Its not about saving the tree, simply because it's a tree, so much as it is about the high cost of dealing with the removal of infected trees, as opposed to the low cost of treating the trees to preserve them.
The trees are not prone to disease. The ash borer is an invasive species that causes their demise. Its a bug that shouldn't be in this area in the first place. It's native to Asia.
Two thousand trees is a lot to lose. They do have to be replaced. No one is talking about replanting ash trees. They're raising money to replant trees. They didn't specify they are replacing them with ash trees.
"Suggest we ask Wally Bobkiewicz, city manager and Paul D’Agostino, assistant director of public works how they came to the stunning conclusion to let thousands of ash die at the cost of millions of dollars."
Why must ash trees be preserved?
If an ash tree dies, must it be replaced by another tree....and if so , must this tree be another ash?
I don't see why we would want to keep planting species that are prone to disease.
Let's do the math. Using Evanston's figure of $250 for a new tree plus the city of Chicago's number of $750 to cut down a tree, removal and replacement costs $1,000 and you have a twig in your front lawn.
Using Chicago's figures of $50 to treat a tree every three years, you can preserve your mature ash for more than 60 years.
Spend a ton of money now for a twig.
Or, spend next to nothing and keep your mature ash for its natural life.
Suggest we ask Wally Bobkiewicz, city manager and Paul D’Agostino, assistant director of public works how they came to the stunning conclusion to let thousands of ash die at the cost of millions of dollars.
Anyone can read the report on the Mansion on the city web site, it states the city should spend about $430,000 to bring it up to use for the Art Center.
So where are the millions of dollars of repairs Wally and friends are talking about?
I suspect there is some exterior work needing done which might run in the several hundred thousand dollars.
The reality here is Wally is blowing smoke, what I suspect he has told the Art Center he will move them, and pay for it, we do not know that, but the Art Center has been very quiet, with the low bid, they will not even break even, its a joke. Why has no one from the Art Center been at City Council raising questions?
There is no new building for the Art Center to move to, without spending money. Why should we taxpayers pay for their move? They have paid $1 in rent for years, ( since 1969 ) it time their lease is ending and a new tenant is found for the building that will pay a real rent payment.
What are Wally and his council members friends up to here? Some on this web site are claiming the market is setting the price for this property. NO - check the bid documents they do not match the proposal by the developer.
The bid process was closed, and clear manipulated by the city, we did not have an open and fair bid process for what the illegal closed door meetings discussed.
This is another mess, that I believe few citizens will stand for selling our lake front park, regardless of price.
After it was torn down, the city council spent over seven years holding hearings and debating if it should allow Century 21 to open a multiplex theater in its place. And Sears decided not to open a store at the condominium building at Davis and Sherman after it saw the hoops they would have to jump through.
Ladies an gentlemen, this is what the historical Evanston city council was and is! May God bless "The Republic of Evanston" for years and years to come.
Another example of our great police department going the "extra mile" to solve problems and make Evanston a better and safer place to live. Congratulations to Sgt. Melvin Collier. Job well done!
Aldermen say the bids are too low. But let the market decide---and if there were restrictions on who could bid, remove those.
Maybe but given how they drastically overestimated the value of the lands Trader Joe's will sit on and then undervalued the same when they came up with the payments back from Trader Joe's, I would say the Council should stay out of the appraisal game and have real experts do their land and other financial estimates.
Are the deals they gave the Wine and Cheese and so many others, bad appraisals or just 'sweet heart' deals ?
When they give money to merchants for awnings, planters, flowers, gating, moving expenses [Dave's Italian, Borders] etc., did they get or even want to get an idea of whether the business needed it, would do better business, the city could afford it [smal items to add-up and push out real needs], let alone if they [the Council] had any business making such decisions or giving away taxpayer money.
When you give [or they take/create] honey pots that they then treat as free money since it is 'allocated for something and soshould be spent], bad decisions are not far behind---as we continuously see !
Maybe we need to go to the extreme of having the city government make their proposals and the voters vote on that budget, capital projects, etc.. Otherwise the Santa slush funds will continue.
This reminds me of when NU and the city tried to work out arrangements for the Reserach Park. It took forever when several Council members had one line "Nuclear Free Zone" when anyone wanted to talk about the Park. Thus it got delayed, and as I recall, the result was a bad plan and agreement between NU and the city.
The Council seems to look for [non-existent] problems to solve. So they can "look good" and placate their liberal base ? "Ready, Fire, Aim." Usually bad law results as we have seen so many times over the years from Council edicts, lawsuits against NU, and wanting to stay in the 18th century with zoning laws and plans for the city. Hopefully by 2100 they will have got to the 20th century.
