Note: This podcast is designed to be heard. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio if you are able, which includes emotion and emphasis that’s not on the page.

Mack Jones Northwestern Men’s Basketball was unranked. They had never beaten a No. 1 team in the AP poll. Historically, they had been terrible at basketball while in a good basketball conference, which only magnified the program’s faults. The Wildcats shouldn’t have won against the Purdue Boilermakers, who had Zach Edey, a 7 foot 4 center and one of the best players in college basketball.

Northwestern played at home, inside Welsh-Ryan Arena on an abnormally warm Sunday in February. The university gave the venue a modern, white look when they renovated it in 2018, and the quality of the team was finally starting to match that of its facilities. 

Northwestern’s record was 17-7 going into the game, and the Wildcats were having their best season since 2017, when they made the NCAA Tournament and lost a close game in the second round to eventual runners-up Gonzaga. 

Evanston started to take notice of the team’s success. The only sellout game before Purdue was against Illinois, and there was almost as much orange as purple in the stands that day. There was more gold than purple in the stands against Purdue, too, but that was for a different reason.

The 7,000-person sellout crowd was decked out for a blackout game, matching the team’s jerseys that honored the university’s former colors. The school switched to purple in 1879 and never looked back, but teams still show respect for the school’s history every once in a while with a historical black-and-gold fit.

Northwestern started the game slowly, and its only lead came after winning the jump ball at tipoff. The ‘Cats were down 37-30 at halftime. The offense sputtered to a halt, and the defense never truly clicked. 

The rowdy student section did its best to give the Wildcats some life, leading chants to try and spark star backcourt duo Boo Buie and Chase Audige, but Purdue controlled the game’s tempo throughout the first half. 

Much of the second was the same, as an Edey hook shot with three defenders contesting gave Purdue a 55-47 lead with 3:52 to go. But on the Wildcats’ next possession, a Buie offensive rebound paved the way for an Audige 3-pointer that gave a shot of momentum to the struggling ‘Cats.

Northwestern closed the game on a 17-3 run – 10 coming from Audige. Buie finished with 26 points, and Purdue let the clock run out instead of fouling as Northwestern won, 64-58. The Big Ten preseason poll had the Wildcats finishing second-to-last, but now, Northwestern had all but punched their ticket to March Madness. Its improbable season took an impossible turn with a signature win.

Northwestern fans stormed the court to celebrate with the team. They treated Buie and Audige like gods as the sea of black engulfed the arena—hugs, tears, screaming, high-fives and fist-bumps everywhere. It was more than a once-in-a-generation moment; it was a once-in-an-ever moment. A win like this just hadn’t happened to the Wildcats in their hundred-plus-year history.

I’m Mack Jones, and this is the Field of Broken Dreams. 

(Music)

Mack Jones After some time, the excitement on game days dies down, and fans leave the arena. They stream past the closed-down concessions on the way out, past the purple tile splash behind the vendors that reminds them of the score.

Fans’ euphoria carries over into the streets. The crowds move past the beige building and across Ashland Ave to the parking lot where they collect their cars to head to downtown Evanston to continue the party at restaurants and bars covered in purple flags.

But the lots don’t fit enough cars. So many people have to walk to their vehicles parked blocks away since they couldn’t grab a spot before the game. 

A right on Eastwood and a left onto Livingston, and they find themselves near a playground. Some children tangle in the spider-web, but many weren’t out after watching the game. In some ways, that’s a good thing. Trash litters the once-pristine four-person see-saw, and marks of graffiti taint the metal sign at the park’s entrance.

Some people had parked their cars illegally on lawns in the neighborhood, and there are a couple in front of a fire hydrant. Ordinarily, they’d be towed, but they weren’t there in the morning before the game, and they’d probably be gone soon enough, so no one either notices or cares enough to call anyone to deal with it. 

The historic Tallmadge streetlights emit a strong ammonia odor, made worse by the smell of booze and weed near the failing lights. Residents huddle inside their homes, wary of past experiences of drunken patrons showing up to their houses and shouting obscenities at them.

They had been harassed and threatened in the years living by Welsh-Ryan, and there was never a moment of respite. Anecdotes told of increases in car crashes, robberies and gunshots after games, and it sometimes took hours for folks to clear out of the area because traffic was so terrible.

