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Art to Raise Awareness of Homelessness

Connections is raising awareness through a series of 17 publicly-placed pieces of art. Connections clients were asked to give their visions of home and homelessness, which artists then turned into paintings, quilts, photography, mixed media and even one 3-D piece made of stained glass. Artist Jeff Strong, whose painting "World Beat" was on center stage at the event, said he was taken aback by his client's situation: "The details of his story were so different from what I expected. This person has a completely different idea of what they want for their life. His vision of home was the entire world as his home."

Politicians from the national, state and local levels addressed homelessness from multiple angles. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky summed up the desire to improve the homeless situation when she said, "Central to the American dream is home ownership, a place to call home." She and State Representative Julie Hamos both spoke of the importance of getting lawmakers in tune with grassroots organizations. "It really takes community support," said Ms. Hamos.

Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, speaking about homeless people in jail during the holidays, said, "Every year, the week before Thanksgiving we see a large spike. We do not want the homeless to feel that the safest place they can be is the Cook County Jail."

Connections believes that their campaign for educating the public about homelessness is just a first step. Connections Development Director Kathleen Higgins said that the first critical point is to address the myths and misconceptions about "Who is homeless and why? If we are going to end homelessness, we have to start ensuring that every single member of our community understands who is homeless."

One startling fact: the average age of the homeless nationally is 9 years old. Connections board member Tony Iacuzzi said that that fact alone tells us that "most homeless people are invisible. They're spending time floating from the family to friends, from one situation to the next." Mr. Iacuzzi said that solutions have to be as widespread as the problem. "The needs or causes are society-wide. No one solution is a silver bullet. We need everyone's involvement."

Connections' art campaign is aimed at engaging the public and bringing the homeless issue before the public eye. Ms. Higgins says that Connections' art exhibits are placed next to the clients' stories, to give viewers a true sense of who these people are and what their situation is. "It's a perfect opportunity. It opens up the dialogue in a very unassuming way." Founded in 1984, Connections serves more than 1,800 people yearly, in Evanston and Glenview.

Transfer Tax Referendum Fails

By Mary Helt Gavin

Evanston voters rejected the binding referendum that would have increased the real estate transfer tax by $1 - from $5 per $1,000 of value to $6. More than 20,000 voters weighed in on the referendum - about half of the 45,638 voters who, according to the City Clerk's office, were registered as of Oct. 16 of this year.

The unofficial tally on Nov. 9 was 10,741 against the proposed tax increase, to 10,056 in favor. City Clerk Mary Morris said these figures do not include early and absentee voters; the official tally, which will include those votes, must be turned in by Nov. 21.

The referendum
Had the increase been approved by voters, the $1 difference would have been put into an affordable housing fund. Supporters of the increase said the soaring prices of real estate here are making it impossible for moderate-income people to purchase homes or sometimes even remain here. The cost of land alone makes it difficult if not impossible to create quality housing for low- and moderate-income individuals or families without some sort of subsidy, supporters said. As an example, the affordable townhomes on Dodge Avenue just north of Church Street, which will be sold for $185,000 each, cost more than half a million dollars to build, exclusive of land costs.

Opponents said they believed the increase would discourage people from buying homes in Evanston. A letter from the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors, located in Northbrook and Barrington, sent to households in Evanston before the election, urged voters to reject the proposal. "Property owners already pay more than their fair share for services and programs," stated the letter, signed by Terese Penza, president and CEO of the organization. The letter also said, "[T]he City has not even developed a new affordable housing program yet, so the need for additional revenue has not been fully explained or justified."

Incumbents win locally
In other election contests, all incumbents representing Evanston retained their seats: Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky, State Senator Jeffrey Schoenberg, State Representative Elizabeth Coulson, State Representative Julie Hamos and Cook County Commissioner Lawrence Suffredin.

The voting
City Clerk Mary Morris said she felt the voting process in Evanston went very well. She visited several multi-precinct sites, she said. "I talked to the judges and didn't see anything amiss. The field coordinators did not report problems."

Voters this time could vote one of two ways - using a touch-screen machine or an optical scanner. "The touch-screen machines were designed for people with sight problems," said Mr. Morris. The touch-screens, which did allow for write-in candidates, also printed a paper copy of the voter's choices.

The optical scanners, which looked like huge paper ballots, required the voter to draw a line between two parts of a broken arrow next to each candidate's name. Ms. Morris said she received no calls to complain of problems with the optical scanners, but did hear anecdotes of problems, particularly with pens. Although voters could use any pen, she said, that information was not communicated fully to the election workers. In some cases voters walked off with the pens from the polling places, and in others they were in short supply, causing people to have to wait in line to vote.

While the City of Evanston seemed to have a smooth election, Ms. Morris said there were problems at the County level. "The election judges are to be commended for their work," Ms. Morris told the RoundTable. "They put in a very long day."

The RoundTable will post precinct votes online when they are received.