From the City of Chicago to the City of Milwauke and dozens of municipalities in between, countless cities are saving their ash trees by treating them.
Evanston Forestry has stated that there is no effective treatment, which is not true. Chicago, Naperville, Geneva, Milwaukee, and others use Treeage, which is 99% effective, according to university studies.
Trees can be preserved for their natual life for far less money than it costs to cut them down and replace.
How Evanston ended up here is indefensible.
Call Davey or Tree Guru or TruGreen and tell them you want your ash tree treated. Skip this nonsensical event that only promotes poor municipal management.
This is interesting...a 5-4 vote, not the usual 7-2 or 8-1 votes that I am used to seeing from Council. It also isn't too common to see Burrus and Fiske on the same side. It sounds like a pointless law to me...but if Fiske opposed it, then I am glad to see it passed.
While this article accurately portrays the position of the North Shore - Barrington Association of REALTORS (NSBAR) -- that occupancy standards should be identical for related and unrelated persons -- we believe Ald. Wilson's proposal is great step in the right direction and applaud his effort to reform this antiquated, hurtful policy. We look forward to working with him and the Council in shaping the final product.
Howard Handler
Government Affairs Director
North Shore - Barrington Assoc. of REALTORS
If this ordinance is passed I would like to see the statistics of how and when it is enforced in every ward in Evanston. I am sure that the Eight and Fifth wards will not be touched by this occupancy limit.
"He also objected to limits in Wilson's plan that would forbid unrelated persons from sharing a bedroom in multi-family housing districts. And he noted that under the proposed rules related or unrelated persons could share bedrooms in single-family housing zones."
Don't these busybody NIMBYs have more important things to worry about ? It's amazing that our aldermen are wasting time making it illegal for unrelated people to share a bedroom.
How about offerring affordable rental houses first to police officers, firefighters, and city workers? Wouldn't that solve the problem people have with the type of people moving into the affordable houses. Police officers and firefighters named affordable housing as the #1 reason they do not live in Evanston.
There must be some place in the 1st Ward where low-income rentals could be located? With $640,000 available, we should have the funds to make it happen.
Let's start now with having low-income, subsidized rentals throughout the City. I assume that 1st Ward residents won't have any objection to our citywide commitment to economic diversity throughout the city.
No to this proposal but please inform our fellow resident to find a property or two in the 1st Ward and you will consider it.
That way the Council can spend more money and get more votes at election time.
If they would stop funding all their pet projects, go into the budget and get rid of all the un-necessary spending, stop burdening business and homeowners with meaningless restriictions and delays in zoning decisions and Council actions and cut taxes so more businesses and people would want to move to/stay in Evanston, we would not have so many concerns about budgets.
But then it is easier to spend like there is no tomorrow and ask the state for more 'free money.' Except that money actually comes from taxpayers---here in Evanston, Chicago, and both rich and poor communities.
How about helping people into ownership as supposed to working to drawing more residents from Chicago who may not necessarily have an interest in keeping the community safe, clean and positive.
I do not have a problem with low income neighbors. I grew up in public housing in a time and place where teenagers had more respect for their parents, neighbors and their community.
In my line of work I encounter many unsavory people (all races) from Chicago that are bragging about moving to Evanston. I wish I could tell you all what I do for a living, then you would have pause on this issue.
The school garden project owes a huge debt of thanks to Lynn Hyndman, former Dawes teacher, and the spark that got all of this started when she organized a school gardening seminar for Keep Evanston Beautiful in 2000. She spearheaded the creation of a fabulous garden at Dawes, and then helped other schools get going through SAGE, which she also helped organize. Lynn created a garden curriculum that helps students learn about other cultures, about math, about nature - there's a lot more to gardening than just healthy eating!
And as far as schools not having gardens, prior to 1936 just about every school had a garden. It was the introduction of the commodity program after the great depression that changed everything, providing cheap food to schools through government purchases from farmers, more to help the farmers than the kids. Unfortunately, the farm leftovers are not exactly what parents should want their kids to eat.
Kudos to the Evanston schools for taking on this wonderful project.
Its not about saving the tree, simply because it's a tree, so much as it is about the high cost of dealing with the removal of infected trees, as opposed to the low cost of treating the trees to preserve them.
The trees are not prone to disease. The ash borer is an invasive species that causes their demise. Its a bug that shouldn't be in this area in the first place. It's native to Asia.
Two thousand trees is a lot to lose. They do have to be replaced. No one is talking about replanting ash trees. They're raising money to replant trees. They didn't specify they are replacing them with ash trees.
