[NU Sports] And then there's this

[Beamsley, Jeff]

As many on this list know, I don't often agree with Dennis, but this is an exception.
 
As much as we may want it to be, Evanston is not will likely never be a college town.
 
I can list off the reasons, if anyone cares to dispute this.  Everyone who has attended the Evanston campus can testify how different it is from virtually any other Big Ten Univeristy because of the absence of the student ghetto buffer between the university and the rest of the town.  
 
As a result of not being a college town, Evanston and Northwestern have always found themselves at odds over things like Northwestern taking property off the Evanston tax rolls and Evanston providing Northwestern services that it does not get reimbursed for.
 
There has also been an uneasy truce between those non-university people who live in very nice houses very close to campus, and students who live in not so nice houses very close to campus.  Evanston does not want to see their existing old housing stock turned into a student ghetto.  They feel it is Northwestern's responsibility to provide housing for their students.  Those students who choose not to live in Northwesten housing are expected to behave as any other member of thier off-campus neighborhood.  Those who have spent a lot of money to buy one of the wonderful old houses in the neighborhoods near campus have every right to complain about a noisy, disruptive neighbor regardless of their age or affiliation.  They also have every right, when it is a student, to let the University know that some of their students are being rude and irresponsible.  Just as they have every right to complain to the city if the police or firefighters held a similar party, or complain to the church if a revival meeting got out of hand.  
 
None of these rules apply to college towns where the boundaries of the student ghetto are usually well known and the city and their residents have long ago agreed that the primary purpose of the city is to host the school.  Even a place like Ann Arbor which has grown well past it's roots as the home of UoM still retains that student-friendly vibe which has never been present in Evanston.
 
Jeff
 
 

________________________________

From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com on behalf of Dennis W. Brandt
Sent: Fri 10/15/2010 12:57 PM
To: SjT (Stephen J. Truog); Joe Thiegs
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] And then there's this



> They [Evanston residents] obviously knew there were students there, so use
> common sense on the evening of the one night football game allowed each
> year! :) And honestly, those pictures are indistinguishable from any
> backyard in Chicagoland after the Fourth of July or Labor Day weekend.

Ah, yes.  The old justification of bad behavior by pointing to other bad
behavior.  We had a similar problem here in York with York College students,
who have no football games to attend.  The cops clamped down, and they
should have.  No homeowner should have to tolerate such intolerable
behavior.  Don't make excuses for them.

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