City Council Unhappy with City Manager's Proposed Tax Hikes

By Bill Smith

City Manager Julia Carroll has laid out a range of possible increases in the City's share of the property tax bill -- from 5.6 to 13 percent -- to Evanston aldermen, who do not seem happy with any of them. At present the City's share of the total taxes assessed on Evanston residents is 19 percent.

Mayor Lorraine Morton said at the Council's Nov. 6 Budget Policy Committee meeting that there should be no tax increase in next year's budget.

"We are losing people in our City," Mayor Morton said. "I don't want people saying Evanston is no longer diverse because the tax rates are forcing people to move out."

Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, said the lowest number Ms.Carroll suggested was as high as he would go. "I can't imagine voting positively on a budget that called for a tax increase in excess of that," he said. Even at that level, he added, "I think people will be very unhappy about it."

Alderman Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, said she agreed that the higher increases were "out of the question."

Alderman Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward, said she might consider an increase in the 9-to-10-percent range.

Other aldermen avoided offering a sense of how big a tax hike they would consider, while pressing the Ms. Carroll about possible ways to trim the budget gap.

This year's City budget raises the property tax levy 2.9 percent. Last year's budget, which showed up in this year's tax bills, included a 4.6 percent increase.

Ms. Carroll said the City must boost its fire and police pension fund contributions next year by nearly $2 million, because the state legislature has increased retirement benefits for public safety employees and the investment returns on the funds have failed to meet projections.

In addition, she said, other expenses, including health insurance and utility costs, are rising faster than revenue from fees and other non-property tax sources.

With no tax increase, Ms. Carroll said, the City might have to lay off 38 employees, about 5 percent of its work force. A 13-percent boost would avoid all layoffs and maintain services at current levels.

The aldermen gave preliminary approval to two proposals that could help reduce the funding gap:
• A possible early retirement incentive program would let employees boost their pension benefits, splitting the added cost with the City. Preliminary staff estimates are that the program could lead to the retirement of 35 employees, about a third of those who would be eligible. Only about 5 of those positions would not be refilled, but most of the replacement workers would be paid less, so the program is forecast to be at least revenue-neutral, while making it easier to reorganized departments to increase efficiency.
• A new pharmacy benefit plan from WellNet HealthCare is projected to save about $300,000 by reducing administrative fees while providing the same coverage to City workers.
The City manager has also identified two other possible ways to save money next year:
• Reducing clinical health programs could save up to $600,000. The City is negotiating to have the two major hospitals pick up some of those health department programs, but Ms. Carroll said it is not clear yet how much savings will be achieved there.
• Increasing efficiency in the sanitation department should save nearly $300,000.
Ms. Carroll also suggested speeding up a planned shift from small bins to 95-gallon carts for recycling could lead to a large enough reduction in landfill fees to quickly recover the cost of the changeover.
Those cost reduction steps make it appear unlikely that the worst-case-scenario tax hike will actually come to pass, but the Council is a long way from Mayor Morton's goal of no tax increase for next year.
Ms. Carroll is scheduled to submit a proposed budget in December. Under state law, the Council must approve a balanced budget before new new fiscal year begins on March 1.

Public Hearing on Tax Levy

At the Nov. 13 City Council meeting, ordinances were introduced to set the 2006-07 tax levy for the City of Evanston at $25,483,673; the levy for the Town of Evanston (Evanston Township) at $1,359,134; and the levy for Special Service Area #4 (downtown Evanston) at $255,000.

Public hearings on each of these proposed levies will be held at the Nov. 27 City Council meeting.

New Plans for Main-Chicago Building

By Bill Smith

Developers and City officials have unveiled plans for a nine-story condominium and retail development at the southeast corner of Main Street and Chicago Avenue that would resolve a three-year legal dispute over the property.

The property's former owner, James Flanagan, sued the City, seeking to block rezoning the land from B3 to C1a, which would have reduced the maximum building height from 125 to 67 feet.

Mr. Flanagan argued that he had spent nearly $5 million over several years demolishing one of the buildings on the site and planning a new development, relying on the existing B3 zoning.

A circuit court judge granted him summary judgment against the City. The state court of appeals upheld the decision, and the state Supreme Court refused to hear the City's appeal.

"So, simply put," City attorney Herb Hill told about 75 neighbors at the community meeting at Lincoln School Thursday night, "the City is stuck with the B3 zoning."

Mr. Flanagan died while the suit was pending, and developers David Katz and Bob Elowson of Bernard Katz and Associates, Inc. acquired control of the property.

They have negotiated an agreement to resolve the court suit, contingent on the City's approval of their plans for the development.

As described at the meeting, the new building would be 99 feet tall, with ground-floor retail, two levels of parking and six floors of condominiums above that.

The developers' attorney, David Reifman, said the developers have agreed to provide larger setbacks from the streets than required under B3 zoning in return for reducing the setback on the south side of the property from 10 to six feet.

He said the building would have 71 units, compared to the 76 units allowed under B3 zoning, and will have 131 parking spaces, nine more than the zoning requires.

