By Patrick F. Cannon

Last Saturday, the Northwestern University Wildcats men’s basketball team defeated the number one ranked team in the nation, Purdue University, 92-88 in overtime. They did the same thing last year on the way to their first NCAA tournament appearance in many years. Now at 6-1, it looks like they’re well on their way to another great season.

After surviving a hazing scandal that led to the firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald, that beleaguered team pulled together and won seven games for new coach David Braun, so it’s bowl eligible. Who knows, they may get a bid to the Pop Tart Bowl (actually they accepted an invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl). By the way, I played organized football at three levels (parish, midget and high school) and survived far worse abuse than was reported in this case, but I guess times do change (too late for me).

As a very long ago graduate of Northwestern, I’m proud of our athletes, whose overall 98 percent graduation rate is the highest in the Big 10; and its 97 percent football graduation rate is the highest in the country for major colleges. But there’s no doubt that the home football stadium, Ryan Field (Dyche Stadium when I was there) in Evanston has seen better days. My good friend Ed Swanson has had season tickets for many years, and I have attended with him from time to time. Let’s just say the joint’s a bit primitive (no elevators, for example).

Our fellow NU grad for whom the current stadium is named, Pat Ryan, has put up a sizable pile of dough to build a new stadium. It will have fewer seats, but all the modern amenities (elevators!) included. But to help pay its way, NU asked the City of Evanston for permission to host up to six concerts a year. Because of its design, noise from these mostly musical events would be well contained, but nearby residential areas – both in Evanston and neighbor Wilmette – would certainly be affected by increased traffic of not only cars, but perhaps of strange and exotic people!

There was no problem approving the stadium itself – it was just replacing what was already there. But the Evanston City Council voted separately on the additional concerts. You should be aware that there has always been a tension between NU and Evanston. The university uses up a lot of Evanston’s land, but pays no real estate taxes. While it’s true that recent campus expansions have been on new landfill in Lake Michigan, still many Evanstonians don’t think NU has ever paid its fair share.

To be frank, most game days haven’t been a big problem. The only time its seating capacity of about 48,000 is reached is when the opponent is someone like Notre Dame, Michigan or Ohio State. And in a typical season, there are only six home games. But concerts would likely be at night!

I lived in Oak Park for more than 40 years, and I always thought of it as “Evanston without the lake.” Both are “progressive” politically. The few Oak Parkers of a conservative nature fondly call their community “the Peoples Republic of Oak Park.” If anything, Evanston is more progressive. Even Oak Park has not passed a reparations ordinance, but Evanston has.

The deciding vote in favor of permitting the concerts was cast by Evanston’s mayor, Daniel Biss. He is a former Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago, and a graduate of both Harvard and MIT (where he got his PhD). Abandoning academia for politics, Biss was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 2010; ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018; and was elected mayor in 2021. Over the years, his positions have been reliably progressive; he even supported Elizabeth Warren in her run for president in 2020.

Yet, he no doubt disappointed many of his constituents by voting “yes.” I’m sure he looked at all sides of the question, and decided on the basis of “the greatest good for the greatest number.” While NU may not pay real estate taxes, its students and faculty mostly live in the community and eat, drink and pay rent there. On game days, alums, parents and others pay an entertainment tax on their tickets, and no doubt avail themselves of local restaurants, which adds local tax revenue to the bill. Tickets to the added concert events will be far more expensive, boosting entertainment tax revenues. And those folks will no doubt eat, drink and be merry before and after the concerts.

So the mathematician did his sums before casting his vote and decided to be a politician instead of an ideologue. Compare his reasoned approach to that of his neighbor to the south, who is learning the hard way that governing a great city isn’t the same as being a former county commissioner, teacher and union organizer.

Copyright 2023, Patrick F. Cannon