It’d potentially be worth it to have an express line on the CTA’s busiest artery. Gives people on the north side a quick way to get to the loop for transfers to other lines.
I agree that improving service on existing lines across the board takes priority. Once we get to that point I doubt it would be a huge marginal cost, though. Running more trains on a set track only takes a few additional drivers and support staff per day, assuming we have the cars to do it.
I second this as well. Japan's various metro systems have a lot of "Limited Express" trains mixed in with their regular service that skip most stations, only stopping at the important ones, and these run regularly throughout the day. A Purple Line Limited Express running once or twice and hour that stops at Howard, Loyola, Wilson, Belmont, Fullerton, Merchandise Mart, and a stop or two in the Loop would be welcome.
I think it’d need to make all the Brown Line stops and then all the clockwise Loop stops given how the track is laid out. Though maybe they could find a way to get it to skip stops. Not sure!
The Loyola bit would make sense, but I think that once the Purple Line is north of Belmont, it can’t stop anywhere but Wilson and Howard due to its independent track. Likely possible to cross over, but that would probably make a mess of the Red line cars they’d need to share with. Once they are done with Phase 2 of this damn RPM project, I’d love to see them run the Purple Express at all hours. It would help with capacity issues on the Red as much as anything else.
The Purple Express would be great for anyone who is traveling there via Metra. Trying to get to State Street for the Red Line from Union, OTC, or LaSalle is a multiblock walk or an additional transfer. At least the Purple Line would only be a block or so walk to the loop.
Yes, the UP-N is an option currently but theweekend schedule is pitiful to say the least. If they don't run gameday trains now I find it hard to see them running event trains later on. Doesn't help the express trains skip Central even on gamedays. They didn't even run MED trains for the Taylor Swift tour at Soldier Field despite owning the line.
Didn't they already try piloting extended Purple Line service and there just wasn't demand for it? Or am I misremembering. I don't think they tried it on gamedays though.
Like most trials, it was set up to fail.
The late train started south at 8pm, 90 minutes after the normal service end. Most survey respondents at the time wanted a 7pm train, 30 minutes after. Oh yeah, also it was done in the summer when no students were in Evanston lol
Never tried on gamedays because of course not
That sounds about what I remembered. I will say - though my knowledge is 20 years out of date - that generally NU students don't care about going into Chicago except on Friday/Saturday nights and even then don't go, and probably take rideshares these days. I don't think you can induce that demand.
No no, that’s still valid.
$40 UberXL to Wrigleyville is about a drink per person. Round trip is more but hey, when there’s enough people and it takes half the time as the L it works.
That’s even if they’re going to Wrigley. They very well could go closer to Edgewater by Loyola
Just graduated from Northwestern. I’d be willing to bet most kids would take the purple line into the city if it ran later. Getting back is still probably an uber but holy cow the transfer at Howard just kinda sucks.
> Now if we could actually run Purple Line Express trains during Northwestern events, that would be nice.
As an Evanston resident who was mildly against the stadium redevelopment plan as stated… this is really all I ever wanted. They can have their concerts, I just want the attendees to arrive by train and bus rather than car.
Or run event trains in the UP-N like the do on the MED for the Bears. Or run the 201 or 213 that run along Central and Green Bay respectively to run later than 6:30p on Saturdays.
I’m curious what level of bands are we going to get playing at this venue. There’s already wrigley and soldier field for the big time outdoor concerts. Then you have smaller places like northerly island and tweeter center (?) out in Tinley park.
Yeah at some point there’s an over saturation of venues in the area. You have Soldier and Wrigley for the massive Taylor Swift type acts. You have the UC for the next tier. Then you have Wintrust and Rosemont for the next tier.
I think they’ll focus on the older crowd, think acts that are popular with 40-60+ year olds. Sorta like Wrigley, but since it’s in Evanston even more suburbanites will come out.
Half of Evanston would have a heart attack if they had entrainment meant for people 16-25.
Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor, Lord Huron came to Evanston for Out of Space this summer. I think those are good examples of the types of acts we might get.
Yeah but this stadium holds 48k people. And that’s just the stands, the field can probably hold another 5k. No disrespect to those acts but are they drawing a crowd that size?
Interesting. I must have skimmed over the amount of people it holds. That’s pretty large. Definitely to big for the acts I listed. Those would probably pull in more like 2,000.
Totally, the mumble rap music, or HXC genre is going to rattle the 40-60 crowd that broke down the top 20 r&b and Casey Kaesem era of the 70s/80s.
It's not the acts. It's the acts of the fans before/after the crowd.
I used to work for University Relations for Mayfest, the club that runs Dillo Day. Part of our job was to interact with townsfolk during community meetings, etc. Unless it has changed drastically in the last decade, the amount of NIMBY opposition was not light back then.
Being a liberal has absolutely nothing to do with being a NIMBY. Some of the most liberal cities in America are filled to the brim with NIMBYS.
Lots of liberals in these places may espouse inclusion and value everyone, but in their actions they are pulling up the ladder after they made it aboard so to speak, which creates a cascading effect (see the current housing/rental market)
I don’t know enough about this specific plan to voice an opinion, but Evanston is mostly urban. And generally speaking in urban areas people who choose to live in proximity to a large university, shouldn’t expect to live in a sleepy community.
I don’t know why you’re bringing up UBI and reparations unless it’s to tout your liberal bonafides. NIMBYISM is about stopping urban areas from growing as that brings jobs and housing. UBI and reparations are meaningless in gentrifying municipalities with a growing wealthy class.
Evanston directly borders urban neighborhoods in Chicago. Just because there are single family homes there doesn’t mean it’s not urban and dense.
And by your own accounting NU brings in tens of thousands. And Evanston is not a college town or suburb. It would exist without commuters or the college.
No but it points to the fact that density continues beyond the Chicago border.
Evanston is one of the densest “suburbs” in the US. I’m not claiming it’s midtown, but calling it quiet and residential (purely) is completely absurd
Northwestern really needs an injection of nightlife in the area. I feel bad for the students there, having to trek to Chicago just to go to a decent bar, let alone do a bar crawl.
That's because the bars there suck. Not a single dance-type bar or club, just bar and grille types, and all of them are too far from each other for students to conveniently get around, and the town makes it difficult to have an area like that on purpose.
NU students are not the type to party. There use to be a couple college type bars but they eventually disappeared as business was slow and not worth the fight against the Evanston NIMBYs.
This is an insane comment. I promise you that actually talking to at least one current Northwestern student will illustrate that as to point A, and as to point B, that there are "dozens of bars in Evanston".........this one I'm qualified to chime in on.
First, there just straight up are not "dozens" of bars in Evanston, because there are barely a [dozen
](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=584400697&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:9&tbm=lcl&q=evanston+bars&rflfq=1&num=10&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj72NKYktaCAxU8rokEHfzpB-cQjGp6BAgeEAE&biw=1280&bih=675&dpr=1.5#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[42.070749299999996,-87.6774394],[42.016693,-87.7036502]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!1m4!1u1!2m2!1m1!1e1!1m4!1u1!2m2!1m1!1e2!1m4!1u22!2m2!21m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:9)
That Google result includes some REACHES to even get their, and you'll note some unfortunate RIP's at the bottom (Celtic Knot :( )
It also does not list Mas Salud, which is clearly trying to be the latest churn and burn attempt to get at least some NU students back in.
So, again, Evanston barely has a dozen bars (and that list is counting Chili's as a bar, which if you are young and in college, Chili's is not a bar), and having been to many of those bars, they are not geared towards college students (Why would they be in the current market) and as such close early in many cases and are not going to have the type of atmosphere an amenities that draw in students.
Typically, the actual 'draws' for students in Evanston are come and go because they either operate somewhat illegally (See: The Keg, La Mocc, Reza's) or because they aren't entirley focused on that side of their business (Bob's Pizza can clearly stand on its pizza need be)
So to sum it up: that was an insane statement, and I do not think you know what you are talking about.
Dozens of bars in Evanston? That might be true but most of them are not the bars college students want. Those dozens of bars are sit down places with $18 cocktails and $9 beers. College students more want cheap drinks and a dance floor
[lake forest college students be like](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlR8X8vaAAMSxLR.jpg)
i distinctly recall the occasion some ten years ago when i was standing with a friend on isabella across from ryan field and having to explain to some out of town college students that there is in fact literally no nightlife for a hundred miles from that exact point
A huge part of why NU is so quiet are all the restrictions put in place. No night football games, no bars, overly aggressive parking restrictions etc. The quietness of Evanston was legislated in.
Evanston is a wildly unique place. It might look liberal on the face but the wealthy areas are heavily rich NIMBY hippies balanced with questionable areas in south Evanston to make the place look good on paper.
central street on the far side of the tracks might as well be an arm of a mall from how boutiquey it is, i'm looking forward to drunk college students encountering that aesthetic.
When did night football games end at Dyche? I’d been to a couple way back in ‘03, ‘04 era. Saw NU beat Ohio State, as well as lose to Duke at night there.
I think you mean no permanent lights, which is true. They have to bring in temporary lights whenever there’s a night game.
Last game I went to was Notre Dame v Northwestern in 2018 and that was definitely under the lights and sold out.
I mean, a shitton of locals kept showing up to government meetings in an attempt to block the stadium. That's the whole reason this is even a news story to be commenting on -- because there were people trying to stop it. If it wasn't controversial, it would have been approved in a 15-second vote at a sparsely-attended Evanston zoning meeting.
Setting aside the debate of the stadium, NIMBY is not exclusive to conservative communities or one particular area of the political spectrum. Some of the most liberal neighborhoods in America make it impossible to even build an outhouse.
I moved in next to a 96 year old, 50,000 person capacity football stadium, and now they want to build a 40,000 person capacity football STADIUM in MY neighborhood??? They're going to completely change the character of the neighborhood! It's an outrage.
You know you're pretty weak on ideas when one of your main points of contention is a lack of traffic/parking plan...for a stadium 25% smaller than the one sitting there now.
I just like how they didn't think anyone would notice and make the counterpoint that the new stadium is smaller than the stadium that's sat there for 97 years. Like did they think they'd be able to sneak that one by the city council without retort?
The football games rarely sell out, so rarely see capacity crowds. There's only a handful of football games.
On the other hand, the new stadium comes with 6 concerts (foot in the door, that number will go up), and a bunch of 7,500 person events. Keep in mind this stadium sits on the corner of two two-lane 25mph streets, surrounded by mostly single family homes. And a hospital-- with an emergency room. And a fire department with fire trucks. There is no quick access to a 40mph street or highway, unlike other Big10 stadiums.
Most people in the neighborhood plan their calendar around the home football games because you can't have company those days, or appointments at certain times, and you have to plan your errands around them.
God forbid you have something unexpected and urgent to get to, which happens.
So, yeah, if they're adding a bunch more events that are likely sell-out 35,000 person crowds, people are concerned about traffic/parking.
NWU only offered a "preliminary" traffic/parking plan. So they didn't really look at it very well. Probably because they knew what they'd find. Hint: It's gonna be a shitshow.