Not all of these experiences happened on one hellish night, but they are all things residents have experienced in the period after games in the U2 zoning district that includes Welsh-Ryan Arena and Ryan Field. As these residents told it, they could never feel safe.

So in 2019, the parking lot outside the Civic Center was packed. City Council meetings, which ordinarily are half-empty, rarely elicit a strong response from the community, but, on a random Monday in the middle of June, the council chamber was effectively full.

The council members were arranged in the usual Supreme Court-like style – Mayor Steve Hagerty in the middle, directly in front of a sign with the old City of Evanston logo that featured the lighthouse surrounded by some greenery and Lake Michigan.

Thomas Suffredin Item A 10, Ordinance 51-O-19, approval to amend city code 3-4-6, classification and license fees to create a new Class R-1 liquor license.

Mack Jones That was Sixth Ward Alderman Thomas Suffredin, on Hagerty’s left, at the meeting on June 10, the day Northwestern officially introduced plans to sell alcoholic beverages at Welsh-Ryan Arena to the council.

To many, the announcement wasn’t a surprise. The stadium had been recently renovated in late 2018, and the university needed to recoup some of the costs of the $110 million project. 

The proposed amendment was part of a multi-step process requiring two votes from the Evanston City Council, and ideally, discussion around it wouldn’t be as heated as when the city tried to pave an alleyway.

Ann Rainey If these two alleys had been in the fifth ward or the second ward, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Thomas Suffredin That’s shut bulls**t Ann. Everything that you do is subject to scrutiny because you’re sketchy as f***.

Mack Jones Back in 2019, Northwestern operated with an R liquor license, meaning the university could sell alcohol on campus but not at sporting events. The council needed to create and approve a new R-1 class for those, and then they still needed to accept the actual license for Northwestern’s food vendor, Levy Restaurants.

While this was the first time the amendment came up in a council meeting, it had been on the agenda a couple of days in advance, and residents immediately voiced their concerns.

Rodney Greene I’m here to talk about the increased liquor licenses. It seems like everyone’s coming in town and they want one. You already have problems with them at games, now you’re going to add liquor to them which increases this.

Mary Rosinski I just saw that there’s a liquor application or change liquor over at the U2 district. It’s a college university area in the middle of a residential area. It’s not a commercial entertainment area. I think that we have to really really really protect our residents and our neighborhoods.

Mack Jones This wasn’t the first time the U2 district has come under fire, but other than public comment concern over alcohol’s impact on unwanted behavior and Northwestern potentially profiteering at their neighbors’ expense, there wasn’t much discussion among the aldermen.

Northwestern employee Paul Schatz has been going to games for years without alcohol, so he had gotten used to its absence.

Paul Schatz I go to the games to watch the game. At this point in my life, I’m not looking to drop 10 bucks out of the air. I can wait till I get home for that. Or do it before the game. I go to a lot of professional games. And that’s just how it is. It’s not something that really moves the needle with me. It doesn’t make me more excited to go to a game or less excited. You know, just like going to a Bulls game. There’s beer vendors, and it is what it is.

Mack Jones Almost all professional venues sell alcohol, and most college ones do, too. Many Evanston community members, like Edzo’s owner Eddie Lakin, just assumed Northwestern would sell liquor.

Eddie Lakin Is that even a question? They should be able to. Let’s get with the times. People like to have a beer and watch a game. It’s some peanuts or popcorn or whatever. To me, it seems like a no-brainer, but there’s the whole legacy of the temperance movement. I guess it still has some deep roots.

Mack Jones Current Second Ward Alderperson Krissie Harris wasn’t on the City Council in 2019, but she isn’t a big drinker; she’s a substance abuse counselor. Harris has seen the worst of what alcohol can do to people, and it impacted her.

Krissie Harris I had those philosophical thoughts about drinking. So no matter when or where, as long as people are doing it responsibly, I think it’s a personal choice. I can go out and never drink, and it’s okay. Or I can go out and have a drink. And that’s okay.

(Music)

Steve Hagerty Well, welcome everybody to the Monday, July 8, 2019, Evanston City Council. All of our Aldermen have been working hard in committees all night, so we will see how we do on our agenda this evening.

Mack Jones Ordinance 51-O-19 was back on the docket for that evening. That day the council was supposed to vote on creating the Class R-1 liquor license and decide soon after whether to give it to Levy. 

