By Bob Seidenberg Native women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average, yet often their perpetrators are not caught and their cases receive scant or no media attention. Twenty-five new original art works are at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in the new exhibit, No Rest: The Epidemic of Stolen…
By Bob Seidenberg Members of the city’s Redistricting Committee are inching toward mapping the city’s first new political boundaries in 20 years. Committee members have now conducted ward-to-ward analyses in eight of the city’s nine wards, with a meeting on the west side’s Fifth Ward scheduled for Jan. 26. Fourth Ward City Council member Jonathan Nieuwsma, who seeks…
By Bob Seidenberg The city’s Housing & Community Development Committee recommended in favor of providing $4 million in gap financing Jan. 17 to a non-profit developer partnering with a local church to create 44 affordable housing units just east of Church Street and Dodge Avenue, at 1805-15 Church St. Committee members voted unanimously at their…
By Bob Seidenberg In an apparent rebuke to the off-duty officer who drew his gun on a homeless man in the Evanston Public Library earlier this month, the top library official said there’s no exception to the prohibition against firearms for anyone working there as a safety monitor. Evanston Public Library policy prohibits the carrying…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston’s Masonic Temple, a local landmark that has sat vacant in recent years, will see new life as a residential apartment building after backing from the Evanston City Council on Jan. 9. Council members approved as part of the meeting’s consent agenda a request from Myefski Architects for variations from the number of…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston will invest a good chunk of change – $950,000 worth – in a Howard Street laundromat – in a move designed to bring greater affordable housing to the area. City Council members voted 8-1 in support of a proposal from Eighth Ward Council member Devon Reid, allocating the $950,000 in Tax…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston City Council members, whose jobs are part time under the city’s Council/Manager form of government, have – for better or worse – pretty much handled the responsibilities of the office on their own. That will change, though, after the Council approved an 11th hour budget amendment Dec. 12, contracting with a…
By Bob Seidenberg Evanston City Council approved an increase in the fee a Libertyville-based firm receives to manage the city’s waitlist for affordable housing — a list that continues to grow and is approaching 600 households. Council members approved a fee of $50,000, an increase of $7,000, to Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH) to…
By Bob Seidenberg How are Evanston’s Tax Increment Financing Districts faring? There was no definitive answer yet as Evanston officials said at the city’s annual Joint Board meeting Dec. 19 they are still awaiting more current revenue figures from Cook County. Some, like Chicago-Main TIF, have only a few projects since its creation. Others, like the…
By Bob Seidenberg Add Evanston Public Library to the list of groups with an interest in the plans for a Fifth Ward school and possible changes to Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center. City of Evanston and School District 65 officials convened a community meeting at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center on Dec. 6, presenting four concepts for the…
