Here here! Church St. is now a major mess. The traffic lanes are way too narrow. There HAS to be an increase in the number of fender benders. If I have to drive there, I do so with one hand on the horn.
My vote is with yours ... smart meters no pay/display payboxes - except for numbered spaces in lots. Along the street - smart meters only. Bill ... perhaps a poll feature on this article?
This is encouraging as long as it does not over-reach. We can not become a police state. I think that one big thing that seems to be missing, is the justice system and how gun crimes are treated there.
I would advocate that we need prosecutors and our courts to take gun crime and violence seriously and not dissmiss/plead down gun crimes. As it is now, getting caught with an illegal gun does not seem to be taken that seriously by our courts.
I don't know the answer, but I would be interested in any statistics on repeat gun crime offenders in Evanston. Essentially how many people are arrested with an illegal gun, then cycled back onto the street, and then involved in a shooting and arrested again?
Where were your Monday Morning Quarterback skills until now? Do any of you remember the outrage when a black kid was stopped by the police for a burglary investigation? The department is still in Federal Court with that one.
You can't have it both ways. Either the police department takes a pro-active approach and does as Chief Eddington suggests, or it sits back and is reactive. Either way, there will be critics.
You suggest the Chief should go due to his "poor leadership". Are you going to be there when the department gets sued for their stop and frisk, get tough attitude?
What will be your reaction when your taxes go up due to some liberal jury awarding a huge settlement in a lawsuit?
Evanston needs to decide which way they want it. It is easy to criticize the Chief. But with the litigation hungry people looking for their cut, the Chief must walk the very fine line thanks to the mentality of residents of Evanston.
"Instead, he [the police chief] said, the policy will target people who are among the individuals police have identified as being involved in the families or gangs or other groups involved in recent violence."
Stop and frisk them. That will help a little for now. But it's a band aid. We can't frisk each of these idiots every time that he or she leaves home.
To make a real difference, we need major surgery. Evanston police and city officials, call the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois now, share information and get his office going on a RICO complaint. We cannot go through another summer of this family-spun violence. These "individuals" and their conspirators need to face federal charges by the end of June or we will be looking at a long, bloody summer.
Until these "individuals" in the families or gangs who are "involved in recent violence" start going to prison, losing their cars and losing their houses, they will continue their blood feud and care for no one else. And all of us suffer when our children and other loved ones are subjected to danger because of them and when we as taxapayers pay for more and more police time to keep close tabs on a few no good idiots who choose to shoot at people rather than resolve their differences peacefully.
Being an "activist" isn't enough and speaking out publicly against violence isn't enough. We need everyone, includiing the U.S. Attorney, to say that enough of this blood-letting garbage is enough and mean it. I'm calling the U.S. Attorney's Office to see if I can get them interested in Evanston's ongoing RICO enterprise.
About time!!!!! Let the police go out and do their jobs. Take the handcuffs off the police and let them go out and show these thugs that this garbage is no longer welcome in Evanston.
Thanks Chief Eddington and the rest of EPD! I fully support this.
It would be nice if Ann Rainey could make a statement herself about her intentions for Howard in terms of closing businesses instead of either speaking anonymously on websites herself or having others speak for her anonymously.
I'm not against citizens voicing any of their opinions, quite the contrary.
I have no contempt for your neighborhood. I do have contempt that my money is being taken to build bars.
Council needs to ask Eddington why stop and frisk hasn't been official policy for years as many empirical studies have shown that it is effective at reducing crime.
There are many studies of criminal justice effectiveness that the EPD doesn't appear to be aware of.
EPD's ineffectiveness over the years can be attributed to poor leadership and lack of a vision. We need someone who looks at empirical studies and develops a systematic approach towards dealing with the problem.
Eddington seems to be more like an Andy Griffith-type who just kind of rolls with whatever is happening at the time. We need someone with a more strategic mind. We're not dealing with Otis the drunk, but violent criminal enterprises.
Beautiful weather here in Evanston this past week, hardly saw a single rider using the lanes on Church st. Picked up my kid from ETHS twice this week and not even one cyclist was using the bike lane heading east down Church.
Church st. is now cluttered and messy looking, traffic is congested and cramped, the streetscape installation is a ununified hodgepodge of excess junk and it's all very uninviting.
Remember when Chicago Mayor Jayne Byrne Closed down State Street to make it a pedestrian mall?
Why don't we do the same! Lets make all of Church Street & Davis Street a pedestrian mall with bike lanes throughout the downtown business district. No cars allowed!
It sure worked for all the businesses on State Street. Didn't it?
WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. government can classify styrene as a carcinogen, a federal judge ruled, rejected a challenge from the products friends in the industry.
In a sometimes withering opinion, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton concluded plaintiffs The Dart Container Corp. and the Styrene Information and Research Center had "taken a scattershot approach in attacking the Secretary's listing decision, with little discussion of the actual justification for the decision set forth in the substance profile for styrene.
"Insofar as the plaintiffs do attack that document, though, their arguments fall flat," Walton wrote.
Did the owner do something illegal or were the calls based on thugs hanging out there?
This is the perspective of the owner from this article: Store manager Hasan Musleh told Patch he believes his business is being unfairly targeted, however.“It’s a family business, and we’ve been here for 16 years, and all of a sudden this stuff comes up,” he said. “There’s more shootings down the street and there’s more shootings down Sheridan.”
Who is to blame here? If the owner is doing something illegal, then by all means, shut him down. However, if his customer base is thugs- will closing the store end the problems in this area or will the thugs just re-congregate somewhere else in Evanston- say around Fleetwood JOrdain or any of the other recent sites of shootings.
I would rather we diagnose the problem accurately, and give the correct medicine. Who is breaking the law? Chase the gangs out of town, not the businesses.
It's called tongue in check, my humorless sleuth. You wrote on Evanston Now that she was messin with the bar called Siblings. After Michele had alerted her to your initial posting...check the time of the posting...she mocked that posting by using the same word in her own posting.
And if you truly read the 8th Ward website for information rather than for the sole reason of pouncing on every word, you would know that the City of Evanston was sending employees in a city van to a hearing on the repeated calls to Evanston police about the food store. The owner had been selling a particular product known to be used in smoking a certain illegal drug and covering the store's windows with paper against police instructions. There's much more and you can read the public information. With the city employees already going in a van, neighbors who have been affected by and/or witnessed by shady activity in and around the food store were offered a ride once before and I heard that a few went.
The food store is violating CHICAGO law and the CHICAGO authorities are holding a hearing because they recognize the problems. Evanston taxpayers have been wasting their money on frequent Evanston police calls to the food store. Not a wise use of our tax dollars to address a blight on our community that exists in Chicago.
Once again, your post demonstrates that "those people down there" should just shut up and put up with anything and everything illegal and destructive on Howard Street. Any efforts, including zoning change ptoposals and citizen action to point out illegal activity, is out of bounds for you. We get it. You don't care and you think that we deserve to live with crime and anti-social behavior that follows any business here.
There are laws. Asking that they be enforced is our RIGHT. That's why citizens will be riding in a van already making the trip to give their input. You are a trip as your outright contempt for Ann Rainey's defense of our neighborhood, the work of our police and the improvement of our neighborhood shine through virtually every post. Why don't you ride along so that you will have personal knowledge of what's going on, rather than your usual inferencing from no facts?
There are many working hard to improve a community and the change is coming to the Howard Street area. So sorry to disappoint you but you won't be able to wish and throw mud in hopes of stopping this change. Do you fear that the drug dealers and gang bangers will come to your neighborhood then? Maybe so and then let's check back on your "it's all good" arguments about their businesses.
IT would also be helpful if she clarified some earlier statements (full article here) that she made about Howard Hoyne:
Jen, I followed your link. The paragraph right about the section that you quoted reads as follows:
"The store, Howard-Hoyne Foods located at Hoyne Ave. and Howard St. in Chicago, has been the subject of over 70 combined calls to the Evanston and Chicago Police Departments in the past year."
It sounds like the store was a nuisance....and costing the taxpayers money, with over 70 combined calls.
See...this whole Ayn Rand nonsense breaks down because it ignores problems like this. Unlike the magical land of Free Markets, in the real world there are externalities. It sounds like Howard-Hoyne Foods was making money...while taxpayers footed the bill for the problems it caused.
"Then we meddle in Chicago's business: Thursday is follow up hearing on Howard Hoyne food store. We will be taking a tax payer purchased van to the Daley center. Please let me or Det Jenkins know if you want a ride from the outpost. Free ride is at 9am at outpost, hearing is at 10 room 805 Chicago city hall."
I'm wondering what kind of meddling she means? Since Rainey also writes to Ms. Hayes who was upset with people (probably me) posting on evanstonnow about Rainey's potential involvement with this siblings bar issue "As far as the ignorant post on evnow, . Just remember the adage, don' believe everything you read especially when you have no idea who is doing the writing. Such a disservice...."
INstead of doing any inferencing then, I'd like to hear it from Ann Rainey- What exact kind of meddling does she plan on doing with another business on Howard street using tax payer money to fund a bus? It would be nice if she clarifies this word, so that all of us are not ignorant of her intent- especially since it is our tax money being used to fund this particular meddling.
