If your New Years resolution calls for doing good deeds for your fellow Evanstonians, the Evanston150 folks have a suggestion: Come to the Evanston Public Library Saturday morning and volunteer to work on one or more of the 10 big ideas for Evanston.
You may recall that the civic group spent much of the summer and fall obtaining more than 2000 ideas for helping the community celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2013 and then winnowing those ideas down to 10 really big ones, which were unveiled on Nov. 10.
Some residents were critical that many of the ideas might be too big or too costly to implement, but the group immediately entered the implementation phase undaunted, and Saturday’s meeting is an event designed to shift that phase into high gear.
Beginning with coffee and refreshments at 9 a.m. in the library’s large community room on the first floor, the organization plans to divide volunteers into 10 groups that will receive guidance from consultants Paul Arntson and Judy Hertz, who will help the volunteers craft action plans and move the projects forward.
The session will begin at 9:30 a.m., and by the time the event ends at about 12:30 p.m., all 10 groups should be sufficiently motivated to move ahead, organizers hope.
The Saturday session is free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary.
A complete list of the ideas is contained on the organization’s website.
A Health Menace Returns
One of my renewed concerns is the IDIOT syndrome (Involuntary Dropping Incidents Of Trash).
We are on a corner a few blocks east of the Dodge/Dempster food emporiums and it seems that some ingredient in the food attacks the central nervous system of the consumimg individuals. This is a very fast acting agent — a few blocks and symptoms occur.
The symptoms are easy to observe: victims can no longer grasp their food or drink containers, which they inadverently drop. This is often accompanied by very loud unintelligible vocal utterances, especially at night, and often correlates with when they are in groups. Thus it seems not to single out unique susceptible individuals, but a large number of individuals.
Should we not be concerned with food ingredients rather than what serving staff wear?
I still think two points in
I still think two points in particular duplicate services or could be done in existing organizations/spaces. For example, THE MORE YOU KNOW: CITY OF INFORMATION, which will:
Establish fully functional neighborhood literacy centers in geographically different areas of Evanston. In addition to providing conventional library services and events, these facilities will promote community learning with a focus on technology. This project will also establish free wi-fi city-wide in order for residents to
have access to information everywhere!
Maybe I am not understanding this correctly, but this sounds like establishing branch libraries, which were recently closed (South) /in danger of closing (North). Could they just add more tech learning elsewhere (ETHS evening classes, main library, community centers)??
The other one: TEEN TOWN – couldn't those ideas be integrated into ETHS, community centers and the library system as well?
Finally, the last one – LITTLE AND LEARNING – seems to address some of the concerns in another Evanston Now article (possible new Bright Horizons site).
I hope these issues will be addressed as the work progresses.
Evanston 150
Maybe we should have added plant a money tree forest so we can pay for these ridiculous ideas. Almost all of them will never see farther than the eyes of those with that suggested them. I think maybe it's called 150 because it will take another 150 years to even come close to realizing these ideas. I wanted flying cars by the 21st century….I have yet to duck to avoid one. Lets get real and deal with the problems we already have.
P.S. Please tell me where this green farm will be located. Last time I checked evanston is land locked and is bordered by a very large lake.