I am a longtime resident of Evanston who read your current front-page series about the questionable conduct of Chicago’s City Council with a great deal of ironic interest.
It seems we up here, in what was once thought a haven from such non-representative government, are falling prey to similar business-as-usual.
I refer to the Evanston City Council’s apparent attempt to ram through one of two proposals for a 12- to 18-screen cineplex without many of our citizenry even being aware of it. They would place it where the streets couldn’t possibly accommodate it; where existing businesses could never compete with it; and where the character of this town would never recover from it.
There is a council meeting Wednesday, supposedly for the residents to finally have their say on the matter, but many of us are getting the feeling that maybe the ubiquitous John Buck, one of the bidders, doesn’t really want us to. Nor do his friends on the council. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?