Nothing was in the special order of business section, which opened an opportunity for detailed discussion of less important items. But many residents figured the liquor ordinance essentially replaced more traditional special order designations. 

Northwestern hoped to sort everything out before basketball season and start selling almost immediately. That didn’t happen.

In the public comment section, 13 people stepped to the beige podium and opposed alcohol sales at Welsh-Ryan Arena. 28 spoke in total. 

Laurie McFarlane I’m Laurie McFarlane; I’m here to talk about the liquor amendment. There are substantial safety issues that will come with having a pop-up bar serving 7,000 people 50-plus times a year.

Yvi Russell I’m obviously opposed to the liquor license. My name is Yvi Russell. At 7,030 people at Welsh-Ryan Arena, about 500 would come out being intoxicated and most of them would be driving.

Steve Hagerty Are you Ken Proskie? Come on up Ken.

Ken Proskie Since 1984, my family has lived literally a few hundred feet from Welsh-Ryan. I am here to request the City Council to delay its vote on the request for a Class R-1 license at Welsh-Ryan. The decision whether to permit alcohol sales should be based on more information and citizen participation that has not happened to date. There has been little discussion in Evanston. No public comment yet.

Mack Jones The ordinance came up late in the meeting; it was item A29, and Seventh Ward Alderperson Eleanor Revelle introduced a motion to table the debate and vote on a future date.

Eleanor Revelle It’s really premature for us to approve this amendment to the liquor code because we still don’t know exactly what’s in store for the Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Devon Reid Alderman Rainey?

Ann Rainey I don’t really care, but I’ll vote okay, yes.

Mack Jones The motion passed 6-3, pushing back any discourse or controversy. It became a problem for the future, but part of the reason it was a problem at all was because of the past.

Northwestern was here before Evanston. One of its founders, John Evans, was a methodist, a denomination that minimizes alcohol use, and his religiousness contributed to prohibitionist sentiment in the university and town around it.

Northwestern was the most influential presence in the area, shaping Evanston’s culture. Paul Hletko, the owner of FEW Spirits, an Evanston distillery, has felt that presence throughout his time in the city. 

Paul Hletko Northwestern always had the vision of being a truly world-class educational institution, on par with the Harvard’s, and the Yale’s and Oxford and Cambridge, etc, of the world. And so that was the vision they had when they started up, but it turns out that it was a little bit difficult to attract that level of student when you’re a brand new university. The way to appeal was to get the most studious and sober students.

Mack Jones In 1855, the university forbade the sale of alcohol within a four-mile radius of the school, beginning Evanston’s status as a dry city and, to some, as the birthplace of prohibition. 

The relationship with temperance took off with Frances E. Willard and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. While it formed in Ohio, Willard brought the WCTU to Evanston, and for years, the Evanston chapter encouraged residents to maintain Evanston’s dry status. National prohibition took effect in 1920, so the rest of the nation was in the same boat as Evanston.

Paul Hletko You kind of have to look at the effect that beverage alcohol had on people at the time and as a con, prohibition just doesn’t work. The law of unintended consequences cannot be broken.

Mack Jones Prohibition ended in 1933, but Evanston voted to remain dry. Many religious views from when the city was incorporated remained decades later, and the status quo remained the same.

But Evanston’s dry status didn’t mean much when surrounding cities didn’t follow in its footsteps. Residents only needed to walk a short distance outside the city’s borders to show up at a bar in Skokie, and, in 1972, the City Council approved an ordinance allowing businesses to apply for a liquor license.

Hletko still found himself in a deadlock trying to open FEW.

Paul Hletko Prior to World War Two, my grandfather’s family had owned a major brewery in what’s now the Czech Republic. 1939, the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, which is what it was at the time, and they confiscated the family brewery and murdered the entire family in the camps other than my grandfather. And he spent the rest of his life trying to get the brewery back, but never did.

Mack Jones After Hletko’s grandpa passed, he struggled to leave the family legacy behind and worked on recreating the distillery. There were all the regular challenges with opening a business, but things compounded in a field as heavily regulated as the liquor industry. Every day, he worried if it would happen or not. 

He needed to change different city codes, comply with health and safety laws, retail laws and zoning restrictions. Some liquor laws hadn’t changed since The Spot sold the first drop of alcohol in Evanston, adding to the headache. 

Paul Hletko Anything worth doing is going to be hard. And so this is definitely very worth doing; it was definitely very difficult. It’s been the best part about this business has been people enjoying what you do. Everybody at the distillery works really, really hard. And I think what gets rewarding is talking to people who enjoy what you do and people who get excited about what we do, and how we do it and being out there. Just kinda being out in the world and hearing the influence that our products have on peoples’ lives

Mack Jones It took a while to change minds, but FEW Spirits created the first drop of Evanston-made alcohol in 2011, ending Hletko’s years-long saga.

The 2011 men’s basketball team at Northwestern was on its way to another mediocre season, finishing 7th in the Big Ten and unaware of the controversy that would surround their facilities in the future.

The City Council reopened the discussion on Class R-1 liquor licenses eight years later on Nov. 25, 2019. The Liquor License Commission recommended the City Council adopt the amendment, but the advice failed to convince many council members. 

Time didn’t change minds either, and many residents who spoke out against the license in July did the same thing in November, including Russell.

Yvi Russell I’m of course against the alcohol thing mainly because of a safety issue. I have shown you articles regarding the problem of drunk driving and I want to tell you respectfully and the entire city who is listening that if anybody will get hurt because of a drunk driving incident caused directly by an attendee of one of these events they should know that the city needs to be held liable for this and Northwestern should be held liable for this.

Mack Jones The four flags behind Hagerty, representing city, state and nation, remained as motionless as the council after each impassioned public comment, but that didn’t stop more from coming. Proskie and McFarlane also spoke again about their issues with the ordinance.

Ken Proskie There are seven Big Ten arenas that do not serve alcohol. Northwestern is one of those seven, and there are seven that do. If you decide to pass it and be like the other seven that do, then when you look at what they have in place, all of them have restrictions which I don’t see in Evanston’s.

Laurie McFarlane It’s also a very poorly designed ordinance as it’s written. There are no restrictions on it for time. There are not even restrictions for the date.

Mack Jones The ordinance again came up late in the meeting, close to the three-hour mark. Revelle, again, wanted to delay the item by referring it back to the Liquor Commission. The council eventually sent it back to the administration and public works committee, citing that it was late and that they would discuss it further later.

Most residents were happy with that decision; they worried that late nights after games with alcohol could lead to dangerous situations, so pushing back the vote could help them sleep peacefully a little longer.

Evanston resident Emily Levin lives a couple of blocks away from the stadium, near the hospital across the bridge over the North Shore Channel, but before moving to Evanston, she resided in the area of Highland Park around Ravinia.

North America’s oldest music festival, although more venue than festival, has always been held in a wooded area close to the lake and within a residential neighborhood. The nonprofit has traditionally attempted to be respectful of the neighbors; they prohibit concertgoers from parking in the surrounding residential streets and ban all forms of smoking.

But Ravinia sells liquor at concessions carts, bars and other restaurants throughout the park and allows patrons to bring in full meals, including alcoholic beverages. So while they stop selling alcohol an hour before the concert’s end, drinking continues well after that. And Levin’s experiences with alcohol around there made her cautious about its consumption.

Emily Levin There was a bike path. After every concert, it was just full of beer bottles. If you were walking around at night, you would see people staggering into their cars. We were afraid to drive because some people would drink at the festival and drive off.

Mack Jones Ravinia, named for the steep ravines that slice through the Lake Michigan shoreline, has roads nearby with dead-end side streets and blind corners drivers can’t see behind.

Eleanor Revelle There’s danger of people getting in their cars and drunk driving after a game.

Mack Jones No one wants that, close to the stadium or not.

For example, Mike Vasilko, a Sixth Ward resident who spoke out against alcohol too.

Mike Vasilko This is the liquor license coming back once again from Northwestern. They want to have a liquor license for Welsh-Ryan Arena. Just kind of there’s a crack in the door or the door cracking open so that the next thing can happen and the next thing can happen.

Mack Jones Vasilko worried that Northwestern would try to host professional events in the stadium and that the school was using the alcohol as leverage for that to happen.

Mike Vasilko Parking traffic goes down all the way past the sixth ward, actually, and it’s a mess that can only get worse with adding a liquor license for them. So I’m wondering what the issue is there, why it keeps coming back. We don’t want to forego good neighborhoods by selling liquor so we can get a little tax revenue.