"Suggest we ask Wally Bobkiewicz, city manager and Paul D’Agostino, assistant director of public works how they came to the stunning conclusion to let thousands of ash die at the cost of millions of dollars."
Why must ash trees be preserved?
If an ash tree dies, must it be replaced by another tree....and if so , must this tree be another ash?
I don't see why we would want to keep planting species that are prone to disease.
Let's do the math. Using Evanston's figure of $250 for a new tree plus the city of Chicago's number of $750 to cut down a tree, removal and replacement costs $1,000 and you have a twig in your front lawn.
Using Chicago's figures of $50 to treat a tree every three years, you can preserve your mature ash for more than 60 years.
Spend a ton of money now for a twig.
Or, spend next to nothing and keep your mature ash for its natural life.
Suggest we ask Wally Bobkiewicz, city manager and Paul D’Agostino, assistant director of public works how they came to the stunning conclusion to let thousands of ash die at the cost of millions of dollars.
We are currently having our ash tree treated. Perhaps the city could provide more information about the effectiveness of this.
Anyone can read the report on the Mansion on the city web site, it states the city should spend about $430,000 to bring it up to use for the Art Center.
So where are the millions of dollars of repairs Wally and friends are talking about?
I suspect there is some exterior work needing done which might run in the several hundred thousand dollars.
The reality here is Wally is blowing smoke, what I suspect he has told the Art Center he will move them, and pay for it, we do not know that, but the Art Center has been very quiet, with the low bid, they will not even break even, its a joke. Why has no one from the Art Center been at City Council raising questions?
There is no new building for the Art Center to move to, without spending money. Why should we taxpayers pay for their move? They have paid $1 in rent for years, ( since 1969 ) it time their lease is ending and a new tenant is found for the building that will pay a real rent payment.
What are Wally and his council members friends up to here? Some on this web site are claiming the market is setting the price for this property. NO - check the bid documents they do not match the proposal by the developer.
The bid process was closed, and clear manipulated by the city, we did not have an open and fair bid process for what the illegal closed door meetings discussed.
This is another mess, that I believe few citizens will stand for selling our lake front park, regardless of price.
After it was torn down, the city council spent over seven years holding hearings and debating if it should allow Century 21 to open a multiplex theater in its place. And Sears decided not to open a store at the condominium building at Davis and Sherman after it saw the hoops they would have to jump through.
Ladies an gentlemen, this is what the historical Evanston city council was and is! May God bless "The Republic of Evanston" for years and years to come.
Another example of our great police department going the "extra mile" to solve problems and make Evanston a better and safer place to live. Congratulations to Sgt. Melvin Collier. Job well done!
Aldermen say the bids are too low. But let the market decide---and if there were restrictions on who could bid, remove those.
Maybe but given how they drastically overestimated the value of the lands Trader Joe's will sit on and then undervalued the same when they came up with the payments back from Trader Joe's, I would say the Council should stay out of the appraisal game and have real experts do their land and other financial estimates.
Are the deals they gave the Wine and Cheese and so many others, bad appraisals or just 'sweet heart' deals ?
When they give money to merchants for awnings, planters, flowers, gating, moving expenses [Dave's Italian, Borders] etc., did they get or even want to get an idea of whether the business needed it, would do better business, the city could afford it [smal items to add-up and push out real needs], let alone if they [the Council] had any business making such decisions or giving away taxpayer money.
When you give [or they take/create] honey pots that they then treat as free money since it is 'allocated for something and soshould be spent], bad decisions are not far behind---as we continuously see !
Maybe we need to go to the extreme of having the city government make their proposals and the voters vote on that budget, capital projects, etc.. Otherwise the Santa slush funds will continue.
This reminds me of when NU and the city tried to work out arrangements for the Reserach Park. It took forever when several Council members had one line "Nuclear Free Zone" when anyone wanted to talk about the Park. Thus it got delayed, and as I recall, the result was a bad plan and agreement between NU and the city.
The Council seems to look for [non-existent] problems to solve. So they can "look good" and placate their liberal base ? "Ready, Fire, Aim." Usually bad law results as we have seen so many times over the years from Council edicts, lawsuits against NU, and wanting to stay in the 18th century with zoning laws and plans for the city. Hopefully by 2100 they will have got to the 20th century.
From the City of Chicago to the City of Milwauke and dozens of municipalities in between, countless cities are saving their ash trees by treating them.
Evanston Forestry has stated that there is no effective treatment, which is not true. Chicago, Naperville, Geneva, Milwaukee, and others use Treeage, which is 99% effective, according to university studies.
