Editorial

Whither Affordable Housing?

The way things are going, it looks like the City's promise to address affordable housing, made in the recently adopted strategic plan, is becoming elusive.

For nearly three years, City staff have worked with community members, developers, representatives from Businesspersons and Professionals in the Public Interest (BPI) and individual aldermen to craft an ordinance to create and preserve housing in the City that would be affordable to low- and moderate-income persons and families who want to make Evanston their home.

Even though Evanston complies with the State's affordable-housing mandates, there is a concern among some residents that Evanston housing is becoming more and more out of reach to many working poor and middle-class residents.

There are a lot of forces at work that are putting a squeeze on lower-income families in Evanston, including high-priced developments, tear-downs and condominium conversions, and a high property-tax rate.

What the City is looking at now to promote affordable housing is an "inclusionary" zoning ordinance, which would require a developer to create a certain percentage of affordable units in any new condominium development of 25 units or more or to pay a certain amount into an affordable housing fund.

The burdens placed on the City and on the developer seem to be the principal objections to the inclusionary zoning proposal. The City would relax certain zoning requirements – say, in height, density or parking – in return for the affordable units.

But critics say that the mandate of affordable units is a burden to developers and that the give-backs to the developers are untenable for a city that is already burdened with massive projects that are too high for this small-town city.

While giving a nod to the need for affordable housing, some aldermen at the same time are objecting to a proposal by a not-for-profit group that would build a 27-unit apartment building at Church Street and Darrow Avenue at no cost to the City.

It appears the underlying objection to this development is it would provide rental housing for too many low-income persons – families of four earning about $36,000 per year.

Perhaps that is too "affordable," in some persons' views.

Overall the City's actions toward the development of affordable housing have been minimal. Private developers, most of them not-for-profit, have created a handful of "affordable" units, in most cases with help from the City in the form of cheap or donated land or a grant from City funds.

The sales price of these units has generally been in the $250,000 range. Couple that with high property taxes, and ask yourself whether that is affordable to a young teacher, social worker, policeman, or postal worker.

If City Council is serious about maintaining affordable housing in Evanston, it will need to take serious action to do so. It will also need to examine whether its use of the term "affordable housing" includes housing for lower-income individuals and families.

Rules Rule

By Charles Wilkinson

Ever since Eden, humankind has lived with rules. In fact, modern life's trilogy of certainties – death, taxes and change – should really be a quartet. Rules, like the air we breathe, are all around us.

Take a minute to think of the rules that are operative in your life at this moment. For myself, the computer keyboard faces me with a million rules for helping my fingers not be all thumbs as I write these words, each of which has rules all its own regarding spelling, grammar and appropriateness. My watch tells me of a deadline to be respected, and the rain outside reminds me how to dress for the day. My cell phone came with a book of rules for efficient usage. As for my car or the care of my body, well, I could go on and on but I hope I have made my point.

Rules and life go together like the proverbial horse and carriage, though unlike the chicken and the egg, there is no question which came first.

However, there are those who, as far as rules are concerned, sometimes put the carriage before the horse. For them a rule is a rule is a rule, meant to be respected and obeyed. Rules are what make life fair, what keeps the playing field level. Rules give structure to life and provide a certainty to the way things should be done. When such people find themselves in a bind between life and its rules, rules generally take precedence. Such people are easily recognized, since for them rules are like starch. There is an unwrinkled neatness their rules provide them, and it shows.

Others have the horse in place but hold the reins very lightly. For them the amber traffic light means hit the accelerator, not the brakes; due dates for bills can be fudged by a week or more; "Do not litter" signs are meant for cats and "wipe your feet" reminders say nothing about shoes; being on time means "when I get there." In short, for some, rules are guidelines but not gospel. They would rationalize that rules are like yeast – they are meant to enhance life, not stymie it.

Whether seen as starch or yeast, or a livable combination of both, rules require a certain respect. This especially applies to the larger rules of life, the civil and moral codes recognized by anyone having a conscience. But whatever the rule, two factors should be remembered: Every rule has a backstory and every rule has a purpose.

A rule's backstory is its genesis. Every rule comes from somewhere. Knowing its "story" helps one understand its purpose. Therefore, it is never wrong to question any one of them. Most rules are like bubble wrap. Invented by necessity and sometimes out of tragedy, they are meant to serve and protect – like police, to keep all safe on the journey. But rules can also intimidate and suffocate if their origins reveal an abuse of power.

What remains important is this: Effective rules should never imprison one's spirit. They should define and enhance one's freedom, while being as much about others as they are about self.

