By Bob Seidenberg rseiden914@gmail.com Evanston City Council members appeared open to a system that would rotate membership on the committee that helps set public discussion items. Two of the city’s Black Council members raised equity concerns about the process. At the Council Rules Committee meeting Oct. 3, Bobby Burns, 5th Ward, and Devon Reid, 8th…
By Bob Seidenberg Twenty years ago Joy Grizzard moved to Evanston,hoping to get a better education for her kids. She succeeded on that front, “but I left because it was expensive — is expensive,” she said at a meeting on affordable housing last week. She lived on Chicago’s South Side, caring for her sister until…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston City Council members have registered an objection to a Wilmette landowner’s latest attempt to seek an easement over a part of the Canal Shores Golf Course to allow access to his landlocked space. At the Sept. 12 meeting City Council meeting, members voted 8-0 in favor of a resolution officially registering the city’s objection to a roadway easement request…
By Bob Seidenberg Kevin Brown, the city’s popular Community Services Manager whose termination on November 15, 2019, sparked a wide community protest, filed a complaint in federal court on Sept. 13 against the City of Evanston. The complaint alleges that he was terminated on the basis of race and that he was terminated in retaliation…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston City Council members approved Sept. 12 an allocation of $508,000 in federal Covid recovery funds to a Brooklyn-based company to provide elevated cleaning and maintenance to the city’s downtown and other business areas. Council members balked, however, at a move by several of their colleagues to add a social service component…
By Bob Seidenberg Migdalia Bulnes currently serves as a Deputy Chief for the Chicago Police Department, and has logged 24 years of continuous service with CPD. Offering advice to other officers, she’ll tell them when it comes to de-escalating a tense situation, the biggest tool is not their gun. Rather, it’s their voice. “If used…
By Bob Seidenberg Public safety and addressing understaffing in the Police Department were identified as top concerns by a number of candidates for a vacant Second Ward City Council seat who spoke at a lively Sept. 6 forum. Mayor Daniel Biss posed a question about public safety at the forum at the Morton Civic Center…
By Bob Seidenberg Lightning strikes are not infrequent along Evanston’s lakefront. Something about the confluence of sail boats with metal poles and masts on them, flag poles on shore, swimmers standing in water, seems to be conducive for attracting them, said Tim Carter, the city’s Lakefront Director. He estimated staff members have to clear beaches…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston Library Board trustees are moving deliberately in their selection of the city’s next Library chief, establishing a clear picture of what they’d like to see in the ideal candidate before going out for interviews. In a brief report at the Aug. 17 meeting, Board President Tracy Fulce spoke of the need to review the job description for the executive library director position,…
With little chance for the public to weigh in, Evanston City Council members are moving ahead with the appointment of a longtime city administrator who has distinguished himself on the technology side as Evanston’s next city manager. Officials announced their intent to appoint Interim City Manager Luke Stowe as Evanston’s next City Manager, in a…
