that glass surfaces appear reflective during the daytime when interior light levels are less than the ambient light outside.

At night, a predominantly glass high-rise structure simply gives passing pedestrians a "my, my Grandma, what big windows you have" view into the very private lives of private citizens. Which brings us back to the insulting fallacy behind Mr. Macsai's essay: The proposed 49-story Evanston high rise (more than twice as tall as any other building in the City) is a private development containing individual condominiums. No public monument. No public viewing platforms. No open-air iron tracery. A tall, private, behemoth against the sky.

"Except in the instance of church towers, vertical markers always create controversy," Mr. Macsai continues. He then cites the resistance of some to Brunelleschi's dome for the cathedral in Florence, quoting none other than Giorgio Vasari, the imminent 16th-century Florentine architect, painter and biographer of contemporary artists.

He goes on to point out that 20th-century city planners recognize that Brunelleschi's dome, along with Giotto's bell tower, together became a "symbol of Florence."

Emphatically - Yes. They represent, dramatically and forcefully, the institution of the Catholic Church in a (still) predominantly Catholic city and consequently serve as public structures.

Today, any visitor, Catholic or not, can ascend the steps to the top of the dome to enjoy the view of the city, the Tuscan countryside and the marvels of Brunelleschi's architecture.

Mr. Macsai then adds the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the Torre del Mangia (the clock tower at the Piazza del Campo in Siena) and the Campanile in the Piazza San Marco to his list of "symbols" and "image-defining" city architecture.

His inclusion of these examples is stunning. The first two are both physical elements of, and appropriate civic symbols for, buildings housing municipal government - city hall towers which symbolized the governance of a people.

The campanile at Piazza San Marco is a church bell tower, again serving as a tangible symbol of the relationship between ducal (governmental) power and divine sanction in the form of the Catholic Church.

Mr. Macsai begins by saying that with the exception of church towers, vertical markers create controversy, then cites two church towers to support his argument for height.

Is capitalism Mr. Macsai's church? Are we, as a collective citizenry of ethnic, racial, economic and religious diversity, in any way comfortable having a private tower with wealthy residents standing as our "symbol"?

Sherman Plaza, by the same developer, was designed by an architect of distinction: Daniel Coffey. The new tower is being proposed by another architect of distinction: Larry Booth.

In both cases, the problem is not a consequence of the skill of the architect. They are both good architects.

But there is a problem: the inappropriateness of the proposal put forth by the developer, who we might suspect has cleverly crafted a fall-back position - perhaps "settling" for 35 stories as a gesture of good will to a concerned citizenry.

John Buck "settled" for one tower at the Washington National site after earlier stating that two towers were obligatory for the economic feasibility of that project.

Mr. Macsai quotes Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin (who is not an architect, although he sports similar eyewear) describing Evanston's skyline as "awkward" and lacking a "clear focus."

Mr. Kamin is also currently championing the so-called Chicago Spire by Santiago Calatrava, despite the fact Chicago has a "clear focus" in the Sears Tower and another "clear focus" with the John Hancock building. Build the 49-story tower and soon Evanston will need more "clear foci" - a sort of architectural astigmatism that already threatens our beautiful architectural legacy of a mid-rise downtown while threatening to block the views of those who built earlier. They bought their residences operating under the assumption they would stand in splendid isolation into perpetuity.

Let us not forget that Evanston's own Daniel Burnham, the masterful architect and urban planner who famously said, "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir humanity's blood. … Let your watchword be order and your beacon, beauty.

Think big," suggested a cap of 16 stories on all buildings in Chicago in his Plan of Chicago of 1909 for the Commercial Club, the single exception being the vast, domed City Hall structure at its center - a fitting symbol of a collective citizenry.

Washington, D.C., has a similar height restriction to this very day, with beautiful effect. What about this proposal for a 49-story high rise (or a 30-story high rise for that matter) is anything but awkward?

In an age of steroid controversies, we might demonstrate our dignity as a place of great architecture and urbanism and attempt to lead by example, saying "enough" to excess. Mr. Macsai can weave a great story. But we should tell the Emperor that his architecture "has no clothes."
- Thomas Norman Rajkovich, Evanston architect, Visiting professor, University of Notre Dame Graduate School of Architecture

Award-Winning Independent News Program to Air on ECTV
Editor:

Beginning this month, the Evanston Community Media Center, in collaboration with the North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice, will begin broadcasting DemocracyNow! live from NYC.

The hour-long news program will air on ECTV-Comcast-Cable Access Channel 6 at 7 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thurdays.

‘Democracy Now!' (DN!) is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

Its War and Peace Report provides its audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media: independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts.

DN! also hosts real debates - debates between people who substantially disagree, such as between the White House or the Pentagon spokespeople and grassroots activists.

Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is also broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television and on the internet. DN!'s podcast is one of the most popular on the web.

For true democracy to work, people need easy access to independent, diverse sources of news and information. But the last two decades have seen unprecedented corporate media consolidation. The U.S. media was already fairly homogeneous in the early 1980s, when some 50 media conglomerates dominated all media outlets.

By 2000, just six corporations dominated the U.S. media. In addition, corporate media outlets in the U.S. are legally responsible to shareholders to maximize profits.

And U.S. "public" media outlets accept funding from major corporations, as well as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has attempted in the past to exert political and editorial influence on public news producers.

DN! is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers and foundations. Today, more than ever, we need the information that corporate media doesn't offer us. DN! is the cornerstone of quality and integrity in independent journalism.

We urge Evanston residents to check out this remarkable alternative news program and judge for yourselves. We are excited to be working with ECMC to make it possible for the Evanston community to have access to this incredible weekday news program.
-- Dickelle Fonda, Marcia Bernsten and Dale Lehman, North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice