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Emerald Ash Borer Discovered In Evanston

Beetles were found in seven trees located in Lovelace Park, Gross Point Road at Thayer Street in the far northwest area of Evanston. In addition, the emerald ash borer was discovered in a tree on private property on the east side of Gross Point Road at Thayer Street.

EAB is a destructive, non-native pest that feasts on ash trees. Forestry officials estimate that the EAB has destroyed more than 20 million trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

The first case in Illinois was detected in June in Kane County. A quarantine zone has been established around 51 square miles of Kane County to contain the spread there.

A week ago the insect was found in Wilmette. Once the survey in Cook County is complete, the quarantine will be amended to reflect the infestation in Wilmette and Evanston.

"The initial EAB find in Wilmette included 16 infested trees within a five-block area," IDOA Division Manager of Natural Resources Warren Goetsch said. "We have now found 30 infested trees within two communities, all within a three-fourths-mile radius of the original detection. At this point we don't know how much farther the infestation will reach, but we can't stress enough how important community participation is in fighting the battle against the emerald ash borer."

"Evanston staff will promptly respond to all suspected sightings of the EAB," Douglas Gaynor, director of the City's Parks/Forestry and Recreation Department, said. "After EAB was discovered in Wilmette, we received calls from residents to report suspected cases.

"At first sightings were reported at intersections without any ash trees in the vicinity. Residents are becoming better at recognizing ash trees and more of them know that the EAB is smaller than a penny. We expect the number of false sightings to decrease as more people become educated."

Even before the EAB had been discovered in this area, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin had scheduled a regional summit on the pest. The summit, held at Northwestern University, included representatives from the National EAB Program, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), IDOA, Morton Arboretum and the EAB Policy for Michigan.

At the summit panelists discussed the ash population of Illinois, compared the devastation caused by this pest with that associated with the Asian longhorn beetle and the Dutch elm beetle and discussed the cost of programs to address the problem, such as removal and disposal, quarantines, replanting and public education.

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Legislators Call for State Action Against Emissions that Contribute to Global Warming

"Illinois is the sixth-highest emitter of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, and our emissions grew by 17 percent between 1990 and 2001," said Michael Zucker of Environment Illinois, the environmental group that coordinated the event on July 17. He introduced the three legislators: state Senator Susan Garrett (D29) and state representatives Elaine Nekritz and Karen May.

All three spoke of the need for a concerted effort by the legislature to mandate ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

Rep. May said, "With the absence of federal policies, there are many things we as a state can do, and I endorse a strong state program to curb global warming pollution.... I also encourage citizens to cut consumption of fossil fuels to supplement the state programs we hope to enact."

Rep. Nekritz said, "It is very discouraging and in some ways embarrassing that the federal government has not taken action. It is time for state action and local action. We need to establish energy-efficient standards for appliances, adopt a standard for emissions, educate the public. We need to provide transportation choices and look at safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. We need to drag the Illinois Department of Transportation kicking and screaming into the mix."

"Global warming is no longer a debate," said Sen. Garrett. "We have a disturbing pattern of drought, tsunamis, heat waves. We must take steps - even small ones, such as using energy-efficient light bulbs - to reduce and ultimately eliminate global warming."

Directly behind the speakers was an inflated globe with its familiar blue waters and green continents encircled at the Antarctic base with a ring of fire, as a depiction of global warming. But the grass where they stood, the driveway where they parked their cars, the house they were visiting and the hosts themselves all served as examples of what can be done to conserve energy, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and help stave off the dire results of global warming.

Several years ago Bill and Eleanor Revelle demolished their lakefront house and replaced it with the environmental house of dreams. Heated for the most part by solar power and cooled by lake breezes even on sweltering days, the house is a model of sustainability, energy efficiency and beauty. The grassy part of the driveway is rooted in sustainability, as the grass grows through permeable pavers, which allow rainwater to soak into the soil, keeping the grass alive and minimizing runoff. A 1,000-gallon cistern collects rainwater from the roof and is used to water the prairie plants and grasses in the yard that stretches down to the lake.

Mr. Revelle, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, and Ms. Revelle, immediate past chair of the Evanston Community Foundation as well as founder of some of its programs, say they built the house "to demonstrate what can be done in the upper Midwest for sustainability...."We've used sustainable building materials; we've reduced our water consumption and water runoff....The house has a passive solar design with solar collectors [in the yard] and photovoltaic cells [on the roof] that collect about 80 percent of the electricity we need. We buy electricity for nighttime use."

Much of the house is cooled through natural ventilation, said Ellen Galland of Rockwell Associates, the architect for the house. Hot air from the first floor is drawn up the stairwell to the third-floor belvedere and the windows, providing ventilation, she said. In order to maximize the collection of solar power, the house had to be aligned to true south, Ms. Galland said. Because of the angle of the shoreline, the house faces slightly south rather than directly onto the lake.

Michael Zucker, global- warming campaigner for Environment Illinois, noted, "Yesterday [July 17, when the temperature reached the high 90s] the Revelles did not turn on their air conditioner. Their neighbors may have purchased $6 of electricity from ComEd, but they sold about 40 cents' worth of electricity back to ComEd."

Inside, this 11-room, three-bath house, the floors are made of bamboo, a plant that is renewable in five years, says Ms. Revelle. The open stairway at the edge of the broad living room - and other wood features throughout the house - are made of renewable wood from sustainably harvested forests, she added.

He said that his father, Roger Revelle, had studied climate changes for decades and that in the movie "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore refers to Roger Revelle as his teacher.

"There is no longer a scientific question whether carbon dioxide is warming the earth," Mr. Revelle said. "It is. All of us do something about carbon dioxide - we either reduce the emissions or increase them. Our challenge is to reduce them."

Andrea Orcutt of the Network for Evanston's Future has recently written a book on global warming. She said, "If we have gradual global warming, then cutting emissions by 80 percent would be fine. But we could have sudden warming. In that case, many say, including Al Gore, that we may have only a 10-year window." She added, "Moving toward a sustainable economy is the greatest investment in our future."

"There is bad news and there is good news," said Mr. Zucker. "The bad news is that global warming is happening and poses a severe threat. The earth's temperature is higher than it has been at any point in the last 400 years, causing extreme drought and wildfires and future water shortages. The good news is that solutions are possible. This is a demonstration house for some of those solutions....We need our policy makers to act quickly."

Environment Illinois advocates "science-based global-warming policies...[to] set mandatory limits on global warming pollution.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky supports the federal Safe Climate Act. State Senator Jeff Schoenberg and State Representative Julie Hamos also support state action to curb emissions that cause global warming.

To Bee Continued...

By Claire Bryant

Alderman Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, declared the issue of regulating beekeeping in Evanston "to be continued" at the July 17 Human Services Committee meeting.

a sweat bee

After City Council's decision to regulate beekeeping rather than ban it, a proposed ordinance was developed with restrictions and requirements for Evanston beekeepers.

The aldermen discussed alterations they felt the ordinance needed. Alderman Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, asked that the number of hives allowed in each household be lowered from the two-hives-per-quarter-acre proposal, to prevent having too many bees in one area.

Most of the aldermen seemed to be in agreement that these regulations in the proposed ordinance remain: "All hives shall be located at least 15 feet from any adjoining property with the back of the hive facing the nearest adjoining property" and "... any colony situated within 25 feet of a developed public or private property line ... the beekeeper shall establish and maintain a flyaway barrier at least six feet in height...."

One alderman did not agree. Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, asked again for the aldermen to reconsider their position on allowing beekeeping at all. He sided with John Black, who said that since his beekeeping neighbor, Susan Dickman, installed the hive in her yard he has seen more bees and counted at least 12 in his yard that afternoon. Ms. Dickman responded that she has seen no honeybees in their neighborhood, only bumblebees, sweat bees or drone flies, which can be confused with honeybees.

