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Evanston Arts DepotSep 3 2010 - 8:00pm
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Westfield Old OrchardSep 4 2010 - 9:00am
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Evanston Arts DepotSep 4 2010 - 8:00pm
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Evanston Arts DepotSep 5 2010 - 3:00pm
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Sep 6 2010 - 6:00pm
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Sep 6 2010 - 7:00pm
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Levy Senior CenterSep 7 2010 - 10:00am
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Levy CenterSep 7 2010 - 10:00am
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Levy CenterSep 7 2010 - 5:00pm
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Levy Senior CenterSep 7 2010 - 5:00pm
Mayor Lorraine Morton appointed all of the current members of the Library Board. I trusted her then, and I trust Mayor Tisdahl now, to make the best decision for the leadership of the Library Board.
You'll note that Crown, Chandler, the Levy Center, the Noyes Center, The Ecology Center, Fleetwood, and Ridgeville House are more equally distributed and accessible to more citizens than the two branch libraries. It's not a question of whether you DO use them, but whether you CAN. For instance, there is transportation available to seniors who can't easily access the Levy center.
The branch libraries offer a small proportion of citizens better service - and this reduces the amount of money for outreach and for improving the collection. It's not unnoticed by me and many others that the areas served by the branches are not where the need for learning and community are most critical.
Furthermore, one aspect of poverty is that it moves with changing housing markets, so placing a permanent structure where low-income residents can reach it now may not help them in ten years. We need a to find a more nimble, more equitable and less expensive way of bringing library service to all of Evanston.
In a market economy, most developers are not really interested in constructing housing low-income housing. A developer wants to make the most money possible. The only time a developer is interested in building low income housing is if the government subsidizes the practice.
I don't think government should be in the business of subsidizing housing. If you can't afford to buy the house of your dreams in Evanston, then you'll just have to buy something less expensive. If you can't afford to buy anything, then you should rent. If you can't afford to rent anything in the City of Evanston, then you'll have to rent somewhere else or get some roommates.
Lori is right to say that the library discussion shouldn't be about race.
The real issue here is the fact that the Library Board is wholly unaccountable and unrepresentative of the community. The board doesn't even come close to representing Evanston's diverse demographic and geographic profile. If you look at the residences of the board members, there are none living in at least three of the city's wards. In terms of race and gender, the board doesn't even come close to being representative.
The "Friends" group is even worse.
I love how Lori presents the Friends as the defenders of the West Side. She talks about how they "are currently heavily involved and invested in the West side."
If a group were so "heavily invested" don't you think you would have people from that neighborhood on the Board of the Friends of the Library? If you look at where the Board of the Library Friends actually live, you will see that of the 11 members, somewhere around 9 live within two blocks of Central Street. The other three live within a block or two of the South Branch on such the lovely (and pricey) streets of Judson and Forest.
The Friends of the Library is nothing more than a North Evanston neighborhood group. There is nothing wrong with that, but let's be up front about it. They and the board don't speak for the large majority of Evanston.
People aren't going to these "forums" largely because they are smart enough to recognize that they are nothing but a sham. The fix is already in. If the Library Board really cared about the public they would have scheduled these forums to get actual public opinion--which is how ethical elected and accountable bodies conduct themselves--before making a decision.
Instead, they passed the funding change at a special meeting hastily arranged and poorly advertised. Once people found out what they were up to, they tried these BP-style PR shows to save face.
It is important not to lose sight of the fact that the board could have gotten its same authority though a referendum establishing a Library District with an elected board of trustees. They didn't because they knew it would go over like a lead balloon.
Now is the time for the mayor and City Council to step up and replace the board with more thoughtful, civic-minded folk.
Michele,
I understand your point, and I remember your comments from the Forum on Saturday, but library services won't get any better or any more fairly distributed by continuing to cut the library's budget and keeping it as part of the scrum of the annual budget cycle which is millions in debt to pension funds. Or allowing the budget to be under the guidance of a City that just spent $40,000 on outside legal fees over a $600 tax bill. Where's the oversight on that?
