By Ben Joravsky
The rivalry predates Gallagher and most of her allies, going back to before even World War II, when many Evanstonians disdainfully regarded Chicago as a smelly netherworld of hookers and hoodlums and as a place where young people sneaked away to buy their first beers. In those days Evanston was a predominantly white Republican bastion of North Shore intolerance and provincialism: its leaders wanted nothing to do with Chicago–even major north-south streets like California, Western, and Clark changed names at the border (becoming Dodge, Asbury, and Chicago).
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In fact in the last decade or so activists and organizers on each side of the divide realized they had more to worry about from themselves than each other. Rogers Park was undergoing wrenching changes: crime rose, landlords didn’t maintain their property or rented to abusive tenants, and businesses left the struggling Morse Avenue commercial strip.
“Rogers Park’s very unique in that a lot of people are afraid it’s going to be the next Lincoln Park, and some people are afraid it’s on the decline,” says Gallagher. “It will always be a neighborhood that embraces diversity and makes room for people with different incomes and perspectives.”
“We knew some of the people on [DevCorp’s] board, and about a year ago we started meeting,” says Chavers. “We had a joint walk on both sides of Howard with signs saying Howard Power. It didn’t take long to realize we had a lot in common.”
To symbolize their new alliance they decided to erect banners along Howard Street. The hard part was picking a color with no known gang affiliation. They settled on a green, white, and purple design that reads “Rogers Park, Howard, Evanston.”
“Let us make no little plans for Howard Street,” said Gallagher.
