Blogs

Over last weekend, CSNA learned of a potentially significant change to Evanston law lurking in an obscure agenda item of the Rules Committee. A legal department memo proposed concepts ranging from bypassing the Planning and Development Committee altogether for certain zoning decisions (such as granting special uses and variations, or approving large projects called planned developments), to preventing the City Council from reviewing the Land Use Commission decisions at all, requiring anyone dissatisfied to go to court. CSNA, after polling its Board, urged hitting the pause button on this. My individual remarks prepared for the Committee are as follows.

"Mayor Biss, Chair Nieuwsma,  Council Members, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Agenda Item D1 regarding the process for Land Use Commission recommendations. I’m Jim Hughes, 2518 Hartzell St.

As you probably know, Northwestern University (NU) has begun what will likely be over a year of planning, conceptual design, and design development for the rebuilding of Ryan Field.  The stadium was built in the 1920s, and is showing its age.  Don’t worry, the stadium isn’t falling down and the construction is at least a year away from starting.  We are so early in the process that there is no information available regarding capacity, design, renderings, footprint, construction, or schedule.  The stadium will not be a dome, which is a major disappointment for some. (Read more.)

A brief rant on "town hall meetings" and why the meeting Tuesday, June 29 is unusual and worth attending.

The phrase "town meeting" conjures up images of the public at an old-fashioned public meeting, giving their elected officials a piece of their mind. Norman Rockwell's famous 1943 painting "Freedom of Speech" (right) depicts such a "town meeting" in Vermont.

In an ever-more-digitized and depersonalized era, with growing disconnect between government and the governed, my observation is that many -- not all, but many -- citizens are hungry for opportunities to be heard.

It’s a paradox of Evanston that fiscal hawks and taxpayer advocates focus on City finances, but it’s the two school districts that collect and spend most of our property tax dollars. Our K-8 system slips by with, generally, lack of attention, since at any given time most Evanston households don’t have kids in that system. Hot-button issues like redistricting or the closing or construction of a school draw a spotlight, but generally curriculum is too little discussed and school finances even less. If District 65 is getting a lot of attention it is usually because there is a problem.

District 65 is now getting a lot of attention and there is a problem. A couple big ones, actually.

Hi everyone,

I read this Evanston Patch article last night … and checked some of the references used… then found the numbers did not add up.

The article is ... Patch 7/14/2020: Amid Calls To 'Defund Police,' Evanston Mayor, Chief Talk Budget

From the article sub-headline: “Evanston's ratio of police to residents has been among the highest in Illinois.”

There is a lot of outside data in the article and that data generally supports the sub-headline despite the errors.

I quote the article below and then the correction I think needs to be made.

1. “Evanston's ratio of police personnel to population – about 269 department employees to 100,000 residents — compares to that of San Francisco, Miami or Little Rock, Arkansas, according to an analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice cited by Papachristos."

269 per 100,000 residents is about right for Evanston.  But the data for the other cities is actually the number of residents per police department employee … and not employees per hundred thousand residents.  So, this is not a valid comparison. Evanston actually has 364 residents per police department employee.  A much higher ratio than these three cities which run from 260-275.

2. “Chicago's police to resident ratio is 40 percent lower — just 183 employees per 100,000 Chicagoans."

Chicago actually has about 506 employees per 100,000 residents.  Evanston has about 270. So, Chicago is actually about 100% higher and not 40% lower.

3. “Apart from Chicago, Evanston had the fourth highest ratio of police to residents in the state, trailing only Addison, Elk Grove Village and Carbondale.”

The data for this comparison was from 2016 when Evanston PD  had 227 employees.  In 2020 that number is now 202 with unfilled open positions.  That would put Evanston at about 7^th highest (below Chicago) on the list of 52 Illinois police departments. Still high on this measure when compared to 52 others in the database.  But in the top 15% not in the top 10%.

Jim Hughes

2518 Hartzell St.