IT would also be helpful if she clarified some earlier statements (full article here) that she made about Howard Hoyne:
"“The City of Evanston is making great investments on Howard Street, but this particular store is preventing progress,” explained Evanston Alderman Rainey at the meeting. “The City of Evanston has expended a great amount of police and community resources to transform Howard Street, but this store on the Chicago side remains a true blemish. I fear that reform is probably unlikely and that closure might be the only option to improve this section of Howard Street."
In this same article, Gary Brooks, Chair of the Brummel Street Neighbors, a neighborhood association on the south side of Evanston, reported at the meeting that, “People are going into the store but no one is buying anything.”
So what is the game plan for Howard street then? "Meddle" with all businesses that are deemed blemishes? Any semantic clarification would be helpful. As well as a directions or map of where all the businesses are located so there is absolutely no confusion between anonymous1original and myself.
It's such an amazing coincidence that a frequent poster named Michele Hayes on Rainey's website often writes exactly the same things that you do on this website. Someone out there is thinking the same thoughts as you, originalanonymous1. How Cool! Here is a link for anyone interested in reading about what's up in Ward 8:
This message board is a great service to the people in Ward 8. I wish my alderman Mark Tendam created something similar to this for our ward.
Just because I do not like how Ann Rainey is chosing to spend tax money, and I am critical of some of her tactics to push through her political agenda, this does not mean I hate her. I don't even know her.
The problem is the police aren't responsible for raising our kids. There's this thing called accountability that our kids have to be consistently subject to when they misbehave. Instead of constantly making excuses for these children and arguing against authority, the parents of these problem kids need to be searching for meaningful ways in which to engage them and shift their focus to more productive ways of simply living life. If the streets are these kids' environment, then that's where we need to be.
This is directly across the street from ETHS. The charges should be trumped up for that reason alone. Way to go Commander Parrott and crew!
Here here! Church St. is now a major mess. The traffic lanes are way too narrow. There HAS to be an increase in the number of fender benders. If I have to drive there, I do so with one hand on the horn.
Agreed! But lets start with the pat downs. First things first!
My vote is with yours ... smart meters no pay/display payboxes - except for numbered spaces in lots. Along the street - smart meters only. Bill ... perhaps a poll feature on this article?
This is encouraging as long as it does not over-reach. We can not become a police state. I think that one big thing that seems to be missing, is the justice system and how gun crimes are treated there.
I would advocate that we need prosecutors and our courts to take gun crime and violence seriously and not dissmiss/plead down gun crimes. As it is now, getting caught with an illegal gun does not seem to be taken that seriously by our courts.
I don't know the answer, but I would be interested in any statistics on repeat gun crime offenders in Evanston. Essentially how many people are arrested with an illegal gun, then cycled back onto the street, and then involved in a shooting and arrested again?
Where were your Monday Morning Quarterback skills until now? Do any of you remember the outrage when a black kid was stopped by the police for a burglary investigation? The department is still in Federal Court with that one.
You can't have it both ways. Either the police department takes a pro-active approach and does as Chief Eddington suggests, or it sits back and is reactive. Either way, there will be critics.
You suggest the Chief should go due to his "poor leadership". Are you going to be there when the department gets sued for their stop and frisk, get tough attitude?
What will be your reaction when your taxes go up due to some liberal jury awarding a huge settlement in a lawsuit?
Evanston needs to decide which way they want it. It is easy to criticize the Chief. But with the litigation hungry people looking for their cut, the Chief must walk the very fine line thanks to the mentality of residents of Evanston.
From the article:
"Instead, he [the police chief] said, the policy will target people who are among the individuals police have identified as being involved in the families or gangs or other groups involved in recent violence."
Stop and frisk them. That will help a little for now. But it's a band aid. We can't frisk each of these idiots every time that he or she leaves home.
To make a real difference, we need major surgery. Evanston police and city officials, call the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois now, share information and get his office going on a RICO complaint. We cannot go through another summer of this family-spun violence. These "individuals" and their conspirators need to face federal charges by the end of June or we will be looking at a long, bloody summer.
Until these "individuals" in the families or gangs who are "involved in recent violence" start going to prison, losing their cars and losing their houses, they will continue their blood feud and care for no one else. And all of us suffer when our children and other loved ones are subjected to danger because of them and when we as taxapayers pay for more and more police time to keep close tabs on a few no good idiots who choose to shoot at people rather than resolve their differences peacefully.