More than 40% of the kids in the summer reading program participate at the branches, which prevents academic slide. Reading scores directly influence test results and success in school. Use is up at both branches including many who use them for primary internet access. If I were you, I'd support the Library Fund model more than anyone and hope that through restoration of a predictable funding model, outreach to your neighborhood would potentially improve. In fact, there's already a lending library at Levy, it would be a natural outpost for increased service to the 8th ward -- or for a summer reading program. It can't happen overnight, but it can happen pretty quickly when we all put our minds to it. This is a start, and having committed citizen support is also a start. Rather than ask for less for us all, why don't we figure out a way to make it better, and not necessarily through taxes, but through donations and grants and fundraising and being the best community we can be.
Many seniors in my neighborhood use the branch library as an community outpost since Levy happens to be inconveniently located for most of Evanston's seniors. I don't ask why my neighbors have to pay for Senior services that are more convenient and serve other people, I consider what is best for the greater good and continue to support those services. If your argument that it is inappropriate to use tax dollars to offer better service to some than others were used universally, we'd have to have all of our city services centrally located geographically -- which by the way, the Main Library is not.
By the same token, I rarely use Crown or Chandler, and never use Levy, and hardly ever go to Fleetwood. But I think they are important to support because they benefit our city and its residents regardless of where they are located or who gets to use them more than say myself or my neighbors. Libraries are good. They foster learning and community. We lose them at our peril.
I was at the first of these two forums and commented about a neighbor of mine who gave up on the Evanston Public Library entirely after walking over a mile NORTH to get to the South Branch and over a mile to get home - with three children. The question I asked was not answered: why do my neighbors, some of whom live in the poorest census district in Evanston, have to pay for library services that serve other people?
While the library has shown genuine concern and has bent over backwards to reach my neighbors, the fact remains that we don't get the same level of service as taxpayers who live close to the two branches. It is inappropriate to use tax dollars to offer better service to some than to others - especially when the demographic differences between have-branches and have-not-branches are so marked.
Once again Evanston Now continues to engage in race baiting and worse. I'm not sure what your end goal could possibly be since it certainly doesn't work for the betterment of our city or our community members. It's divisive and unfortunate and impossible to understand. I can only guess that by continuing to write these types of blog posts you must increase your readership by stirring the pot, which then allows you to tout numbers for advertisers. Other than that, I can't figure out why you would continue down this path to try to create animosity where it doesn't exist, rather than working towards something which could help us all, a better public library system for ALL Evanston residents.
Anyway, I was at the forum last night and made the comments you refer to regarding community centers. If you do look at the Ward map, it's unclear still to me where the Ecology Center sits. If anything, it's on the border between the wards.
But why your comments about African Americans in the crowd? What relevance is there? None whatsoever, and none that would support your implication that there's little support for the library fund within that community.
The Library Board funded two summer reading programs WHICH HADN'T PREVIOUSLY EXISTED at Robert Crown and Fleetwood -- maybe you should be asking the parents of the more than 250 NEW summer reading program kids if they appreciated or enjoyed that outreach. City Council said they wanted outreach and the Library Board with the help of the Friends, delivered. City Council also asked for a Sustainable Funding model and the Library Board also delivered. There have always been outreach programs throughout the community, which can be detailed by the Library if you were so journalistic as to try to represent both sides of this issue fairly. I'm sure a long list is available, as I've heard it detailed to me by Martha Meyer, branch assistant.
In fact, the Friends are currently heavily involved and invested in the West side and in continuing to deliver books and services to that neighborhood. In fact, you could stop by the West Side Farmer's market any weekend where we've continued to support the efforts of that community. Or maybe you could interview Precious Wright, Director at ECDC (again, you'd have to put on your journalist hat) and ask about our efforts to learn how that community could be better served and deliver books to young and adult readers. Right now we're working with Boocoo to get shelving for free books.
The Library budget struggles (which have continued to be fueled by your agenda -- whatever that may be) brought light to many issues. Among them, the fact that there could be a powerful, positive and influential force in the citizens of Evanston to work for better library services for ALL of the community. Whether that's the free lending at the Levy Center, Book twirler shelves stocked by Friends and the Library at Robert Crown, participation and free book giveaways at the West side market or supporting the Seniors and young readers by allowing them access to a local, free, public neighborhood branch. And if that has to come about by the Library Board enacting a law which has been ignored by Evanston for years and invoking the Library Fund, so be it.