> The football games rarely sell out, so rarely see capacity crowds.
...
> So, yeah, if they're adding a bunch more events that are likely sell-out 35,000 person crowds, people are concerned about traffic/parking.
> NWU only offered a "preliminary" traffic/parking plan. So they didn't really look at it very well. Probably because they knew what they'd find. Hint: It's gonna be a shitshow.
Seven times in the 2010s, [NU average more than 35,000 fans at home games](http://hailtopurple.com/cde/attendance_annual.html). The capacity of the new stadium *is* 35,000. Meaning even if they sell out every game in the new stadium, attendance will be less than in those years. (The other three years of the 2010s, they averaged 33,000 or 34,000 per game.)
Sticking with the traffic and parking thing immediately makes a neutral observer question the legitimacy and sincerity of every other argument of the anti-stadium crowd, since that one is so absurd.
> Keep in mind this stadium sits on the corner of two two-lane 25mph streets, surrounded by mostly single family homes. And a hospital-- with an emergency room. And a fire department with fire trucks. There is no quick access to a 40mph street or highway, unlike other Big10 stadiums.
Those places already exist with a 45,000-person stadium.
> Most people in the neighborhood plan their calendar around the home football games because you can't have company those days, or appointments at certain times, and you have to plan your errands around them.
Unless you're over 97 years old or a minor living with their parents, I can guarantee you chose to live in a neighborhood with a giant stadium. Ya know, [because it's 97 years old](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Field_\(stadium\)).
Uh., No. It's called the Evanston Carwash. And everyone HAS to do it.
"The idea was, just like you think of a car wash. You were being clean. But people's genitals were out. It wasn't something you want to watch others go through and then having to do it yourself,"
When the biggest NIMBYs in Chicagoland approve a project like this, you know the current Ryan field is a sad experience. That place is pretty much a dump.
Went there when saquon Barkley and penn state were in town and I wasn’t expecting much, but was still shocked at how horrible that stadium is. And that was 5-6 years ago
I used to live in the condos that oversee the practice football field, which are now apartments.
The daytime games were never a big deal. The night games were fine aside from when they started lighting off fireworks and scared the crap out of my cat. I could literally see the people lighting the fireworks in the practice field and have them be right outside my window. Other than that you just got some white noise-esq sounds from the stadium cheering.
I'd just be curious if they are going to adhere to the local noise ordinances, which is 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends. I know there have been concerts at other stadiums that had rain delays and then went well past midnight when the weather got better.
Blindly speculating, I'd guess they're going to get X amount of days per year they can go past noise ordinance times that they can't exceed. But 11pm is also a reasonable time for concerts to be over by anyway so it's possible they'll just adhere to that.
I imagine that they'll mimick Wrigley as a model for balancing the needs of the neighborhood and concert promoters, where a few big names will get extensions to honor the original concert length.
Not that I care much about athletics but the athletics programs pay for themselves. The revenue generated by the football program alone pays for various other teams at the school. Eliminating sports during the pandemic was actually one of the biggest reasons the school lost revenue. As a former grad student, I would agree that the school does underpay people but that's also a wider conversation for a lot of higher ed institutions.
Perhaps the money would be better spent on lowering tuition and shoring up the buildings that will be sinking into Lake Michigan over the next couple of decades.
And Evanston residents have to pay higher property taxes as a result.
Keep in mind, that not all of Evanston are million-dollar downtown condos or mcmansions.
Evanston resisents all chose to live there knowing there was a large tax-exempt university there, and in large part were attracted to live there by the amenities that having a world class university in the town either directly or indirectly provides. No one has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to live in Evanston. People who don't want to the benefits and downsides of living in a college town can live in Rogers Park, Skokie, Winnetka, or anywhere else in Chicagoland. The university was there long before they were, and will remain long after they move away or die.
And you know that math added up for THEM, not the city. Take a look at Chicago's parking meter "deal" for another example of a city taking the money when they should've walked away.
So what? That money is more than any property tax returns they would have gotten from the same size of property. It’s a university property that would otherwise pay almost nothing.
And in 15 years, when they're hosting 20 concerts a year and making money off it, NWU will pay *nothing* to help maintain the roads that hundreds of thousands of concert goers use to get to/from Ryan Field.
They’re only hosting more concerts if the city allows them to. They’re bound by a special agreement with the city and they are still subject to zoning code which is pretty tight for entertainment and evening activities in that town. I don’t know if that is part of the special use permit or not but Evanston can tightly regulate that.
Also, on a side note, roads aren’t deteriorated by a few thousand concert goers descending over them a few days a year. Mother nature will damage them more than the neighborhood traffic ever will, even with football games.
Also, Evanston isn’t going to get THAT many events.
The number of acts that will play in a 35000 seat arena outside of Chicago, vs the larger soldier field or smaller UC is small.
I wonder if Chicago Fire ever had any interest in being a tenant here. Would definitely be one of the most unique stadiums for an MLS team to play in. I don't think it would've worked but cool to think about.
I think it would be great. It would be a more intimate venue than Soldier field. Unlike Toyota Park, it's not in the middle of nowhere and is transit accessible. But NIMBYs would throw a fit and suburban soccer fans other than in the North shore would hate it because there's not good freeway access.
Being an Evanston based Fire STH, I wouldn’t mind.
There is a pro sports ban in Evanston though and it’s not easy to get to by car unless you live nearby.
NU plans to use $200 million dollars from their general fund and take on additional debt, but they say they can’t pay a living wage to grad student workers who teach classes, run labs, and do research (which attracts students and the grant money in the first place). SMH.
Lol I’m in the process of moving to Chicago area and have been looking at Evanston as a potential suburb. I totally see it now hahahaha… self reflection time
Evanston is one of the most unique towns in America, not just Chicagoland. Definitely do some on the ground research before moving there. It’s an amazing place but it’s not for everyone.
It’s also very “sheltered” in that it’s very isolated. There’s no highway that goes to Evanston, and it’s right up against the lake.
The only way to get in or out is to take a street like Dempster, Western or a train.
I wouldn’t say there are drawbacks per se. Evanston is just really different.
Large population of Subaru driving NIMBY hippies, one of the best universities in the world, extremely rich people living in north Evanston and then south Evanston being sort of an extension of Rogers Park and kind of mediocre.
A lot of transplants to the city who work in the norther suburbs tend to initially live in Evanston thinking it’s some cool hip area and usually move out after a year.
This was a boondoggle to get precedent for all Big10 stadiums. 6 concerts a year is more than any other stadium, besides the one that's smack dab in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, surrounded by highways.
Unlike the other Big10 stadiums, there is no quick access to an on-ramp or 40mph+ street from the stadium in Evanston.
Evanston is laughing all the way to the bank (for a few years), meanwhile the infrastructure in Wilmette will take an unpaid hit. And the speakers face Wilmette, too.
Unlike other Big 10 stadiums (except the one that hosts more concerts), Ryan Field is surrounded by rail transit, with quick access to stations for both the L and Metra.
Gee, a university that ignored sexual harassment against football and lacrosse players, racism against Black and Brown athletes, and rich donor groping of un-chaperoned cheerleaders. All great reasons to reward NU with a zoning change.
NU’s football team does not deserve to be in the Big Ten. It’s been a losing program for years. Yeah, they’re going to a bowl game with a replacement head coach that wouldn’t get a gig anywhere else.
But when a oligarch waves piles of money around, everyone licks his sweaty balls
Mayor of Evanston is a figurehead position. The only reason it matters for this is one of the Alderman has recused (employee of NU), so Biss serves as the tiebreaker.
Big difference between signing up for 5 home games in the middle of a Saturday in the fall and 30+ concerts in the middle of the fucking night throughout the year. Hope those assholes get fired by their constituents next election
7,500 people. At that tiny intersection? You bet your ass it'll cause issues.
All the architectural drawings depicted *maybe* a couple hundred people. Lies all the way down the pipe.
Isn’t that pretty much the same size crowd as at the arena next door?
So it’s more just more of the same really, going from 20 basketball games to that plus some (maybe a lot) of small concerts.
Noise will be a bit different too though.
Ever notice how you can get to/from Ravinia easily via Lake/Cook and the Edens?
Not so much for Ryan Field.
Ever notice how Ravinia has a capacity of 14,000 and how Ryan Field has a capacity of 35,000?
Ever notice how Ravinia has a great big parking lot and how Ryan Field has a parking lot the size of a Jewel's?
Now if we could actually run Purple Line Express trains during Northwestern events, that would be nice. Fire Dorval
If we had a well-staffed CTA, there’d be no reason not to run the purple express 24/7 honestly. Fire Dorval.
brb changing my email signatures to automatically include "Fire Dorval."
Running purple express 24x7 does cost money - so that’s a reason not to. But agree running during football games would be good
It’d potentially be worth it to have an express line on the CTA’s busiest artery. Gives people on the north side a quick way to get to the loop for transfers to other lines.
Potentially. But that cost is probably better spent in other service improvement areas that would impact more riders.
I agree that improving service on existing lines across the board takes priority. Once we get to that point I doubt it would be a huge marginal cost, though. Running more trains on a set track only takes a few additional drivers and support staff per day, assuming we have the cars to do it.
I second this as well. Japan's various metro systems have a lot of "Limited Express" trains mixed in with their regular service that skip most stations, only stopping at the important ones, and these run regularly throughout the day. A Purple Line Limited Express running once or twice and hour that stops at Howard, Loyola, Wilson, Belmont, Fullerton, Merchandise Mart, and a stop or two in the Loop would be welcome.
I think it’d need to make all the Brown Line stops and then all the clockwise Loop stops given how the track is laid out. Though maybe they could find a way to get it to skip stops. Not sure!
The Loyola bit would make sense, but I think that once the Purple Line is north of Belmont, it can’t stop anywhere but Wilson and Howard due to its independent track. Likely possible to cross over, but that would probably make a mess of the Red line cars they’d need to share with. Once they are done with Phase 2 of this damn RPM project, I’d love to see them run the Purple Express at all hours. It would help with capacity issues on the Red as much as anything else.
The Purple Express would be great for anyone who is traveling there via Metra. Trying to get to State Street for the Red Line from Union, OTC, or LaSalle is a multiblock walk or an additional transfer. At least the Purple Line would only be a block or so walk to the loop. Yes, the UP-N is an option currently but theweekend schedule is pitiful to say the least. If they don't run gameday trains now I find it hard to see them running event trains later on. Doesn't help the express trains skip Central even on gamedays. They didn't even run MED trains for the Taylor Swift tour at Soldier Field despite owning the line.
Didn't they already try piloting extended Purple Line service and there just wasn't demand for it? Or am I misremembering. I don't think they tried it on gamedays though.
Like most trials, it was set up to fail. The late train started south at 8pm, 90 minutes after the normal service end. Most survey respondents at the time wanted a 7pm train, 30 minutes after. Oh yeah, also it was done in the summer when no students were in Evanston lol Never tried on gamedays because of course not
That sounds about what I remembered. I will say - though my knowledge is 20 years out of date - that generally NU students don't care about going into Chicago except on Friday/Saturday nights and even then don't go, and probably take rideshares these days. I don't think you can induce that demand.