The meeting ended abruptly so the aldermen could attend a budget policy meeting schedueled for 7:30 that same evening. The proposed ordinance will be discussed at the next Human Service Committee meeting on Aug. 7. Until then, "beekeeping is not prohibited in Evanston and there are no regulations," said Ald. Jean-Baptiste.
To bee continued...

Seminar on Form-Based Zoning Aug. 8

By Bill Smith

The City, which is considering new zoning for downtown and the west side industrial corridor, has scheduled a public seminar on a new zoning technique it hopes to use. Paul Crawford, chairman of the Form-Based Codes Institute, will speak from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, in the City Council chambers of the Civic Center at 2100 Ridge Ave.

Form-based codes emphasize the physical form of developments and place less emphasis than traditional zoning codes on regulating land uses. The form-based rules are usually presented in both diagrams and words and control the shape and mass of buildings and the relationship of buildings to the street and to one another.

Traditional zoning is often called Euclidean zoning, after the Village of Euclid, Ohio, the defendant in a 1920s U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld municipal zoning regulation.

Euclidean zoning focuses on separating disparate land uses from each other and regulating development intensity with numeric parameters including height limits, setbacks and floor area ratios.

In recent years Evanston has also used incentive zoning for larger planned development projects, which offer developers height or other bonuses for including public amenities on-site.

Both planners the City hired last month to study the west side industrial corridor - Farr Associates and JJR, LLC - specialize in form-based zoning.

Neighborhood Planner Susan Guderly says City staff met with the consultants last week to begin work on the projects. She anticipates the consultants will hold meetings with neighborhood groups during August.

The consultants are expected to produce final reports for the Plan Commission and City Council by October.

The City Council earlier this month voted to extend a moratorium on new-construction building permits in the west side corridor until Dec. 12. The moratorium, imposed in April to provide time for the planning process, had been scheduled to expire Aug. 10.
A subcommittee of the Plan Commission has been discussing downtown zoning for several months and has recently worked with the Preservation Commission to identify downtown buildings that might be considered for landmark status.

Some Plan Commission members have suggested that form-based zoning may offer solutions to difficulties they have encountered in trying to develop a clear strategy for the downtown area's future.

Form-based zoning has often been associated with so-called "Smart Growth" and "New Urbanism" concepts, but it has also been criticized as overly constraining and difficult to interpret.

Township Budget Approved

Sitting as trustees of the Township of Evanston, City Council members approved the township budget on June 26. Township Supervisor Patricia Vance prepared the approximate $1.3 million budget, which allocates $352,139 for the Town (township) fund and $939,038 for the General Assistance fund.

The Township Assessor's office - which provides assistance to those wishing to appeal their property taxes - operates from the Town fund. The General Assistance fund provides a monthly grant to qualified clients in need of assistance for food, rent, medicine and other basic needs. The budget projects 85 clients in the 2006-07 fiscal year (April through March), with the maximum monthly grant of $334 increasing in September to $359.

Church Street Self- Park Goes 24/7

The City's Church Street Self-Park, 525 Church St., will become a 24-hour facility beginning Aug. 1. Because of the expanded hours, the policy of free parking between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. will be discontinued. Vehicles will be charged for all hours parked in the garage, with two exceptions: The first hour of parking is free any day of the week and parking is free all day Sundays and holidays.

For further information on the Church Street Self-Park, contact the facility's office, 847- 328-4607. For more information on parking in Evanston, call the City's Parking System, 847-866-2923.

Owners of Electric Car Get a Charge Out of a Movie.

Members of the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association (FVEAA) brought their vehicles to Evanston on July 7 when the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" was shown at Century Theatres.

Members parked their cars in the Maple Avenue garage and explained the value of these no-gas vehicles to interested persons. George Gladic of Skokie, director of FVEAA, opened the hood and the trunk of his car to reveal the 20 batteries that keep it going. "The average charge time is 8-10 hours," Mr. Gladic said. He and his wife, Elizabeth, commute daily from their Skokie home to Northwestern University, where they both work.