For a more fair reporting of what the library fund could mean for the citizens of Evanston, go to the Evanston Review editorial which supports the fund. I will excerpt a key portion here, and see the link below for the full editorial:
"Evanston residents should embrace his assertion and support the Evanston Public Library Board's plan to adopt a funding model that offers the best option for providing a stable revenue source for that cultural asset." you can go to Pioneer Local Evanston Review and Search "Library Fund"
To imply that meager attendance by one race or another at a mid-week evening meeting during the first week of school suggests a lack of support is disingenuous at best, and sinister at worst. I'm sure you'll come back with some sort of support for your race-baiting claim, but me? I'm not buying it, and I think that most of our citizens are brighter than that as well. Bring it on Mr. Who Knows, or Anonymous Al, or any other unattributed nay-sayer.
Hey JS, Joel Pollak hasn't stopped at my door.
If he does, I'll tell him that I don't want the US to get into a war with Iran. I also don't like these bigots like Pamela Geller and Rudy Giuliani inciting religious hatred. I don't want Paul Ryan to gut Social Security. And I don't like the Psychic Friends Network.
Will he put that in his platform?
It would be nice if everyone could stop the name calling and listen to the candidates and what they stand for, as well as examining their actions. Schakowsky has quite a few major problems, including holding extreme left wing views, has a record of extreme spending of your tax dollars with reckless abandon, wants to put the entire health care system in the "capable" hands of the federal government and having a husband who is convicted fellon. At a recent event she mentioned how spending millions in the federal goverment's eyes is like "pennies".
Joel has spent the last few months practically going door to door in our district finding out what is on the mind of our communities and has pledged to use that as his platform. Schakowsky's actions tell us that SHE and her administration friends know what's best for us whether we like it or not.
Joel is no "fool". If you actually listen to him and read what he has written he is sincerely interested in what is best for us, the country, and fighting for our concerns. Just open your mind and listen without preconcieved hateful notions.
Religious freedom is an important thing. If these folks feel the need to litigate that with the city, so be it. Our city attorneys will make good decisions about whether to settle or to proceed.
Paying taxes is a completely different matter. Just because you are in a dispute about one thing does not absolve you from following the law on other matters. Bad precedent for the city (as rent says). It gives people incentive to have disputes with the city - they could win the original dispute AND the city might give them a pass on their taxes. Send the bill, Evanston (with penalty and interest - in case you have not heard, we are broke).two different issues
Sadly, there will be FEWER "regular everyday people who live and work and send their children to the Evanston schools and are a part of the Evanston community", given the direction of our community. Think about it for a minute - if the Library Board gets their way and is able to increase taxes (which they will) up to the statuatory allowed limits to "stabilize their funding", water and sewer rates go higher (up 10%), parking sticker fees keep going higher, D65 and D202 taxes keep going higher (they've been limited due to low inflation #'s but if you have kids in school, fees keep going up) Federal Income taxes are going up, and the Illinois Income tax is going up from 3% to at least 4% and over time is heading to 5% - how is the middle class going to be able to live in Evanston ?? Answer - you can't afford to. So what will Evanston look like in 5 - 10 years??
vito and i are regular readers of evanston now, and value the up-to-date news about various goings-on about town. the research and background information bill smith provides are always very enlightening, and add immeasurably to the various discussions. lots of different people come up with some really great ideas on local issues, and it stimulates ones thinking to read about these. by and large the comments are issue-oriented and don't descend into personality clashes very often, another mark of a grown-up bunch of citizens who contribute to the site. i am alway surprised when i ask someone from evanston about such-and-such happening, and they don't know about it. then i say, "don't you read evanston now?" if they say no, i urge them to do so. thanks for your great journalistic work, bill. keep it coming and we'll keep reading!
The problem is that we don't have a market economy in housing. All sorts of NIMBYs and their zoning regulations discourage the construction of apartments and housing for lower income people.
Sure it looks bad that the city backed down. But what was the alternative-- spending thousands more in legal bills in pursuit of a small sum of money? The city will catch up to her in the end when she tries to sell the place and discovers that she can't.
