Evanstonians will get seven chances this weekend to turn out to vote on which of 100 project ideas for improving the city they like best.
The voting takes place today at the Century Theatre complex downtown at 9:30 and 11 a.m. and at Evanston Township High School at 2 and 3:30 p.m. and on Sunday at St. Francis Hospital at 1, 2:15 and 3:30 p.m.
Evanston150 t-shirt clad volunteers will be directing voters from parking areas to voting auditorium at all locations.
Each session is expected to last 45 minutes. Seating for each session is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Standby voters will be invited to participate in the next session or by paper ballot.
During the voting sessions the 100 ideas will be shown in groups of 5 in a slide presentation, allowing community members to rate their top three favorite ideas in each grouping of five using electronic keypads.
Spanish translators will be on hand to assist at all public vote sessions, and Spanish translations of all printed voting materials will be available.
Organizers say there’s no strict age limit for participating in the voting, but, because of the amount of reading involved, they recommend participation start with youths of junior high school age.
The 30 ideas selected will then go back to a selection jury to choose the Final 10 Big Ideas which will be presented in a community-wide event Nov. 10 at the Levy Center.
The vote process leaves unresolved how any of the goals might actually be achieved, but is intended to show community support for key projects that might be accomplished by 2013, the 150th anniversary of Evanston’s founding.
150 vote is waste of time
The city is broke and it's wants input on the/ want our on the 30 best ways to spend more?
We should have added to that 150 list- Give a check for $100,000 to every person in Evanston. Or how about "affordable housing on the lake" for millionaires.
What a waste of time.
Absentee voting
I am disappointed that absentee voting is not a possibility. What about the Evanstonians who work in the middle of the day, even on weekends?
This is Democracy
I guess I miss the point of this. Only in person voting? Has anyone ever heard of the internet? Are there not people smart enough at the City of Evanston to figure out how to get broad participation. Voting on a "first come first serve" basis?
Why did people waste their time on this. We can do better.