3rd Ward aldermanic candidate Nicholas Korzeniowski, 36, is making his first run for municipal office in Evanston.
He ran four years ago for the District 65 school board but finished fifth in a race for four seats on the board.
Korzeniowski and incumbent 3rd Ward Alderman Melissa Wynne were interviews about their views on major issues by Evanston Now’s Jeff Hirsh.
Korzeniowski, who rents a condo at 726 Hinman Ave., also offered the following information on his background and what he views as the key issues in the campaign in response to an Evanston Now questionnaire.
Background
Nick has been an Evanstonian for over a decade, and his family has been in the 3rd Ward for much of that time. He studied at the University of Kansas where he majored in political science and philosophy for which he was published at only 19 years of age.
After that, Nick worked for Apple for many years before making the change to the education sector where he’s been a network engineer managing various K-8 school districts over the years.
Nick’s been politically active most of his life, but with the ascendancy of Donald Trump in 2016 he decided it wasn’t enough and that he personally had to be the change he wanted to see. Nick ran for the D65 School Board (earning the endorsement of the District Educator’s Council).
His oldest, Christian, is a Kindergartener at Lincoln, with younger Logan starting in a couple more years.
He has served on the boards of several organizations such as Indivisible Evanston, a progressive group aimed at helping policy and candidates with shared values, and the Southeast Evanston Association, which primarily focused on developments around town as well as the Save Harley Clarke movement. He’s also a charter member of the non-for-profit Dine After Dark which encourages food service establishments to remain open late during Ramadan as a way to encourage inclusive business practices.
At a time when we’re all looking for a fresh start, Nick represents an active, equitable and progressive future for the 3rd Ward and for all of Evanston.
Key issues
I want to tackle several issues in the coming term. Here’s a few words about just a few of them:
The Affordability Crisis: I hope to widen the scope of this conversation beyond filling units by an area median income to include considerations of things like the wheel tax and parking/street fees. We also need to encourage developments to increase multi-unit housing. Additionally, we need to be addressing not just new families coming up and trying to thrive in town, but as well folks getting priced out. That goes for our elderly neighbors as well as those who may be in danger of losing their homes for various reasons.
The Climate Crisis: We need to accelerate our work with the Climate Action and Resilience Plan. It’s supposed to complete by 2050, and I’m want to see if we can arrive at this goal ten years ahead of schedule. CARP is a first step, not a last. I want to incentivize renovations to modernize building HVAC, increase LED lighting everywhere we can, save Lee Street Beach; the list goes on and on.
Our Budget Crisis: I feel that our last budget placed an unnecessary burden upon our citizens in ways that we could have just as easily avoided. The incumbent council raised taxes a second time in two years, and this time during a pandemic. They did this despite Northwestern owing more than the difference in fire services. We don’t need to be balancing Northwestern’s books on our backs any more.
Website and social media
Campaign website, Facebook profile, Facebook campaign page, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube.