Editorial: Does Evanston’s City Council need a civility pledge?
Tempers have been fraying among those who govern the feisty college town just north of Chicago, and it’s not only about Northwestern University’s controversial plan to redo Ryan Field, its football stadium, and include live concerts in its plan going forward.
Plenty of neighbors are upset about that, we hear, but Evanston City Council has not exactly provided a model of decorum. According to Evanston Now, the impulse to create a so-called civility pledge for council members was sparked by “a tantrum” thrown by Ald. Devon Reid, 8th, who “stalked out of a Human Services Committee meeting Monday night after becoming upset about the discussion of leaf-blower use and denouncing his colleagues as ‘a status quo council that only takes up issues that impact our wealthy northern residents.’ ”
Reid, a staunch progressive, has been throwing a lot of wacky rocks at his fellow council members. Recently, he has found a lack of support for his plan to decriminalize magic mushrooms, a substance that other committee members would prefer not to be making regular legal Evanston appearances. Last summer, Reid also made headlines for his efforts to change the city’s public nudity ordinance in the name of gender equity on lakefront beaches; that did not sit so well either.
All that said, while we have vehemently denounced threats to individuals or groups made in legislative bodies, we also defend Reid’s right to storm out of meetings and to characterize the council as too beholden to wealthier interests or whatever else he wants to say in a meeting. He should not have to sign a pledge stating that “we are all striving to support and improve our community,” when he may not believe that to be so.
Raucous debate is good for Evanston, reflects Reid’s free speech rights and can be a helpful safety valve whenever the fix is in, from whatever end of the political scale.
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