The developers are seeking a zoning variance that would allow them to increase the average size of the units to 1,375 square feet, which would make it more likely buyers would become long-term residents of the community.

Mr. Katz said the building would have 23 one-bedroom units, some with a den, ranging from 945 to 1,100 square feet and priced from about $280,000 to $350,000.

He said the other 48 units would have two bedrooms. They would range in size from 1,250 to 1,600 square feet and be priced from about $380,000 to $550,000.

Alderman Melissa Wynne said the developers have agreed to contribute $1,300 per unit to the City's affordable housing fund, the average of the per-unit contribution for the four most-recently approved planned developments in town.

The project would have 9,290 square feet of retail space. Mr. Katz said he expects that a bank branch will be one tenant and that the remainder of the retail space could house from one to three additional tenants. He said it is unlikely that a restaurant would be among the tenants.

Neighbors voiced concerns about traffic congestion and noise during construction and a variety of other issues but seemed generally to sense that, given the legal status of the project, the compromise seemed reasonable.

The building would be 6 feet shorter than the building on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Architect John Clark of Cordogan, Clark & Associates, Inc., said the building's design, featuring a buff color brick with blue tile accents, was intended to "create something that looks like it's been there."

The design includes a landscaped courtyard atop the third floor.

The project is schedule for review by the Planning and Development Committee at its Nov. 27 meeting and could receive final City Council approval as early as Dec. 11.

The developer said that if the approval and permitting process goes smoothly, the building could be ready for occupancy before the end of 2008.

New Housing Ordinance Needed

By Bill Smith

Evanston aldermen scrambled Monday to revise an affordable housing ordinance after the City's legal staff told them the version the council passed three weeks ago would not survive a court challenge.

In a rush to do something before voters cast ballots on a real estate transfer tax hike, the aldermen last month had voted to drop a provision purporting to require developers of large new condo projects to include some affordable units on site.

The revision capped the cost of the program to developers at about $4,000 per unit, three to four times the so-called voluntary contributions the Council has obtained from developers in recent years.

City attorney Herb Hill said that the Illinois Supreme Court bars such flat-fee arrangements, labeling them exactions: the City's requiring money from a developer to approve plans without regard to the actual impact of the development on the City.

In addition, Mr. Hill said, a federal Constitutional provision requires that any program to force developers to contribute to affordable housing programs must include waiver provisions, so the City can demonstrate that its demands do not make a development financially infeasible. Otherwise the requirement could be considered an unconstitutional taking of the developer's rights to use the property.

The aldermen left it to the legal staff to draft a new version of the ordinance for further consideration at their next meeting in two weeks.
Community Development Director James Wolinski said the Council would probably have to set up a special panel, including some developers, to evaluate waiver requests.

Under-Funding Causes Poor Service at All Libraries

By Mary Helt Gavin

In a recent budget policy committee meeting Library Director Neal Ney suggested closing the two branch libraries would help ease the shortfall in the City's upcoming budget. As he has done before, Mr. Ney cited statistics indicating that the usage and the circulation of the branches may not support their existence.

Mr. Ney said since the new library was built in the 1990s, circulation and usage have declined at both branches. "The North Branch has about 70,000 patrons annually, as compared with about 125,000 before the new library - and it may be still declining," said Mr. Ney. The South Branch went from 70,000 patrons to 42,000, where it remains steady, he said.

In response to the threat to the branches, at least one patron has initiated a campaign to save them: writing letters to City officials and the media and putting a petition on the Internet.

The petition can be found at www.ipetitions.com/petitions/sosevanstonbranchlibraries.

Lori Keenan, a patron of the North Branch and a supporter of the branch library system, also said she is urging other supporters "last, and perhaps most importantly - use your branch libraries. Never before has ‘use it or lose it' held more importance."

In an interview with the RoundTable, Mr. Ney laid the dilemma to under-funding of library services overall. "Library services in Evanston are under-funded. When compared with library funding in Skokie, Arlington Heights and Oak Park, we receive about half the funding. We have one full-time (or full-time equivalent, FTE)) employee for every 9,700 patrons; in Skokie, it is one FTE for every 6,000 patrons. That means our patrons have to wait longer for service.

"We have substantially less to work with, and we're painfully aware that we're providing poor service by doing less than we want to and should be able to do." For example, he said, "We are able to pay a lot less attention to the collections. And there's so much we could be doing with the early childhood community - outreach and field trips. … But some people want us to continue to provide poor service in three locations."

He added, "The problem with the branches is that we never have the conversation on library funding. It's always, ‘how can we cut spending?' When you're looking at that, together with under-use of the branches, it's easy to say, ‘Cut there.'"

Mr. Ney sees the branches as a throwback to when there were few, if any, automobiles. "It's very unlikely that if we were to start from scratch in this community that we would think of building branch libraries. "We continue them because they're there," he said, adding, "If we had all the money in the world, I'd be happy to have branches."