The issue on the table was whether Park Ridge should let Taylor Swift perform a pop-up concert on the steps of City Hall.
All the top officials in Park Ridge were clustered around the dais, from the mayor to the police and fire chiefs to the directors of finance and public works, to hear public commenters’ concerns about how much traffic the concert could bring to the city or their excitement about how concertgoers promised to boost business for local stores.
But Park Ridge is not on the list of 20 cities Swift will visit for the U.S. leg of her Eras Tour. And Mayor Marty Maloney wasn’t even in the council chambers.
Instead, a group of students from Maine South High School were filling seats ordinarily occupied by senior staff like Finance Director Chris Lipman or Public Works Director Sarah Mitchell as well as city officials like Maloney.
Two real members of Park Ridge’s city administration, Deputy City Clerk Brigid Madden and Administrative Services Manager Leisa Niemotka, were leading the students in an exercise meant to demonstrate how local government works and why it’s important.
When a major event like a concert comes to town, the strain on public services like emergency response teams or streets and sanitation becomes acute. The students realized this quickly, Niemotka said.
“The kids were very worried about the parking situation and the traffic,” Niemotka said. “The fire chief was worried about where the ambulances would be.”
Students who played public commenters said they were concerned about increasing congestion and traffic. Others who were more supportive of the idea played up the likely shot in the arm that a concert’s worth of people could bring to local bars, restaurants and shops.
All the students participating were in the thick of a three-week government course that covers a semester’s worth of material in a compressed time frame.
While the Swift exercise helped demonstrate the portion of city governance that takes place in council chambers, Maine South Social Sciences teacher Leah Politi said about half the class is a typical lecture and notes setup, while and the other half consists of field trips and speakers.
“They got to visit (Fire) Station 36, they got to go on a ride-along with a police officer, they went around Park Ridge with the Public Works department and looked at some of the construction sites around Park Ridge,” Politi said.
The students also met with the city’s Community Preservation and Development department and gave feedback on what they wanted to see in Uptown, Politi added. Their main asks were for more chicken restaurants and longer-term parking options.
Hannah Goetz, 17 and a rising senior at Maine South, said that session had been her favorite of the field experiences and guest speakers.
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Director of Community Preservation and Development Drew Awsumb and Claudia Hampel wrote down all the students’ suggestions, she said, and she enjoyed the chance to suggest that the city bring a thrift store and more indoor entertainment options beyond food and dining to the business district.
Goetz said the public meeting simulation “let me see what a real life city council meeting would look like through the eyes of the different departments.”
She played the role of finance director Chris Lipman in the exercise, she said. Watching how a public decision would play out from the role of a city staffer helped her “comprehend the whole idea of a city council meeting,” she said. “Plus, we got to talk about Taylor Swift.”
Goetz is a fan of the singer and attended one of her concerts in Chicago, she said.
“We tried to pick something that is kind of fun and relevant to them,” Niemotka said. “They seemed to be laughing about it and interested in it.”
Politi said the course tends to attract rising seniors who can keep up with an advanced-placement style government course but want to take other electives during the school year.
This is the first year the city has run the class since the pandemic, Madden told Pioneer Press.
Niemotka added that they have run similar workshops for younger and older students — subbing in an amusement park permit or a cannabis dispensary looking to open in town depending on the age of the audience — with the goal of demonstrating the impact of local government on daily life.
“This is the level of government that touches their lives every day, all day,” Niemotka said.
Politi also said the City Council debate exercise in particular prompted many students to empathize more with elected officials.
“It showed them how hard it can be to make decisions, especially when there’s no way to make everyone happy,” she said.
Ultimately, the city “officials” did decide to issue a concert permit, Niemotka said.
But permit or no permit, Swift appeared to skip Park Ridge for Soldier Field. That might be for the better, Goetz observed, estimating that Swift’s local fan base would burst Uptown at the seams.