Jim Hughes's blog

"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.

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.

From a recent Crain's Chicago Business article:

"If there is a silver lining, at least in the near term, it's that higher assessments on commercial properties in Cook County are likely to result in lower taxes for many homeowners. In Evanston, for instance, the assessed value of all residential property rose 25 percent from 2018 to 2019, while the assessed value of all commercial and industrial property rose 125 percent. The wide gap suggests that taxes will rise for commercial and industrial landlords in the suburb when property tax bills come out next year but drop for Evanston homeowners"

Read the full story here:

Crain's Chicago Business 4/12/2019: What Evanston's assessments tell us about the new assessor's new math

From the Atlantic CITYLAB website by Lydia Lee posted Feb. 6, 2015:

"In most places, sidewalk snow-clearing is left to individual homeowners. In Ann Arbor, one neighborhood decided to pool its resources instead."

The SnowBuddy tractor, driven and funded by volunteers, clears all 12 miles of sidewalk of the Water Hill neighborhood of Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Paul Tinkerhess)

Saw the above in a tweet from City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz this morning.  Thought it worth sharing. 

Click here or on the photo above to jump to the full article and comment either here at CSNA or at the Citylab.com website.

Jim

Lighthouse Beach at 3:00 pm Friday, October 31, 2014.

... "The best way for the City to honor the enormous and successful effort of all those who contributed to the heralded Central Street Master Plan is to give its ideas a chance to work." ...

Read the whole essay ...

The City Should Respect and Follow the Central Street Master Plan
A Guest Essay By John Walsh, Evanston RoundTable, 9/10/2014

Betty Sue Ester (Left - AGAINST) and Larry Suffredin (Center - FOR) are introduced by CSNA President John Walsh (Right) as they prepare to debate the upcoming referendum to abolish the Township.

Central Street Neighbors Association held its 2014 Annual Meeting Wednesday, February 19.  Six judicial candidates for seats on the Cook County 9th Sub-Circuit were introduced and were available to talk about their candidacies with residents. Those present included:

For the Goldberg vacancy:

• Jerry A. Esrig of Evanston

For the Myer vacancy:

• Anjana Hansen of Evanston

For the Preston vacancy:

• Michael Francis Otto
• Abbey Fishman Romanek of Wilmette
• Michael Allen Strom
• Brian Alexander of Skokie

During the business meeting two new members, Connie Heneghan and Lee Rogulich, were elected to the board.  Returning board members included Jim Hughes, and David Staub.  Returning Officers include John Walsh and Jeff Smith President and Vice President respectively. The new 2014 board is here.

Forum Report

(for the full article with the Forum Report click here)