Being an "activist" isn't enough and speaking out publicly against violence isn't enough. We need everyone, includiing the U.S. Attorney, to say that enough of this blood-letting garbage is enough and mean it. I'm calling the U.S. Attorney's Office to see if I can get them interested in Evanston's ongoing RICO enterprise.
About time!!!!! Let the police go out and do their jobs. Take the handcuffs off the police and let them go out and show these thugs that this garbage is no longer welcome in Evanston.
Thanks Chief Eddington and the rest of EPD! I fully support this.
Perhaps we could make the bike lanes parking for the winter season? Seems like such a waste otherwise.
Well said. Agreed!
It would be nice if Ann Rainey could make a statement herself about her intentions for Howard in terms of closing businesses instead of either speaking anonymously on websites herself or having others speak for her anonymously.
I'm not against citizens voicing any of their opinions, quite the contrary.
I have no contempt for your neighborhood. I do have contempt that my money is being taken to build bars.
Yay!!! Very encouraging!!!
Yay!!! 3 more!!!
Council needs to ask Eddington why stop and frisk hasn't been official policy for years as many empirical studies have shown that it is effective at reducing crime.
There are many studies of criminal justice effectiveness that the EPD doesn't appear to be aware of.
EPD's ineffectiveness over the years can be attributed to poor leadership and lack of a vision. We need someone who looks at empirical studies and develops a systematic approach towards dealing with the problem.
Eddington seems to be more like an Andy Griffith-type who just kind of rolls with whatever is happening at the time. We need someone with a more strategic mind. We're not dealing with Otis the drunk, but violent criminal enterprises.
Beautiful weather here in Evanston this past week, hardly saw a single rider using the lanes on Church st. Picked up my kid from ETHS twice this week and not even one cyclist was using the bike lane heading east down Church.
Church st. is now cluttered and messy looking, traffic is congested and cramped, the streetscape installation is a ununified hodgepodge of excess junk and it's all very uninviting.
"Smart Meters" only. No "pay and display" or "payboxes". That's my vote.
Remember when Chicago Mayor Jayne Byrne Closed down State Street to make it a pedestrian mall?
Why don't we do the same! Lets make all of Church Street & Davis Street a pedestrian mall with bike lanes throughout the downtown business district. No cars allowed!
It sure worked for all the businesses on State Street. Didn't it?
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/16/57713.htm
WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. government can classify styrene as a carcinogen, a federal judge ruled, rejected a challenge from the products friends in the industry.
In a sometimes withering opinion, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton concluded plaintiffs The Dart Container Corp. and the Styrene Information and Research Center had "taken a scattershot approach in attacking the Secretary's listing decision, with little discussion of the actual justification for the decision set forth in the substance profile for styrene.
"Insofar as the plaintiffs do attack that document, though, their arguments fall flat," Walton wrote.
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/aegl/pubs/rest101.htm
For public Safety. For water releases, see Clean Water Act or NPDES permits
Did the owner do something illegal or were the calls based on thugs hanging out there?
This is the perspective of the owner from this article: Store manager Hasan Musleh told Patch he believes his business is being unfairly targeted, however.“It’s a family business, and we’ve been here for 16 years, and all of a sudden this stuff comes up,” he said. “There’s more shootings down the street and there’s more shootings down Sheridan.”
Who is to blame here? If the owner is doing something illegal, then by all means, shut him down. However, if his customer base is thugs- will closing the store end the problems in this area or will the thugs just re-congregate somewhere else in Evanston- say around Fleetwood JOrdain or any of the other recent sites of shootings.
I would rather we diagnose the problem accurately, and give the correct medicine. Who is breaking the law? Chase the gangs out of town, not the businesses.
It's called tongue in check, my humorless sleuth. You wrote on Evanston Now that she was messin with the bar called Siblings. After Michele had alerted her to your initial posting...check the time of the posting...she mocked that posting by using the same word in her own posting.
And if you truly read the 8th Ward website for information rather than for the sole reason of pouncing on every word, you would know that the City of Evanston was sending employees in a city van to a hearing on the repeated calls to Evanston police about the food store. The owner had been selling a particular product known to be used in smoking a certain illegal drug and covering the store's windows with paper against police instructions. There's much more and you can read the public information. With the city employees already going in a van, neighbors who have been affected by and/or witnessed by shady activity in and around the food store were offered a ride once before and I heard that a few went.
The food store is violating CHICAGO law and the CHICAGO authorities are holding a hearing because they recognize the problems. Evanston taxpayers have been wasting their money on frequent Evanston police calls to the food store. Not a wise use of our tax dollars to address a blight on our community that exists in Chicago.
