By Bob Seidenberg City of Evanston officials’ plan for a 7.8% increase in the city’s property tax levy as a key revenue generator for their proposed 2024 budget ran into critical reactions Tuesday night, particularly since some residents had already received tax bill notices in the mail from Cook County informing them of double-digit percentage…
By Bob Seidenberg It’s not every day a batch of free parking spaces becomes available in downtown Evanston. But that was the case Monday when the underground parking garage at Evanston’s Main Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., reopened to the public after being closed shortly after the onset of COVID. The garage, now under library…
By Bob Seidenberg The Evanston City Council on Monday approved a five-story, 60-unit mixed-income housing development for the far south end of the city that will offer rents across a wide range of incomes – a feature missing from many of the city’s other affordable housing projects. Council members unanimously approved PIRHL Developers LLC’s request for…
Flavored cigars popularity with young people helped ignite Council member Eleanor Revelle’s call for a ban on all flavored tobacco product sales By Bob Seidenberg Snuffed out once, an Evanston City Council member has proposed for a second time that the city adopt a comprehensive ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products within…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston Economic Development Committee members are making full use of the city’s remaining federal COVID stimulus funds, designating them to help a number of initiatives growing out of the Evanston Thrives report on enhancing the city’s business districts. Earlier this year, the City Council allotted the committee $3 million left over from…
Evanston Public Library names Yolande Wilbern as its new executive director The Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees announced today that they have named Yolande Wilburn as the Library’s new executive director, capping a more than 15-month search to a close. Wilburn will join the Evanston Public Library as the new Executive Director, starting Nov….
By Bob Seidenberg rseiden914@gmail.com Evanston has made good use of renewable energy certificates in the past, purchasing them to buy a stake in renewable energy projects elsewhere, even though the sources of that renewable energy may be some far-off wind farm in North Dakota. City Council members reaffirmed continued use of that strategy Monday, voting 7-0…
By Bob Seidenberg Rule 5.2 of the Rules and Organization of the City Council states that a board or commission appointee may be reappointed only once. It’s a rule rarely if ever noticed and frequently not followed, but it became the center of discussion at the Evanston City Council meeting Sept. 11. Daniel Biss, who…
By Bob Seidenberg City and development officials highlighted the affordable housing features of a five-story, 60-unit, mixed-income apartment building planned for the city’s far south end at a well-attended Third Ward meeting Aug. 31. The Housing Authority of Cook County is teaming up with Cleveland-based PIRHL Developers, an affordable housing organization the city selected to…
By Bob Seidenberg Some neighbors of Canal Shores Golf Course, upset to see three old trees on the course get chopped down, on Thursday charged the trees had been felled without necessary permits. But Evanston Council Member Eleanor Revelle (7th Ward), who had initially concurred with neighbors and said that something “fell through the cracks,”…
