Save The Evanston Civic Center AGAIN

Friend's of the Civic Center (@2100 Ridge that is)... Perpetual entities (like the City of Evanston) should NEVER sell fixed assets. Please tell your council member that you DO NOT want them to sell 2100 Ridge to developers, we want them to honor the years ago referendum (+80% said STAY!) And you wish to see a return to that beautiful 6+ acre campus with more than 200 free parking spaces to manage and conduct the People's business. Thank you!

Dear Friends of the Civic Center... Putting Assets to Work is offering tours of the Civic Center on May 27th Please attend if you can and please forward this to others... There is also a meeting that night @ the Prieto Center @ Oakton & Asbury 6 - 8 PM.

Please see below for registration and tour times. Please Note... if the link is not active you may need to cut & paste in this URL to get to the Google Doc for registration - Thanks.

Civic Center Tour Registration (PAW Process) The PAW team, in coordination with the City of Evanston and the project engineering team, is hosting guided community tours of the vacant Civic Center building on May 27, 2026. These tours are intended to help community members better understand the building’s current conditions, opportunities, an...

This is a compelling reason why this City should not sell fixed assets... We would NOT be the winners!
My thanks to - Alan May
drSpotsoneft585ugg1ftli4f756m6184thc8t241666m00760938tfuh8gu ·
Did you know the City of Chicago sold one of its highways and won’t get it back until the year 2104?
Chicago took a one time payment of 1.8 billion dollars for the Chicago Skyway. That sounds like a huge windfall, until you look at what happened next. The private company that bought it, Cintra Macquarie, made all of their money back from tolls. Then they turned around and sold the Skyway lease to another private investor for 2.8 billion dollars. They walked away with a full billion dollar profit.
And that new investor will be collecting tolls from Chicagoans and visitors until 2104. Long after everyone involved in the original deal is gone.
It’s a pretty good example of why selling off city assets for quick cash usually ends up being a long term bad idea. Oy!

Wilmette is NOT alone in the opposition to this reckless attempt to commercialize the area around the new Stadium...

https://www.therecordnorthshore.org/2026/02/25/wilmette-formalizes-opposition-to-chicago-stars-ryan-field-hopes/?fbclid=IwY2xjawQNjBBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeWmiYm3VWVGayg6meeJHlQoAvbgIj73kQlwbCR3IPBjP2nLhEJ46llKfl0LY_aem_enwm-oiyiZWdrlKp-fEG_A

Wilmette formalizes opposition to Chicago Stars' Ryan Field hopes - The Record Wilmette officials are once again urging their neighbors to the south to boot a pitch that involves the state’s largest private university. Village President Senta Plunkett during the Wilmette Village Board’s Tuesday, Feb. 24 meeting read a fiercely worded rebuke to a pending application that wo...

Evanstonians for Responsible Planning ·
The Daily Northwestern has published coverage of the 5–4 City Council vote adopting Envision Evanston 2045. It’s worth reading and sharing.
But it also leaves out a key part of the story.
The article frames the controversy as political disagreement over local issues. What’s missing is why so many concerns surfaced at the end:
• Major commitments were already made outside the public process
• Federal grant alignment shaped outcomes before residents understood the stakes
• Public "engagement" came after key decisions were locked in
So when Daniel Biss called the opposition “a little suspicious,” the real question wasn’t asked: suspicious of what—and why were so many people raising the same concerns at the same time?
This wasn’t just a disagreement over policy. It was a breakdown in transparency and trust.
Good reporting tells us what happened. The harder story is why it unfolded this way. That part still hasn’t been fully told.
City Council votes 5-4 to pass landmark comprehensive plan

Just the other day, I accompanied a couple of other Evanstonians for a Chicago Architecture Center tour of the Old Chicago Post Office… I encourage interested parties to take that tour (https://www.architecture.org/city-tours/the-old-post-office) which fully illustrates the unconscionable gaslighting by City staff and certain other civic officers’ agenda about the cost of a complete renovation of our beloved Civic Center and the 7 acres of park-like surroundings it occupies. We are talking about marble, brass, bronze, terrazzo, leather and complete upgrade of all mechanical & electrical systems.

That 2.5 Million Sq/Ft project was completed just a couple of years ago for $800 Mil. Do the math and ask yourself why City staff and others were quoting multiples of the cost per sq/ft!

Fellow Evanston Citizens... please ruffle the feathers of your council man/woman... This is a completely unnecessary, fiscally irresponsible and an obligation to the people we have entrusted with our public safety!

Letter: Evanston’s $3 million public safety pension tax hike is a choice, not a necessity - Evanston RoundTable In July 2023, the Evanston City Council unanimously adopted Resolution 45-R-23 — a clear, responsible policy to fully fund the City’s Police and Fire

Our Mayor and City Staff offering HUGE discounts to realize their Pipe-Dream of "Affordable Housing"...

Guest Essay: Stop underselling Evanston, let's create permanent affordable housing - Evanston RoundTable The affordability crisis in Evanston is serious and deepening. Housing costs continue to climb, property taxes are rising, businesses are struggling,

Evanston Friends... You are being taken for a ride by our Economic Development Department... The following comment is awaiting "moderation" by the RoundTable
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/17/evanston-draft-strategic-housing-plan/?unapproved=235325&moderation-hash=0dc4be3a619f6539c092e9ce63f9e485 -235325

I am mystified by all the effort and energy being applied to what appears to be a false premise (or problem). Why on earth are we rushing to densify our fair City with thousands more housing units when Evanston is one of the leaders in Cook County providing affordable housing units to its residents.

When looking at the data, Evanston has approximately 30,250 “Year Round Units” of that number, nearly 6000 are deemed affordable in the “2023 STATEWIDE REPORT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AFFORDABILITY” that is ~ 20% of the housing stock in all 7.8 sq/mi of Evanston… by comparison, Wilmette has less than 5% as noted in that same report. Follow this link – see page 5: https://www.ihda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023-AHPAA-Statewide-Affordability-List.pdf

Of course, we want to see more middle- and lower-income people living in Evanston… that’s what makes Evanston, Evanston… The way to do this is to invest in existing properties and turn them into land trusts. Increasing density does just the opposite! So does selling Civic assets to developers!

I am astonished that the Economic Development Department is driving this (just see Monday’s Agenda). Economic Development is supposed to be - attracting businesses to the community, creating sustainable job growth and encouraging capital investment. The core functions of the department revolve around business retention, expansion, and attraction… Economic development is NOT serving favored developers and selling them our civic assets – No perpetual entity should be selling its treasure unless the community has been wholly consulted - and only then in dire circumstances.

Brian G. Becharas 9th Ward

www.ihda.org

In what appears to be the Annual Quest of some Council-members for greater community debt, I was (less than) amused at reading Councilman Nieuswma’s comments “Our austerity is now catching up with us” and ‘we find ourselves in a hole we have to recon with”.

Comments like these seem to not reflect the facts of gross fiscal irresponsibility for the serial overspending on lots of civic projects he voted “yes” on, like one of the most costly (per square foot) Animal Shelters in these United States, and what might ultimately cost residents $40 Mil. over the course of the “temporary” 15-year lease for 909 Davis St lease which otherwise have been a hefty downpayment to renovate and reimagine 2100 Ridge Ave.

Capital improvement challenges pile up for 2026 - Evanston RoundTable Northwestern’s 1801 Maple Ave. building that the city has been eyeing for a police and fire headquarters. From sidewalks to a new or renovated police and