Once again, your post demonstrates that "those people down there" should just shut up and put up with anything and everything illegal and destructive on Howard Street. Any efforts, including zoning change ptoposals and citizen action to point out illegal activity, is out of bounds for you. We get it. You don't care and you think that we deserve to live with crime and anti-social behavior that follows any business here.
There are laws. Asking that they be enforced is our RIGHT. That's why citizens will be riding in a van already making the trip to give their input. You are a trip as your outright contempt for Ann Rainey's defense of our neighborhood, the work of our police and the improvement of our neighborhood shine through virtually every post. Why don't you ride along so that you will have personal knowledge of what's going on, rather than your usual inferencing from no facts?
There are many working hard to improve a community and the change is coming to the Howard Street area. So sorry to disappoint you but you won't be able to wish and throw mud in hopes of stopping this change. Do you fear that the drug dealers and gang bangers will come to your neighborhood then? Maybe so and then let's check back on your "it's all good" arguments about their businesses.
Jen said:
IT would also be helpful if she clarified some earlier statements (full article here) that she made about Howard Hoyne:
Jen, I followed your link. The paragraph right about the section that you quoted reads as follows:
"The store, Howard-Hoyne Foods located at Hoyne Ave. and Howard St. in Chicago, has been the subject of over 70 combined calls to the Evanston and Chicago Police Departments in the past year."
It sounds like the store was a nuisance....and costing the taxpayers money, with over 70 combined calls.
See...this whole Ayn Rand nonsense breaks down because it ignores problems like this. Unlike the magical land of Free Markets, in the real world there are externalities. It sounds like Howard-Hoyne Foods was making money...while taxpayers footed the bill for the problems it caused.
This bike lane idea is dumb, dumb, dumb.
To anonymous1 or 2- another interesting current point to add to this discussion/political debate:
On Ann Rainey's ward 8 message board on 5/14, she posted:
"Then we meddle in Chicago's business: Thursday is follow up hearing on Howard Hoyne food store. We will be taking a tax payer purchased van to the Daley center. Please let me or Det Jenkins know if you want a ride from the outpost. Free ride is at 9am at outpost, hearing is at 10 room 805 Chicago city hall."
I'm wondering what kind of meddling she means? Since Rainey also writes to Ms. Hayes who was upset with people (probably me) posting on evanstonnow about Rainey's potential involvement with this siblings bar issue "As far as the ignorant post on evnow, . Just remember the adage, don' believe everything you read especially when you have no idea who is doing the writing. Such a disservice...."
INstead of doing any inferencing then, I'd like to hear it from Ann Rainey- What exact kind of meddling does she plan on doing with another business on Howard street using tax payer money to fund a bus? It would be nice if she clarifies this word, so that all of us are not ignorant of her intent- especially since it is our tax money being used to fund this particular meddling.
IT would also be helpful if she clarified some earlier statements (full article here) that she made about Howard Hoyne:
"“The City of Evanston is making great investments on Howard Street, but this particular store is preventing progress,” explained Evanston Alderman Rainey at the meeting. “The City of Evanston has expended a great amount of police and community resources to transform Howard Street, but this store on the Chicago side remains a true blemish. I fear that reform is probably unlikely and that closure might be the only option to improve this section of Howard Street."
In this same article, Gary Brooks, Chair of the Brummel Street Neighbors, a neighborhood association on the south side of Evanston, reported at the meeting that, “People are going into the store but no one is buying anything.”
Sounds like the same argument made about the hair salons on Howard street that were also targeted by Ms. Rainey.
So what is the game plan for Howard street then? "Meddle" with all businesses that are deemed blemishes? Any semantic clarification would be helpful. As well as a directions or map of where all the businesses are located so there is absolutely no confusion between anonymous1original and myself.
It's such an amazing coincidence that a frequent poster named Michele Hayes on Rainey's website often writes exactly the same things that you do on this website. Someone out there is thinking the same thoughts as you, originalanonymous1. How Cool! Here is a link for anyone interested in reading about what's up in Ward 8:
This message board is a great service to the people in Ward 8. I wish my alderman Mark Tendam created something similar to this for our ward.
Just because I do not like how Ann Rainey is chosing to spend tax money, and I am critical of some of her tactics to push through her political agenda, this does not mean I hate her. I don't even know her.
The problem is the police aren't responsible for raising our kids. There's this thing called accountability that our kids have to be consistently subject to when they misbehave. Instead of constantly making excuses for these children and arguing against authority, the parents of these problem kids need to be searching for meaningful ways in which to engage them and shift their focus to more productive ways of simply living life. If the streets are these kids' environment, then that's where we need to be.