Mack Jones Vickie Burke had opposed changing the name of Dyche Stadium, opposed much of the renovation to Ryan Field, and opposed the sale of alcohol, too. 

Vickie Burke I live a half block from what we still call Dyche Stadium. And I would like you to consider not approving a liquor license for Welsh-Ryan Arena. Northwestern has not proven themselves to be respectful to the neighbors. They used to, years ago, have students come by after a football game and clean up. They used to be a lot better about the neighborhood.

Mack Jones Burke and her family have had season tickets since they bought the house in 1982, and they’ve supported football at the stadium since. However, they became concerned about property values and taxes once Northwestern began the process for a liquor license.

A week had passed since the Nov. 25 meeting, and the city didn’t update the public further on its plans for Ordinance 51-O-19. The next one was on Dec. 9, and many expected more progress then.

Mike Hauser I’ve heard stories.

Mack Jones This is Evanston resident Mike Hauser, who lives right by Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Mike Hauser I have seen people, you know, park in the most ridiculous ways possible. People park in front of driveways. These are all little things that add up.

Mack Jones People take chances to watch the game, betting that parking in front of a fire hydrant won’t get them a ticket or towed. That causes problems since across the bridge and a couple blocks east of Welsh-Ryan is the Evanston Hospital. It opened in 1891 and has served the North Evanston community since then as the only major clinic in the area.

Mike Hauser People have had medical issues on the wrong side of the stadium during the game, and they can’t get to the hospital.

Mack Jones Central Street, the road that carries the brunt of gameday traffic, is only two lanes around Welsh-Ryan. With cars parked on the side, there’s nowhere to pull over.

Mike Hauser People have died under those circumstances from heart attacks where the ambulance can’t get through.

Mack Jones The area around the adjacent fire station gets congested, too, especially when the team’s more successful. 

The Civic Center sits just off Ridge Avenue, and that got pretty crowded on Dec. 9, 2019 – the day the council would decide on alcohol at Welsh-Ryan Arena. But the lot’s in the back next to Ingraham Park, so that’s where most people entered.

Ironically, out of the four meetings involving the creation of an R-1 liquor license, the one with the actual decision had the smallest number of public comments about it. The city’s potentially racist termination of Community Services Manager Kevin Brown rightfully overshadowed the liquor ordinance, and most public comments were on that subject instead.

Only Mary Rosinski and Yvi Russell remained. 

Yvi Russell Evanston proposes alcohol service up to 30 minutes prior to the end of the concert and for all non-basketball athletic events to conclude at the end of the event. Every drink takes one hour to metabolize.

Mack Jones But Rosinski and Russell’s final efforts to prevent alcohol at Welsh-Ryan Arena went largely unnoticed. After some discussion among the aldermen, Revelle motioned the city to stop liquor sales no later than half an hour before the end of all events, not just basketball games, and she introduced a limit of two alcoholic beverages per person per transaction.

The city approved both amendments in a large majority, and with all of that sorted, the council finally voted on adding the R-1 Class to the liquor code. If the City Council adopted the liquor code, they would likely grant Northwestern a license. The sole reason for the R-1 Class’ existence was for Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Steve Hagerty We’re now on to the ordinance itself. It was moved and seconded.

Peter Braithwaite I move approval as amended.

Ann Rainey Second.

Steve Hagerty City Clerk, could you take the role on A37?

Devon Reid Yes. Alderman Fiske? Alderman Braithwaite? Alderman Wynne? Alderman Wilson? Alderman Suffredin? Alderman Revelle? Alderman Rainey? Alderman Fleming?

Mack Jones Third Ward Alderperson Melissa Wynne, Ninth Ward Alderperson Cicely Fleming, Aldperson Suffredin and Alderperson Revelle voted no. Fifth Ward Alderperson Rue Simmons was absent, so the vote tied 4-4, leaving Evanston Mayor Stephen Hagerty as the deciding vote.

Steve Hagerty I am a yes on this. So this passes, five to four.

Mack Jones That was it. The months of debating concluded in a Wildcats victory. The official vote for approval was on Feb. 10, 2020, but most residents opposed to liquor sales had given up by then. They believed it was already a done deal, and the December vote had already told them the end result. There were no public comments about the license in February, and the aldermen didn’t discuss the item before voting.

