The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, April 9, 2019
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Northwestern sweeps Ohio State
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Aldermen vote to raise debt ceiling Debt limit to increase by $2 million By SNEHA DEY
daily senior staffer @snehadey_
Aldermen approved a resolution that would increase Evanston’s current debt limit by $2 million during a Monday City Council meeting. The current limit is estimated at $150 million, according to city documents. The increase, which will raise the debt limit to $152 million, is set to include the bonds proposed to finance the Robert Crown Community Center and any unexpected changes. The city’s unabated debt is currently at $134 million, according to city documents. The city expects to issue an additional $23 million, which would raise the current debt to over $150 million, explained Hitesh Desai, the city’s chief financial officer. City staff initially proposed a $10 million raise, but Desai said only a $2 to 3 million raise was necessary. “I suggested $160 million… just for safety purposes,” Desai said. “It obviously won’t be that high. If the members of city council are uncomfortable, we can change it.” The $2 million raise passed
council with a 6-1 vote. Ald. Robin Rue Simmons (5th) voted against the raise and said she did not support any increases. She said the issue of affordability was “getting out of hand” and was regularly voiced by citizens in her ward. “Any amount above what we already have voted on and have financially prepared ourselves for as a city is too much of a burden for too many of our residents,” Rue Simmons said. Rue Simmons encouraged the city to better manage the budget and the services it already provides. She suggested the city turn to private-public partnerships for funds. The debt service will also be paid out of the future tax levy, the Water Fund revenues and Sewer Fund revenues, as part of the bonds will be allocated for general capital improvements, library improvements and water and sewer infrastructure projects, according to city documents. City officials entered the 2019 fiscal year with concerns over the operating budget. Aldermen approved the city’s 2019 operating budget of $319 million in November 2018. City staff was tasked with combating a $7.4 million deficit, which was filled through a combination of increased fees and taxes, as well as departmental restructuring. » See DEBT, page 6
Evan Robinson-Johnson/Daily Senior Staffer
New Yorker theatre critic Hilton Als speaks as part of Contemporary Thought Speaker Series. Als discussed the role of criticism in art.
Theater critic talks representation
Pultizer Prize winner Hilton Als brought to campus by CTSS By WILSON CHAPMAN
daily senior staffer
When asked how someone were to become a professional critic, New Yorker theater critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als laughed and says it’s hard to give a simple answer. “That’s sort of like asking how you become a professional pretzel maker,” Als said. “You have to love
pretzels.” A writer for the New Yorker since 1994 and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for cultural criticism in 2017, Als spoke about cultural criticism, representation and being a gay black man in media at Harris Hall on Monday. The conversation was moderated by Weinberg Prof. E. Patrick Johnson and was presented by the Contemporary Thought Speaker Series. Als said that as a young man,
he never anticipated becoming a critic. His career path ended up being a way for him to retain his passion for essay-writing, despite it not being a particularly profitable form of writing. When he was starting as a professional, Als said he was mentored by older gay men in the publishing business. One of these mentors would take him to the ballet and theatre and was so impressed by Als’ remarks about the shows that he later helped Als
secure his first job as a reviewer for a ballet review magazine when he was 21 years old. While he remains best known for his role as a theater critic, Als has branched out in recent years, and has now written about a wide variety of cultural topics, including books about celebrity and pop culture figures. His book “White Girls” was released in 2013. » See ALS, page 6
Assessment values worry residents Construction Some Evanston property owners fear rising property taxes By CASSIDY WANG
the daily northwestern @cassidyw_
Shaun Chinsky’s family has owned Good’s of Evanston since 1903. Fifty years ago, they bought the 714 Main St. building the business currently operates in. However, the future of Chinsky’s small business could change drastically if his next property tax bill parallels the property value assessment he recently received. He said the assessment more than doubled between 2016 and 2019. Chinsky, along with other commercial property owners, expressed concern over the recent Evanston assessments from the Cook County Assessor’s office at a public meeting Monday at the Evanston Public Library. Chinsky said if property tax increases are close to what the assessment increases have been, some companies will go out of business.
distrupts schedules North Campus students struggle to sleep due to noise By GABBY BIRENBAUM
daily senior staffer @birenbomb
Evan Robinson-Johnson/ Daily senior staffer
Property owners discuss increased property assessments with representatives from the Cook County Assessor’s office. They expressed concern over how these increases will affect their property taxes.
“I know people that just cannot withstand,” Chinsky told The Daily. “I don’t know what we’ll do. But it will absolutely change the way that we function if we get a giant increase.” At the meeting, assessors from the office tried to make their methods more transparent
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
and answered questions about the appeals process. According to the 2019 assessment report, the average value of all commercial assessments increased since the last assessment in 2016. The average assessed value of apartments increased 281 percent,
reflecting significant new construction. Commercial and retail assessments increased 92 percent while offices and industrial assessments increased 71 and 46 percent respectively. At the meeting, one property » See ASSESSMENTS, page 6
During finals week, Weinberg freshman and 560 Lincoln resident Pamela Chen had to start going to bed early. Her adjusted schedule was not a product of exams, but rather an attempt to get adequate sleep before she was awoken early by the sounds of construction on Campus Drive. “I had to seriously shift my schedule so that I went to sleep at a time where it would be okay for me to wake up at 7:30 a.m., because it was so loud to the point where my bed was vibrating,” Chen said. Residents of 560 Lincoln and Kemper Hall were first notified about the construction — a project run by the City of Evanston to replace
an 84-year old water reservoir underneath the parking lot behind Kemper Hall — via an email from Northwestern facilities in late January. The project is expected to run through February 2020, according to the email, at which point Northwestern will construct a green space rather than a parking lot over the reconstructed reservoir. Construction begins every morning at 8 a.m. and ceases at 5 p.m. Though the University asked city officials to accommodate students during finals week by starting construction at 10 a.m., the city said it was unable to honor the request, according to an email sent to 560 Lincoln and Kemper residents by Residential Life in March. Though Chen says she has learned to “tune out” the noise of the construction this quarter, it still affects her sleep schedule. “It ’s been hard to even » See CONSTRUCTION, page 6
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