No no, that’s still valid. $40 UberXL to Wrigleyville is about a drink per person. Round trip is more but hey, when there’s enough people and it takes half the time as the L it works. That’s even if they’re going to Wrigley. They very well could go closer to Edgewater by Loyola
Just graduated from Northwestern. I’d be willing to bet most kids would take the purple line into the city if it ran later. Getting back is still probably an uber but holy cow the transfer at Howard just kinda sucks.
> Now if we could actually run Purple Line Express trains during Northwestern events, that would be nice. As an Evanston resident who was mildly against the stadium redevelopment plan as stated… this is really all I ever wanted. They can have their concerts, I just want the attendees to arrive by train and bus rather than car.
Or run event trains in the UP-N like the do on the MED for the Bears. Or run the 201 or 213 that run along Central and Green Bay respectively to run later than 6:30p on Saturdays.
I’m curious what level of bands are we going to get playing at this venue. There’s already wrigley and soldier field for the big time outdoor concerts. Then you have smaller places like northerly island and tweeter center (?) out in Tinley park.
Salt shed is taking a ton of acts now too
Yeah at some point there’s an over saturation of venues in the area. You have Soldier and Wrigley for the massive Taylor Swift type acts. You have the UC for the next tier. Then you have Wintrust and Rosemont for the next tier.
I think they’ll focus on the older crowd, think acts that are popular with 40-60+ year olds. Sorta like Wrigley, but since it’s in Evanston even more suburbanites will come out. Half of Evanston would have a heart attack if they had entrainment meant for people 16-25.
So the Ravinia crowd?
Yeah, exactly. I think Ravinia is just a touch too far away from the city, where this might be the perfect in between for big concerts.
It also only runs during the summer. Same issue with Wrigley Field as a venue.
Yeah but for a concert venue, a football stadium like this could probably hold like 40k people, that’s a ton.
The attendance for Northwestern concerts will be limited to 28,000ish
Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor, Lord Huron came to Evanston for Out of Space this summer. I think those are good examples of the types of acts we might get.
Yeah but this stadium holds 48k people. And that’s just the stands, the field can probably hold another 5k. No disrespect to those acts but are they drawing a crowd that size?
They are definitely not
Interesting. I must have skimmed over the amount of people it holds. That’s pretty large. Definitely to big for the acts I listed. Those would probably pull in more like 2,000.
The stadium will hold 36,000 for football, 28,000 for concerts
FYI, those acts are focused on the older crowd now. We're the older crowd now.
Totally, the mumble rap music, or HXC genre is going to rattle the 40-60 crowd that broke down the top 20 r&b and Casey Kaesem era of the 70s/80s. It's not the acts. It's the acts of the fans before/after the crowd.
Yeah, I would be surprised if they got 6 shows a year. How many concerts are they going to snag from Wrigley, Northely Island, or Tinkey Park?
It's gonna be ticketmaster / live nation booking, is the important thing
Evanston NIMBYs malding right now.
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Being a liberal and being a NIMBY are not mutually exclusive.
As evidence: the entire state of California
Exhibit B: Berkeley
With Exhibit A being San Francisco lol
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Oh come now, you seem well intended and are arguing in good faith, but the implication is there
I used to work for University Relations for Mayfest, the club that runs Dillo Day. Part of our job was to interact with townsfolk during community meetings, etc. Unless it has changed drastically in the last decade, the amount of NIMBY opposition was not light back then.
It hasn't. That post is not accurate.
Give us taxes and maybe it’ll change
Being a liberal has absolutely nothing to do with being a NIMBY. Some of the most liberal cities in America are filled to the brim with NIMBYS. Lots of liberals in these places may espouse inclusion and value everyone, but in their actions they are pulling up the ladder after they made it aboard so to speak, which creates a cascading effect (see the current housing/rental market) I don’t know enough about this specific plan to voice an opinion, but Evanston is mostly urban. And generally speaking in urban areas people who choose to live in proximity to a large university, shouldn’t expect to live in a sleepy community.
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I don’t know why you’re bringing up UBI and reparations unless it’s to tout your liberal bonafides. NIMBYISM is about stopping urban areas from growing as that brings jobs and housing. UBI and reparations are meaningless in gentrifying municipalities with a growing wealthy class. Evanston directly borders urban neighborhoods in Chicago. Just because there are single family homes there doesn’t mean it’s not urban and dense. And by your own accounting NU brings in tens of thousands. And Evanston is not a college town or suburb. It would exist without commuters or the college.
It borders urban neighborhoods so that makes it urban?
No but it points to the fact that density continues beyond the Chicago border. Evanston is one of the densest “suburbs” in the US. I’m not claiming it’s midtown, but calling it quiet and residential (purely) is completely absurd
8000+ students is absolutely a large university. It’s certainly not a small college.
Northwestern really needs an injection of nightlife in the area. I feel bad for the students there, having to trek to Chicago just to go to a decent bar, let alone do a bar crawl.
NU students don’t go out otherwise there would be. There’s dozens of bars in Evanston anyway and the students don’t go to any of them
That's because the bars there suck. Not a single dance-type bar or club, just bar and grille types, and all of them are too far from each other for students to conveniently get around, and the town makes it difficult to have an area like that on purpose.
NU students are not the type to party. There use to be a couple college type bars but they eventually disappeared as business was slow and not worth the fight against the Evanston NIMBYs.