Rules rule – not as tyrants, but as teachers. Come to think of it, the best teachers I have known have had almost equal parts of starch and yeast.

One of Those, Please!*

By Peggy Tarr

African-American comedians (et al) sometimes present a skit in which a newscaster is searching for an African-American to be interviewed to give his/her perspective on an event.

In the skit African-Americans who are well-dressed, sober and articulate are passed over – ignored, knocked down or shoved out of the way.

The newscaster aggressively pursues an African-American who fits the image to be presented: someone slovenly dressed who appears to be homeless or unemployed, is inebriated, inarticulate, and hostile and uses expletives every other breath.

"One of those, please!"

Well, it's not just in a skit that this happens. A friend and I were trying to figure out the "whys-and-wherefores" of companies/organizations that hire and retain African- Americans who dress inappropriately, spend all day on the telephone on personal calls, don't show up at work a lot, don't do their work when they're there or do it so poorly that others have to correct it, use inappropriate language, and are hostile.

My friend's conclusion (and I concur) is that African-Americans of the negative type described above (and I remind everyone that there are many types within a group) provide entertainment, a boost to the egos of people with low esteem and reinforcement/justification of the "holier-than-thou" attitude of bigots.

My hat is off to those companies and organizations that recognize, value and hire African-Americans who are intelligent, articulate, industrious and socially adept – companies and organizations that grasp the importance of having good employees rather than entertainment, companies and organizations that don't pursue "one of those, please!"

*A sequel to "Keeping One's Place" (April 19th issue). Reference to a group of humans as "those" or "them" suggests stereotyping.

Letters

Area Around ETHS Is Unsafe
Editor:

In recent weeks, I've noticed an alarming number of theft/assault/harassmentcases near ETHSin the local paper's police blotter.

Students, often freshmen, are being accosted as they head home between 3:30 and 4:00, literally at the school's doorstep – the neighborhood including Dodge, Church, Emerson and Hovland.

Kids have had their i-pods taken, their pocket money, their cell phones. If belongings haven't been stolen outright, kids have been harassed, often by groups of four or five, but have been able to escape.

I asked a law enforcement friend of mine, someone who has worked with our schools for many years, how safe he thought it was for my freshman son to walk home from school alone.

He said my son probably shouldn't ever walk home alone, but always with at least one friend. The kids should never be listening totheir MP3 players for two reasons: one, the players are a target, and two, having the earphones in means you can't hear anybody coming up behind you. He said the perpetrators target the kids who look like they're "rich," because the assumption is that anything that's stolen off such kids will be easily replaced, so no big deal.

I've talked to my son and his friends, and several of them recounted close calls as they left school and began to walk home. One boy saw a group approaching and put his cell phone to his ear as if he was making a call. My law enforcement friend said that's a good tactic; potential thieves don't know who you're calling – could be 911 – so they tend to take off. I pass this tip along to parents and students.

SowhileI want to foster independence in my young son and let him make his own way back and forth to school,on the days I don't pick him up, I'm very uneasy until he makes it home. He's been told to call me as he's leaving the school property so I can monitor the time it takes him to get home. He never carries more than a couple of dollars and doesn't take his i-pod or expensive calculator or anything that might be stolen. You'd think we were living in urban Detroit.

ETHS is a nationally recognized high school of the highest caliber.It's astonishing to me that the City has allowed the neighborhood that surrounds it to become so unsafe, and frankly, unsightly.

There should be coffee shops, book stores, restaurants and other businesses thriving and supporting the school, not the check-cashing shops and boarded-up storefronts that are there now.

With development running rampant just a couple of blocks east in downtown Evanston, it would be nice if some of that money could at last be spent on refurbishing this critical area.

What has happened to the redevelopment plans that neighborhood residents have been pushing for? Residents and students deserve a safe environment to live in and learn in.

At the very least, parents and students need to be especially vigilant as they leave school. Having your money or your phone stolenfrom you is traumatic enough for a young teen; we don't want to see anything worse happen.
-Kim Cook

Can We Make Evanston a Top-Ranked City?
Editor:

Kiplinger's magazine, in their June issue, is now the latest business/news rag rating "America's best cities." Surprise! Evanston is not included in their top 50 cities. In the past, my response was to comb the article for mention of Evanston, and feel frustration when Evanston wasn't mentioned.

I would like to propose a better way for all of us to respond, but it will require some help from the RoundTable:

1. Can the RoundTable run an occasional column devoted to articles of this ilk, citing which magazine "this time" failed to include Evanston on their list of "best cities" in America, and then, for fun, name some of the less desirable places that the editors, in their madness, saw fit to include; and

2. Can we, Evanston's residents, finally come up with an aggressive and highly ambitious plan for affordable housing so that we may counter the one (and only) thing that prevents Evanston from being completely deserving? How about a very simple goal: By the year 2020, all those who work in Evanston and wish to live in Evanston should be able to do so.