Mr. Gladic converted the car himself four years ago. "Conversion costs average between $7,000 and $10,000 when done professionally," said Mr. Gladic. The car gets about 54 miles on one charge, he said. "This is a commuter car, not one for long distance," he said. The FVEAA believes that the automobile industry is preventing consumers from purchasing electric cars, so they are promoting the benefits themselves. "We're trying to get people to open their eyes and close their pocketbooks," he said. In photo above, Mr. Gladic opens the hood of his car, displaying some of its 20 batteries.

Proposed Ordinance to Limit Teen Smoking May Leave Local Businesses Fuming

By Leah Lavelle

At their meeting on July 17 the Human Services Committee again discussed an amendment to the City Code that would further limit tobacco vendors within a certain proximity of educational institutions.

As proposed by the Committee, the ordinance would prohibit the sale of tobacco products within 150 feet, lot line to lot line, of any high school, middle school or elementary school, excluding Park School and Rice Children's Center.

Currently the City Code prohibits vendors located within 100 feet of any building used for education or recreation programs for underage persons from obtaining tobacco licenses. According to a report by Jay Terry, director of Health and Human Services, the original ordinance was adopted in 1996 to halt cigarette sales to Evanston Township High School students.

The new ordinance, which would extend by 50 feet the distance that tobacco vendors currently have to stay clear of schools and remove the grandfather clause of the earlier ordinance that allowed some stores within the proscribed distance to keep their licenses, is intended to further limit tobacco sales to underage smokers.

In June the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that showed that though teen cigarette smoking had been declining steadily since 1997, the number of underage smokers leveled off  between 2003 and 2005 at about one of every four youngsters.

According to Mr. Terry's report, the rate of smoking at ETHS has gone up, from 21.5 percent in 2003 to 23 percent in 2005, the first increase in underage smoking at the school since 1997.

All over the state, smokers are starting at very young ages. Mary Morrissey, Illinois coordinator for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the average age at which youngsters start smoking has dropped to 13. A recent graduate of ETHS agreed: "The kids I know that started smoking started in seventh or eighth grade," he said.

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, underage smokers buy or smoke 50.8 million packs of cigarettes each year.

The recommendation to amend the City Code was first given at a Human Services Committee meeting earlier this year by Fifth Ward Alderman Delores Holmes, who suggested extending the prohibition of tobacco licenses to 500 feet.

The amending ordinance has since been sent back and forth between the Committee and City Council as aldermen have considered the ordinance for its impact on the prevention of underage smoking as well as its impact on local businesses.

Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, has expressed the concern that if adopted, the ordinance would prevent a tobacco retailer from settling at the corner of Asbury and Oakton (formerly an Osco Drug), since the site is less than 150 feet away from Chute Middle School. Mr. Terry said that administrators could find no way of avoiding that limitation while maintaining the effectiveness of the ordinance on ETHS and other schools.

At their July 17 meeting, the Human Services Committee considered the limitation and debated the economic effect that the ordinance would have on that site and other local businesses. Evanstonian Leonard Lamkin, an audience member at the Committee meeting, commented, "If this was a drug house selling to our kids, we wouldn't be having this discussion about economics, and tobacco is an illegal drug for our children."

Mr. Lamkin urged the Committee to focus instead on encouraging stronger enforcement of the City Code and state and federal laws by raising fines and tightening convictions. Referring to a comment that Ald. Holmes had made earlier during the meeting, he said that federal law prohibits the sale of cigarette "singles," a practice to which some tobacco vendors have resorted, since it is less easily detectable.

"I'm very concerned about our young children being able to purchase cigarettes, not by a package, but by ones," Ald. Holmes said. "Of course it's a violation of law, but it happens."

Mr. Terry said the City conducts "regular sting operations" to fight such violations.

The Committee decided to preserve the 150-foot-prohibition wording in the ordinance, aware that the decision would affect some local businesses.

