Bill Smith's blog

Evanston Plan Commissioners say they want to streamline the review of new development projects.

Evanstonians today face a debate between two radically different views of our world.

Evanston aldermen are scheduled to vote this evening on a resolution asking the state legislature to do something about police and fire pensions.

The debate over tall buildings in downtown Evanston is back in high gear.

Evanston's aldermen and the city manager deserve praise for finally adopting a budget this week that faces up to the city's pension obligation to its firefighters and police officers.

South Evanston resident Kristin Doll made an impassioned argument for the rental licensing ordinance at Monday's City Council meeting that unintentionally revealed one of the biggest problems with the measure.

The voters of Evanston sent the city's aldermen a message Tuesday in rejecting for a second time a 20 percent hike in the real estate transfer tax.

About 50 people, most residents of Evanston's newest condo tower, crowded into the building's hospitality room Tuesday night to say how much they hate condo towers.

Well, actually it was how much they'd hate having an even taller condo tower across the street from their building.

Evanston Now has launched a new Crime Map feature that provides daily updates of crime incidents reported by the Evanston Police Department.

We made a few more changes to the look of the Evanston Now site over the weekend.

After a weekend shopping trip, I’m starting to like the downtown plan’s idea of returning Evanston’s one-way streets to their original two-way status.

We've just given Evanston Now a bit of a visual makeover with a new color scheme and a new logo.

Hope you'll find it more pleasing to the eye than our previous design.

The District 65 school board has ill-served the public and its superintendent with its handling so far of his proposed contract extension.

Plans for a 49-story condo tower on the Fountain Square block downtown have brought out a chorus of critics who say the tower would be too tall for Evanston.