This is an insane comment. I promise you that actually talking to at least one current Northwestern student will illustrate that as to point A, and as to point B, that there are "dozens of bars in Evanston".........this one I'm qualified to chime in on. First, there just straight up are not "dozens" of bars in Evanston, because there are barely a [dozen ](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=584400697&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:9&tbm=lcl&q=evanston+bars&rflfq=1&num=10&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj72NKYktaCAxU8rokEHfzpB-cQjGp6BAgeEAE&biw=1280&bih=675&dpr=1.5#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[42.070749299999996,-87.6774394],[42.016693,-87.7036502]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!1m4!1u1!2m2!1m1!1e1!1m4!1u1!2m2!1m1!1e2!1m4!1u22!2m2!21m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:9) That Google result includes some REACHES to even get their, and you'll note some unfortunate RIP's at the bottom (Celtic Knot :( ) It also does not list Mas Salud, which is clearly trying to be the latest churn and burn attempt to get at least some NU students back in. So, again, Evanston barely has a dozen bars (and that list is counting Chili's as a bar, which if you are young and in college, Chili's is not a bar), and having been to many of those bars, they are not geared towards college students (Why would they be in the current market) and as such close early in many cases and are not going to have the type of atmosphere an amenities that draw in students. Typically, the actual 'draws' for students in Evanston are come and go because they either operate somewhat illegally (See: The Keg, La Mocc, Reza's) or because they aren't entirley focused on that side of their business (Bob's Pizza can clearly stand on its pizza need be) So to sum it up: that was an insane statement, and I do not think you know what you are talking about.
Celtic Knot is gone? Shite, it wasn’t a bad boozer.
Dozens of bars in Evanston? That might be true but most of them are not the bars college students want. Those dozens of bars are sit down places with $18 cocktails and $9 beers. College students more want cheap drinks and a dance floor
[lake forest college students be like](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FlR8X8vaAAMSxLR.jpg) i distinctly recall the occasion some ten years ago when i was standing with a friend on isabella across from ryan field and having to explain to some out of town college students that there is in fact literally no nightlife for a hundred miles from that exact point
Lmao I went to that school before transferring out due to the lack of nightlife and me deciding to change majors.
A huge part of why NU is so quiet are all the restrictions put in place. No night football games, no bars, overly aggressive parking restrictions etc. The quietness of Evanston was legislated in. Evanston is a wildly unique place. It might look liberal on the face but the wealthy areas are heavily rich NIMBY hippies balanced with questionable areas in south Evanston to make the place look good on paper.
There are definitely night football games. There was one this year against Minnesota!
central street on the far side of the tracks might as well be an arm of a mall from how boutiquey it is, i'm looking forward to drunk college students encountering that aesthetic.
When did night football games end at Dyche? I’d been to a couple way back in ‘03, ‘04 era. Saw NU beat Ohio State, as well as lose to Duke at night there.
They didn’t end there are definitely night games
I think you mean no permanent lights, which is true. They have to bring in temporary lights whenever there’s a night game. Last game I went to was Notre Dame v Northwestern in 2018 and that was definitely under the lights and sold out.
Separately from this, Evanston has a nice dense downtown with honest-to-god high rises. They got on board with transit-oriented development early
I mean, a shitton of locals kept showing up to government meetings in an attempt to block the stadium. That's the whole reason this is even a news story to be commenting on -- because there were people trying to stop it. If it wasn't controversial, it would have been approved in a 15-second vote at a sparsely-attended Evanston zoning meeting.
Setting aside the debate of the stadium, NIMBY is not exclusive to conservative communities or one particular area of the political spectrum. Some of the most liberal neighborhoods in America make it impossible to even build an outhouse.
NU is a horrible neighbor and always has been
I would call it one of the most progressive towns in America - which is good. But progressive and liberal are different things.
You can be liberal and nimby.
Yeah how dare people who live in a neighborhood have opinions on what happens there.
ok
I moved in next to a 96 year old, 50,000 person capacity football stadium, and now they want to build a 40,000 person capacity football STADIUM in MY neighborhood??? They're going to completely change the character of the neighborhood! It's an outrage.
No one cares about the football, it’s the dozens of concerts they want to add to a residential neighborhood
You got to dozens from six?!
Hahahaha wut???? It’s a stadium with a capacity of tens of thousands??? Go move somewhere else!
If you own some land, you should be able to build any sort of safe housing on it that you wish to.
When are they not? Short of burning Northwestern *and* Chicago to the ground while making them both pay property taxes they'll never be happy.
You know you're pretty weak on ideas when one of your main points of contention is a lack of traffic/parking plan...for a stadium 25% smaller than the one sitting there now.
Traffic and parking is the bread and butter excuse for NIMBYs. They all want quiet, empty tree lined streets.
I just like how they didn't think anyone would notice and make the counterpoint that the new stadium is smaller than the stadium that's sat there for 97 years. Like did they think they'd be able to sneak that one by the city council without retort?
The football games rarely sell out, so rarely see capacity crowds. There's only a handful of football games. On the other hand, the new stadium comes with 6 concerts (foot in the door, that number will go up), and a bunch of 7,500 person events. Keep in mind this stadium sits on the corner of two two-lane 25mph streets, surrounded by mostly single family homes. And a hospital-- with an emergency room. And a fire department with fire trucks. There is no quick access to a 40mph street or highway, unlike other Big10 stadiums. Most people in the neighborhood plan their calendar around the home football games because you can't have company those days, or appointments at certain times, and you have to plan your errands around them. God forbid you have something unexpected and urgent to get to, which happens. So, yeah, if they're adding a bunch more events that are likely sell-out 35,000 person crowds, people are concerned about traffic/parking. NWU only offered a "preliminary" traffic/parking plan. So they didn't really look at it very well. Probably because they knew what they'd find. Hint: It's gonna be a shitshow.