Committee members also agreed to raise the fine charged to vendors from $500 for each offense to $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for the second offense; to consider a clerk of a business "an agent of the business" to increase vendor accountability; and to include elementary schools as affected institutions.

The Committee decided to exclude Park School, at 828 Main St., and Rice Children's Center, at 826 Ridge Ave., because students of both of those institutions are under adult supervision on their way to and from the schools.

Evanstonian's Vintage Fashion Doll Gains International Popularity

By Leah Lavelle

Allison Katzman

When she created the Blythe doll in 1970, local resident Allison Katzman had ideas in mind. As an artist, she wanted to create something beautiful; as a toy designer, she needed to make something innovative. Ms. Katzman, 81, had no idea that the doll she crafted for young girls would, about 30 years later, take on a life of its own.

An unsuccessful Barbie rival after her release in 1972, the Blythe doll was reproduced only a few thousand times. Yet the doll has had its admirers, and in 1999, Blythe began to make her comeback - in a different niche entirely. This June, Ms. Katzman spent six days in Japan, where she says Blythe has become the subject of artists and fashion designers as well as doll enthusiasts.

"She was designed for a child," Ms. Katzman says of the doll, "but she has taken off in the adult world."

Ms. Katzman's job at Marvin Glass and Associates, a toy design firm based out of Chicago, was to create toys that were different from other playthings on the market. A designer could not just make a pretty doll; "you had to have a gimmick," Ms. Katzman says.

At the time, "every toy company wanted a fashion doll that was as popular as Barbie, but nobody could do it," she says. Ms. Katzman sought to design a competing doll, and she knew she would have to try something new to accomplish the feat - "something that would work mechanically."

With the help of toy engineer Gordon Barlow, she gave a new doll design its distinguishing feature: changeable eye color. At the blink of Blythe's eyes - and a pull of a string - a rotating cylinder switches the doll's eyes to pink, green, blue or amber. The large vibrant eyes, which Ms. Katzman says were inspired by her daughter's over-dyed green contact lenses, complement Blythe's proportionately larger head (inspired by cartoon character Betty Boop).

Yet Blythe-makers learned that the doll's wide-eyed look did not attract young Barbie-doll-lovers. "Girls were scared of her," recalls Ms. Katzman, and besides, they "didn't want a substitute." After only a few thousand were produced, the doll went the way of many Barbie competitors during the early 1970s: discontinued and largely forgotten.

In 1999, however, Blythe began to regain attention. The subject of photographer Gina Garan's work at a New York City party that year, the doll made an impression on Junko Wong, of Tokyo, who owns a creative agency, Cross World Connections (CWC), and has helped bring Blythe to popularity in Japan.

In Asia especially, though also in Australia, Ms. Katzman says, the doll has taken on a number of new roles, from modeling in department store ads to starring in a Blythe Beauty Contest at which artists, designers - even musicians - and other creative Blythe fans presented their customized Blythe dolls for a chance to have their design reproduced as a limited edition of the doll.

CWC flew Ms. Katzman to Japan to judge the contest, which was part of the doll's Fifth  Anniversary Exhibition, in June. She was amazed at the international attention the doll has been getting from illustrators, photographers and cartoonists, especially as a fashion model. "The fashion was there in Japan and she just fit in," she says. "It's a different world. Everybody loves her - it's so funny."

At the contest, entrants presented Blythe dolls they had transformed into their own works of art, complete with homemade costumes, names and even background stories to give their Blythe doll her own character. Ms. Katzman praised many of the designs, and especially the winning Blythe, which featured two hand-dyed-and-knit hats and a hand-embroidered miniature frock.

And Blythe's fashion-related fame does not stop there; Ms. Katzman says that well-known designers like Oscar de la Renta have also produced one-of-a-kind outfits for Blythe, so that the doll can be found in special edition, new or replica versions, and in original size (1 ft. high) or miniature. Original dolls produced in 1972 - "real collectors' items," Ms. Katzman says - often sell at auction for "four, five - even $6,000."