Only Suffredin, Revelle and Wynne voted No, and the council granted Levy Premium Food Service the first Class R-1 Liquor License in Evanston in a 5-3 vote. Welsh-Ryan Arena would sell alcohol.

Now, Northwestern wants to sell alcohol at Ryan Field, too. When the university released design renderings of the renovated stadium on Sept. 28, 2022, more information also came out about what the school planned to use the stadium for. 

They had spent more than $1 billion in the past decade to develop various athletic facilities, not including the $800 million price tag for the proposed Ryan Field renovations. To offset some of the costs, similar to what they did with Welsh-Ryan, Northwestern wants to sell liquor at concessions stands throughout the stadium.

The university only requires City Council approval of a liquor license to sell alcohol, but more than 1,000 people have signed a petition opposing the project. 

Most arguments against alcohol at Welsh-Ryan Arena and Ryan Field are similar. Residents accused Northwestern of being a bad neighbor because they didn’t clean up after attendees that may have left an empty bottle in the road. Discussions are about fears and concerns that there could be more unwanted behavior in the area. 

I latched onto that idea – crimes of opportunity. I wanted to know if the predicted problems were accurate.

Northwestern began selling alcohol on Jan. 1 this year in a men’s basketball game against Ohio State. It was the midway point of the college basketball season, with men’s and women’s games both hosted in Welsh-Ryan.

Half of the season was without alcohol, and half was with alcohol. The university held 18 events before Jan. 1 and 19 after. I wanted to look at crimes committed around the stadium before and after liquor to find out if there was any difference. 

So I did.

I pulled up every Evanston Police Department crime bulletin from Nov. 2022 to June 20, 2023. I found the date of every men’s and women’s basketball game held in Welsh-Ryan Arena, and I checked to see if any offenses or arrests in the bulletin occurred on those days.

I then found out where those offenses or arrests were and checked to see if they were in the area around the stadium, the borders being Isabella Street, Ridge Avenue, Noyes Street and Green Bay Road.

In the period without alcohol, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 35,360 people showed up at Welsh-Ryan Arena to see Wildcat basketball. There were three total offenses around the arena on game days. There were shots fired on the day of a men’s game vs. Northern Illinois, a theft over $500 the day of a women’s game against Notre Dame and a theft under $500 the day of another women’s game, this time against Niagara. 

In the second period, from Jan. 1 to March 1, 75,373 people attended a basketball game at Welsh-Ryan.

And there were zero offenses or arrests.

At first, I thought the borders I chose were too small. I compared them to the Deer District in Milwaukee, where Bucks games have seen some high-profile shootings, and the Museum Campus in Chicago just as another reference point.

The Deer District is 30 acres. The Museum Campus is 57 acres.

The area I chose is around half a square mile or 260 acres. 

Besides, the North Shore Channel and the berm between Poplar Avenue and Green Bay offer natural borders. Isabella Street is the border between Evanston and Wilmette. And I even expanded the area to include more space beyond the natural boundaries.

Maybe the sample size was too small, or people didn’t report any crimes they witnessed or both, but for the City of Evanston to do something about illegal activities around there, it needs to know about them.

So the Council didn’t delay the vote because of potential issues around the stadium. Instead, they did it partly because of another Northwestern request: concerts at Welsh-Ryan. The city wanted to vote on and discuss them simultaneously since they felt the venue connected the two items. Residents were concerned that more events would mean more problems.

That’s next time on the Field of Broken Dreams.

(Music)

Mack Jones The Field of Broken Dreams is a podcast from The Evanstonian, the student newspaper at Evanston Township High School. It’s advised by John Phillips with executive editors Jilian Denlow, Clara Gustafson and Sophia Sherman. The Field of Broken Dreams is reported and produced by me, Mack Jones, with help from Isaac Suarez Flint. Our theme music is by Sam Persell. 

The final mix of this episode was done by me. 

We have four more episodes coming. You’ll be able to find them all on our website, evanstonian.net, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more stories about Northwestern and other events pertaining to Evanston there, too. Again, it’s evanstonian.net. 

Special thanks to everyone interviewed, Big Ten Network, the Evanston City Council and the Evanston Police Department.