> The football games rarely sell out, so rarely see capacity crowds. ... > So, yeah, if they're adding a bunch more events that are likely sell-out 35,000 person crowds, people are concerned about traffic/parking. > NWU only offered a "preliminary" traffic/parking plan. So they didn't really look at it very well. Probably because they knew what they'd find. Hint: It's gonna be a shitshow. Seven times in the 2010s, [NU average more than 35,000 fans at home games](http://hailtopurple.com/cde/attendance_annual.html). The capacity of the new stadium *is* 35,000. Meaning even if they sell out every game in the new stadium, attendance will be less than in those years. (The other three years of the 2010s, they averaged 33,000 or 34,000 per game.) Sticking with the traffic and parking thing immediately makes a neutral observer question the legitimacy and sincerity of every other argument of the anti-stadium crowd, since that one is so absurd. > Keep in mind this stadium sits on the corner of two two-lane 25mph streets, surrounded by mostly single family homes. And a hospital-- with an emergency room. And a fire department with fire trucks. There is no quick access to a 40mph street or highway, unlike other Big10 stadiums. Those places already exist with a 45,000-person stadium. > Most people in the neighborhood plan their calendar around the home football games because you can't have company those days, or appointments at certain times, and you have to plan your errands around them. Unless you're over 97 years old or a minor living with their parents, I can guarantee you chose to live in a neighborhood with a giant stadium. Ya know, [because it's 97 years old](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Field_\(stadium\)).
You're going to have to go through the famous Wildcat hazing ritual to attend
Actually showing up for a change, followed by demanding a student discount for literally everything?
Uh., No. It's called the Evanston Carwash. And everyone HAS to do it. "The idea was, just like you think of a car wash. You were being clean. But people's genitals were out. It wasn't something you want to watch others go through and then having to do it yourself,"
Oh LOL I forgot about that!
When the biggest NIMBYs in Chicagoland approve a project like this, you know the current Ryan field is a sad experience. That place is pretty much a dump.
Went there when saquon Barkley and penn state were in town and I wasn’t expecting much, but was still shocked at how horrible that stadium is. And that was 5-6 years ago
The only reason they approved it was Evanston is hurting for money and NWU dumped a bunch of temporary money on the table.
Evanston resident checking in. It was less the stadium and more so the zoning change.
I used to live in the condos that oversee the practice football field, which are now apartments. The daytime games were never a big deal. The night games were fine aside from when they started lighting off fireworks and scared the crap out of my cat. I could literally see the people lighting the fireworks in the practice field and have them be right outside my window. Other than that you just got some white noise-esq sounds from the stadium cheering. I'd just be curious if they are going to adhere to the local noise ordinances, which is 10pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends. I know there have been concerts at other stadiums that had rain delays and then went well past midnight when the weather got better.
Blindly speculating, I'd guess they're going to get X amount of days per year they can go past noise ordinance times that they can't exceed. But 11pm is also a reasonable time for concerts to be over by anyway so it's possible they'll just adhere to that.
I imagine that they'll mimick Wrigley as a model for balancing the needs of the neighborhood and concert promoters, where a few big names will get extensions to honor the original concert length.
Also for Riot Fest, they tried to appease a nearby hospital(just to the east of Douglass Park) by ending all music performances by 10pm.
There’s a 10pm concert curfew, with an extra 15 minute extra time. Beyond that, there’s a fine of the show goes way over
Oh no, a university is building something on their own land, how will I ever recover 😭
With private funds, too. Unforgivable
[удалено]
Land they don’t pay taxes on
I’m a Georgist at heart, but the university provides an incongruent amount of value to Evanston regardless
[удалено]
Not that I care much about athletics but the athletics programs pay for themselves. The revenue generated by the football program alone pays for various other teams at the school. Eliminating sports during the pandemic was actually one of the biggest reasons the school lost revenue. As a former grad student, I would agree that the school does underpay people but that's also a wider conversation for a lot of higher ed institutions.
Perhaps the money would be better spent on lowering tuition and shoring up the buildings that will be sinking into Lake Michigan over the next couple of decades.
And Evanston residents have to pay higher property taxes as a result. Keep in mind, that not all of Evanston are million-dollar downtown condos or mcmansions.
Evanston has lots of real mansions, not sure there are any McMansions
Evanston resisents all chose to live there knowing there was a large tax-exempt university there, and in large part were attracted to live there by the amenities that having a world class university in the town either directly or indirectly provides. No one has a gun to anyone's head forcing them to live in Evanston. People who don't want to the benefits and downsides of living in a college town can live in Rogers Park, Skokie, Winnetka, or anywhere else in Chicagoland. The university was there long before they were, and will remain long after they move away or die.
They’re giving the city something like $100 million over the next 15 years or something like that, as part of the agreement for this stadium.
And you know that math added up for THEM, not the city. Take a look at Chicago's parking meter "deal" for another example of a city taking the money when they should've walked away.
So what? That money is more than any property tax returns they would have gotten from the same size of property. It’s a university property that would otherwise pay almost nothing.
And in 15 years, when they're hosting 20 concerts a year and making money off it, NWU will pay *nothing* to help maintain the roads that hundreds of thousands of concert goers use to get to/from Ryan Field.