I hope you print my letter, and I hope it generates a lot of response.
-- Gregg R. Baker

YEA! Touches Entire Community
Editor:

Occasionally an event emerges that touches all facets of a community in a special way. The Young Evanston Artists festival has become that kind of event. As we celebrate our 19th year, we are keenly aware of the need for self-expression and a sense of value in all of our lives. We are pleased that YEA! offers opportunity for the realization of these important needs.

Over 19 years ago we envisioned a comprehensive arts event for children within the context of the business community. It has been important from the beginning that this project celebrate our children's creativity and its expression through the visual and performing arts.

In scope and concept this project has required good will and collaboration from all sectors of the community. Therefore, widespread volunteer involvement and special funding have been essential.
The support has been overwhelming. Thirty-eight Evanston public, private and parochial schools, pre-school through high school, are participating. Countless individuals have donated valuable time, talent and resources.

The YEA! festival is meant to provide a showcase for student art, at all levels, within a framework that is neither competitive nor commercial. The desire to establish broad cooperation and participation has provided the basic focus from the beginning, and it was decided early on that artwork would not be for sale. We hope that you will appreciate the principle that has inspired the exhibition of artwork by Young Evanston Artists.

We wish to thank all the supporters and participants for their vital encouragement in this growing project. But most importantly we wish to thank all of our Young Evanston Artists. We are happy to have provided the opportunity for the expression of their creative spirit, and are truly grateful for their willingness to participate with genuine enthusiasm and trust.

Young Evanston Artists expresses its deep gratitude to its community supporters and to the art, drama and music teachers who contributed their time.

Anyone who would like to become involved in the growth and development of Young Evanston Artists or would like to make a contribution, may see any of our staff at theYEA! booths or send your contribution to Young Evanston Artists, 1035 Wesley Ave. Evanston, IL 60202.
-Harvey Pranian

A Special "Thank You" to Julie Chernoff and Family
Editor:

We at Haven Middle School would like to share with the Evanston community our appreciation of and our thanks to Julie Chernoff and her family for their time, effort and genuine contributions.

Haven Middle School has been a primary beneficiary of Ms. Chernoff's sincere dedication to sharing her many talents with District 65, but specifically with our students. She supports the teachers in a myriad of ways, but particularly by volunteering in our school-wide tutoring program, founded by parent Jean Husain.

The assistance provided in math and reading is outstanding. I have observed Ms. Chernoff teaching math strategies to support standards to 8th-grade students.

Most everyone knows how talented Ms. Chernoff is in the field of music and theatre. This year she provided her expertise as the director of "Haven Help Us," one of our annual premier events, which incorporates the talents of our 7th and 8th graders for three performances. This year the show included the largest contingent of African American students in our ‘Haven Help Us' history. By way of our Community Learners Award, we were proud to present Mrs. Chernoff with a plaque to show our appreciation, but we wanted to share our good fortune with the Evanston community at large to let others know about the positive spirit that Mrs. Chernoff brings to the children of District 65.
-Donald L. Michelin, Principal

Kudos for Health Program
Editor:
Who would have thought that the City of pop-up sidewalks would run such a wonderful health program?

The Health Department of the City of Evanston spent one morning giving free hearing, memory and glaucoma tests to anyone who walked in for them.

The tests were given by a very professional, courteous staff. This was a most important service provided to Evanston citizens, and I, for one, am immensely grateful.
-Ruth Granick

Hurrah for Hamos
Editor:

On behalf of our 1.6 million members, AARP Illinois applauds State Representative Julie Hamos. Her leadership and support for seniors in Springfield has resulted in an unprecedented $65 million increase to the State's senior services budget. We compliment Governor Rod Blagojevich on proposing an initial $52 million increase for senior services in his introduced budget. Representative Julie Hamos fought diligently to keep that money in the budget and add more to total $65 million. For that, Illinois seniors and AARP are grateful.

The increase will allow seniors to easily find services and receive case management along with expanding senior services to include respite care, emergency home response, and home modification. These are vital first steps toward allowing all Illinois seniors, regardless of where they live, to remain independent and in their own homes for as long as possible.

Kudos and a heartfelt thank-you to Representative Hamos. We look forward to our continued work together to make Illinois the best state for seniors to live in.
-- Evelyn Gooden, State President
AARP Illinois