Don't quite know what motive she might have had for pursuing this so vigorously, but I for one am glad that our cash-strapped city decided to cut its losses for now.
It is amazing that all of a sudden our Congresswoman decides to do something. Is it because she has a qualified candidate running against her? Maybe we need to do this for the next election with our City Council?
Agreed, Low income housing, in a market economy, is former regular income housing. It does not need to be constructed newly
Not everyone in Evanston can afford to purchase a home in Evanston... I was born in Evanston and have lived in Evanston all my life.. I work everyday.. If it possible for me and my children to live in a place were the rent is comparable to other units in Evanston. Why not let families move in the area. Evanston is not just for the wealthy people.. There are regular everyday people who live and work and send their children to the Evanston schools and are a part of the Evanston community.
So now what? Speaking as a condominium association president, does our board now have to give free passes to owners who object to paying whatever city assessments may be due on "religious grounds"? Just because Dr. Rao may be boneheaded doesn't mean that Evanston should be too.
The city does need more low income housing. When people lose their jobs they have to sell these mansions you love so much and live by more modest means - some of which may qualify for low income housing. The reason property value is going down is because all of your neighbors are selling and it is reflected on the whole community.
I seriously hope you were kidding about "I would prefer more high-income housing because rich people will pay more property taxes and spend more money around town. Maybe Jan can get us a federal grant to build a new exclusive gated community or maybe some more mansions on the lake!"
I don't even know what to say about such a statement......
So Rao has not paid her taxes and the city won't add her to the tax delinquent properties.
I wonder how many other tax delinquent property owners the city has not added to the list. This certainly seems like it sets a bad precedent.
My property taxes are going up yet again in this Recession. So if I refuse to pay my taxes in protest of out-of-control government spending or the fact the city took down a Dutch elm tree in my yard would the city keep me off the list?
Meanwhile, other condo owners in the building paid their special assessment for the alley. Why does Rao get a free ride?
I'm sorry. Rao purposefully refused to pay her special assessment and property taxes so she should suffer the consequences. She's a physician, I'm sure she'd survive if her condo was sold at auction.
Another boneheaded move by the city.
thank god!!!!
The original Review article is infuriorating that the city would waste so much money on a petty case like this.
and your title for this story is unjust. It is not an issue about being a "tree lover" - maybe you should re-read the Review article Bill
I was not aware that the City of Evanston was in dire need of more housing. If housing was in such short supply, then why have the prices of homes and condos fallen so precipitously over the past few years? Under the laws of supply and demand, falling prices indicate that the supply of a good (in this case, housing) exceeds the demand for that good. Hence, the market appears to be saying we don't need any more housing.
If the objective is to get more low-income housing, then isn't the market already achieving that by lowering the prices of housing stock in the City?
And can anyone explain to me why more low-income housing is a desirable outcome? Personally, I would prefer more high-income housing because rich people will pay more property taxes and spend more money around town. Maybe Jan can get us a federal grant to build a new exclusive gated community or maybe some more mansions on the lake!
I'd say staying open as late as 4pm is pretty good for a LUNCH place that focuses on serving up fabulous burgers made from freshly-ground beef (done daily right there at the shop!)
Yes, you'll have to wait in line if you hit the lunch-hour rush, but you WILL be rewarded with (as Jules in Pulp Fiction proclaimed) a TASTY BURGER.
Oh well, your loss--more for me! (I think I know where I'm headed RIGHT NOW!)
Lori,
I appreciate your comments regarding the site and the media, the merits of the article.
What I do not appreciate is your interjection about race and class baiting which has absolutely nothing to do with the article.
You are the one stirring the pot.
You found it convenient to bash a right leaning network using a classic Dem ploy - change the argument to race and class.
Do you not think that the country is sick of this kind of rhetoric? What does your post say about you?
Think about it.
"POOR" has nothing to do with living like that. Cleanliness has nothing to do with being poor... UNLESS you are living in the streets.
Please...I'm poor BUT I keep my apartment clean with a loaf of bread and a half gallon of milk in my fridge for my little boys - bug free!!! How do you get bugs in your fridge?
What makes me sick is that Drug dealers have no purpose for drug dealing. To get more money...for what? Obviously NOT to feed or take care of the kids!!!