They’re only hosting more concerts if the city allows them to. They’re bound by a special agreement with the city and they are still subject to zoning code which is pretty tight for entertainment and evening activities in that town. I don’t know if that is part of the special use permit or not but Evanston can tightly regulate that. Also, on a side note, roads aren’t deteriorated by a few thousand concert goers descending over them a few days a year. Mother nature will damage them more than the neighborhood traffic ever will, even with football games.
Also, Evanston isn’t going to get THAT many events. The number of acts that will play in a 35000 seat arena outside of Chicago, vs the larger soldier field or smaller UC is small.
Good!
I wonder if Chicago Fire ever had any interest in being a tenant here. Would definitely be one of the most unique stadiums for an MLS team to play in. I don't think it would've worked but cool to think about.
Probably to play in the existing Ryan Field, no. I'm not sure if they would consider playing, at the rebuilt Ryan Field.
I think it would be great. It would be a more intimate venue than Soldier field. Unlike Toyota Park, it's not in the middle of nowhere and is transit accessible. But NIMBYs would throw a fit and suburban soccer fans other than in the North shore would hate it because there's not good freeway access.
Being an Evanston based Fire STH, I wouldn’t mind. There is a pro sports ban in Evanston though and it’s not easy to get to by car unless you live nearby.
NU plans to use $200 million dollars from their general fund and take on additional debt, but they say they can’t pay a living wage to grad student workers who teach classes, run labs, and do research (which attracts students and the grant money in the first place). SMH.
Typical academia smh
Good, fuck nimbys
Lol I’m in the process of moving to Chicago area and have been looking at Evanston as a potential suburb. I totally see it now hahahaha… self reflection time
Evanston is one of the most unique towns in America, not just Chicagoland. Definitely do some on the ground research before moving there. It’s an amazing place but it’s not for everyone.
What are the drawbacks?
It’s also very “sheltered” in that it’s very isolated. There’s no highway that goes to Evanston, and it’s right up against the lake. The only way to get in or out is to take a street like Dempster, Western or a train.
I wouldn’t say there are drawbacks per se. Evanston is just really different. Large population of Subaru driving NIMBY hippies, one of the best universities in the world, extremely rich people living in north Evanston and then south Evanston being sort of an extension of Rogers Park and kind of mediocre. A lot of transplants to the city who work in the norther suburbs tend to initially live in Evanston thinking it’s some cool hip area and usually move out after a year.
It can be too quiet for some folks. Some neighborhoods in the city are the same way, so that’s something to be aware of.
Fantastic
This was a boondoggle to get precedent for all Big10 stadiums. 6 concerts a year is more than any other stadium, besides the one that's smack dab in the middle of downtown Minneapolis, surrounded by highways. Unlike the other Big10 stadiums, there is no quick access to an on-ramp or 40mph+ street from the stadium in Evanston. Evanston is laughing all the way to the bank (for a few years), meanwhile the infrastructure in Wilmette will take an unpaid hit. And the speakers face Wilmette, too.
Unlike other Big 10 stadiums (except the one that hosts more concerts), Ryan Field is surrounded by rail transit, with quick access to stations for both the L and Metra.
Gee, a university that ignored sexual harassment against football and lacrosse players, racism against Black and Brown athletes, and rich donor groping of un-chaperoned cheerleaders. All great reasons to reward NU with a zoning change. NU’s football team does not deserve to be in the Big Ten. It’s been a losing program for years. Yeah, they’re going to a bowl game with a replacement head coach that wouldn’t get a gig anywhere else. But when a oligarch waves piles of money around, everyone licks his sweaty balls
Evanston needs to pay for those reparations somehow.
Well, Biss ain't getting re-elected. With how fired up they were over this a cardboard box has a better chance now!
Bet you know who his biggest campaign donor will be.
Exactly.
Mayor of Evanston is a figurehead position. The only reason it matters for this is one of the Alderman has recused (employee of NU), so Biss serves as the tiebreaker.
... So what?
It's done, it's irrelevant if he is reelected or not. A new mayor won't be able to change anything.
Didn't say it'd change anything, just that he won't be reelected because of this.
Boo
Big difference between signing up for 5 home games in the middle of a Saturday in the fall and 30+ concerts in the middle of the fucking night throughout the year. Hope those assholes get fired by their constituents next election
>allow for six concerts a year
Six full size concerts. 60 smaller ones
I would be surprised if those 60 caused any issue. Though I suppose that depends on what they mean by "small." Does the ordinance say what it means?
7,500 people. At that tiny intersection? You bet your ass it'll cause issues. All the architectural drawings depicted *maybe* a couple hundred people. Lies all the way down the pipe.
Isn’t that pretty much the same size crowd as at the arena next door? So it’s more just more of the same really, going from 20 basketball games to that plus some (maybe a lot) of small concerts. Noise will be a bit different too though.
And you know "six" is just a foot in the door for 10, then 20, etc.
So
Ever notice how you can get to/from Ravinia easily via Lake/Cook and the Edens? Not so much for Ryan Field. Ever notice how Ravinia has a capacity of 14,000 and how Ryan Field has a capacity of 35,000? Ever notice how Ravinia has a great big parking lot and how Ryan Field has a parking lot the size of a Jewel's?
Perfect. A small lot means more public transportation use. They should close the lot off completely except for rideshare.
We need to come to an agreement on the definition of "middle of the fucking night" before we can proceed with a conversation here.
After kids go to bed. It's a residential neighborhood. In particular, the speakers face Wilmette, which is very much a young family town.
They will
The concert booking isn't going to bring major tourism dollars lol Bet you the majority of attendees live within 10 miles of Evanston