Trees can be preserved for their natual life for far less money than it costs to cut them down and replace.
How Evanston ended up here is indefensible.
Call Davey or Tree Guru or TruGreen and tell them you want your ash tree treated. Skip this nonsensical event that only promotes poor municipal management.
This is interesting...a 5-4 vote, not the usual 7-2 or 8-1 votes that I am used to seeing from Council. It also isn't too common to see Burrus and Fiske on the same side. It sounds like a pointless law to me...but if Fiske opposed it, then I am glad to see it passed.
While this article accurately portrays the position of the North Shore - Barrington Association of REALTORS (NSBAR) -- that occupancy standards should be identical for related and unrelated persons -- we believe Ald. Wilson's proposal is great step in the right direction and applaud his effort to reform this antiquated, hurtful policy. We look forward to working with him and the Council in shaping the final product.
Howard Handler
Government Affairs Director
North Shore - Barrington Assoc. of REALTORS
If this ordinance is passed I would like to see the statistics of how and when it is enforced in every ward in Evanston. I am sure that the Eight and Fifth wards will not be touched by this occupancy limit.
Kendall lot is still empty.
"He also objected to limits in Wilson's plan that would forbid unrelated persons from sharing a bedroom in multi-family housing districts. And he noted that under the proposed rules related or unrelated persons could share bedrooms in single-family housing zones."
Don't these busybody NIMBYs have more important things to worry about ? It's amazing that our aldermen are wasting time making it illegal for unrelated people to share a bedroom.
How about offerring affordable rental houses first to police officers, firefighters, and city workers? Wouldn't that solve the problem people have with the type of people moving into the affordable houses. Police officers and firefighters named affordable housing as the #1 reason they do not live in Evanston.
So now is a good time to ask:
Do we need a new planning and zoning manager?
Evanston is over-planned, over-zoned, and over-NIMBYed.
There must be some place in the 1st Ward where low-income rentals could be located? With $640,000 available, we should have the funds to make it happen.
Let's start now with having low-income, subsidized rentals throughout the City. I assume that 1st Ward residents won't have any objection to our citywide commitment to economic diversity throughout the city.
No to this proposal but please inform our fellow resident to find a property or two in the 1st Ward and you will consider it.
That way the Council can spend more money and get more votes at election time.
If they would stop funding all their pet projects, go into the budget and get rid of all the un-necessary spending, stop burdening business and homeowners with meaningless restriictions and delays in zoning decisions and Council actions and cut taxes so more businesses and people would want to move to/stay in Evanston, we would not have so many concerns about budgets.
But then it is easier to spend like there is no tomorrow and ask the state for more 'free money.' Except that money actually comes from taxpayers---here in Evanston, Chicago, and both rich and poor communities.
How about helping people into ownership as supposed to working to drawing more residents from Chicago who may not necessarily have an interest in keeping the community safe, clean and positive.
I do not have a problem with low income neighbors. I grew up in public housing in a time and place where teenagers had more respect for their parents, neighbors and their community.
In my line of work I encounter many unsavory people (all races) from Chicago that are bragging about moving to Evanston. I wish I could tell you all what I do for a living, then you would have pause on this issue.
We don't need more crime than we already have here. Keep low rent housing out.
"Yeah, because mandatory residency for Chicago Police Officers and Firefighters is working so well in the murder capital of the country."
Edison Park is really safe. So is Mount Greenwood.
You won't find many Chicago cops living in Englewood.
The school garden project owes a huge debt of thanks to Lynn Hyndman, former Dawes teacher, and the spark that got all of this started when she organized a school gardening seminar for Keep Evanston Beautiful in 2000. She spearheaded the creation of a fabulous garden at Dawes, and then helped other schools get going through SAGE, which she also helped organize. Lynn created a garden curriculum that helps students learn about other cultures, about math, about nature - there's a lot more to gardening than just healthy eating!
And as far as schools not having gardens, prior to 1936 just about every school had a garden. It was the introduction of the commodity program after the great depression that changed everything, providing cheap food to schools through government purchases from farmers, more to help the farmers than the kids. Unfortunately, the farm leftovers are not exactly what parents should want their kids to eat.
Kudos to the Evanston schools for taking on this wonderful project.
Yeah, because mandatory residency for Chicago Police Officers and Firefighters is working so well in the murder capital of the country.
"Dude that's not cool" will start happening right after "dudettes" stop trying to use their looks to receive favors of various kinds.
Isn't that exactly what was happening here?
Also, groupies is a major motivator of boys participating in sports, music etc. Are you going to crush that as well?