Traffic Guy

The Traffic Guy Hears ...

... that the City's latest supply of salt was set to arrive just before last week's snowstorm.

Speaking of salt, TG hears that the City of Akron, Ohio, uses a mixture of calcium chloride and beet juice to de-ice its streets. It's somewhat costly, though - about $180,000 for the tanker truck needed to spray the juice on the streets. Here, though, the City folks say we use "Geo-melt," a salt treated with vegetable oil that "stops the bounce." That is, it keeps the salt from bouncing off the road and onto the parkways, where it could damage grass and trees. And, speaking of speaking of salt, it may be that Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jonathan Perman has had the last rhetorical word in the debate: "With a mayor whose last name is Morton, how could we run out of salt?"

These brave souls took the Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olympics on a cold morning in February.

... that these intrepid police officers and friends took part in the Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olympics on Feb. 23.

... that a pair of gray foxes has been hanging out on Simpson Street near Ewing in northwest Evanston. One of the foxes has a tracking collar, so one of the homeowners near there was able to communicate with researchers at Ohio State University and the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation who, one reader reports, "hav[e] been studying the gray fox in our area over the past four years." She sent along an excerpt of the e-mail from Alison Willingham at OSU: "We are studying the gray foxes because it seems that populations throughout the Midwest may be declining. We have been working very hard on this study for four years now and to date we have only found five small groups of gray foxes.

The foxes that you are seeing in Evanston are one of those groups, and of this group we have collared the dominant male and one of his daughters. We track the animals regularly to determine how they use the landscape.
Our ultimate goal is to determine why their populations have been declining."

So watch out for them, please. Here's more info about the foxes from our observer of the canines: "This is their mating season, so they should be having pups in about two months. ... They are the only member of the dog family that actually climbs trees."

... that this week is Severe Weather Awareness Week nationally as well as locally. Yesterday at 10 a.m. tornado sirens sounded simultaneously in a statewide test. State climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water SurvOne veteran RT staff member says she remembers when a tornado sped down Church Street, sucking out windows and breaking glass all along the way.

... that even the wintertime doesn't deter the City crews from removing dying or infected trees. The City has lost more than 40 ash trees up northwest by Crawford Avenue (the bugs probably sneaked over the border from Wilmette for better living conditions). Watch out for the dreaded emerald ash borer. It's destroyed millions of trees in the Midwest.

... that some folks are looking into putting in a market at Church and Dodge, with fresh produce. What a nice idea for a fresh look in that spiffing-up area of Evanston.

...that opposition to the proposed 49-story tower at 708 Church St. appears to be growing and getting organized. A newly formed group, the Evanston Coalition for Responsible Development, invites people to "learn more about the tower" and "explore the myths of public benefit" - referring to the proposed public benefits that developers James Klutznick and Tim Anderson say the tower will bring to Evanston.

... that even City Manager Julia Carroll slipped a bit of anti-tower sentiment into a recent budget meeting when she said Evanston "cannot condo-and-retail its way out of its financial crisis." She suggested fostering business and creating office space would be economically preferable.

From our readers: TG: By now everyone knows someone who has fallen, perhaps with injury, on the ice lakes of our sidewalks.Why does the City insist on the policy of building sidewalks below grade, thus creating these lakes? When I have had sidewalks replaced I have written to request that the grade be raised so the walkway would drain. The response was that it had to be built "to the existing grade." The existing grade is now ice 3 inches thick and 20 feet long. Also, when sod work is done along a sidewalk the contractor levels the dirt to the level of the sidewalk, and then puts the sod down. The sod is about 2 inches, so the walk is again below grade. I would have thought someone, paid by my taxes, would be thinking about these things. I guess not.
- James Moore

TG: I live on Hinman and we buy parking stickers to park in Lot #1 on South Boulevard for the winter. There are two houses that park on average six cars/trucks along the side of the lot - in an area that is obviously City property. I would be foolish to believe they pay $150 per quarter to park each car there all year long. We have lived in the area for four years. Aren't these lots monitored? Do you know of this being a problem in other lots around town?

From TG: Here's a response from the City: The Evanston Police Department has been working on this right-of-way issue in Lot 1, Hinman and South Boulevard for some time. Vehicles from the properties parking adjacent to Lot 1 are encroaching into the parking lot right-of-way. The property line has been re-staked and it is our intention to stripe the lot to better demarcate the property line in the spring. Parking Services in cooperation with the Police Department will then be able to properly enforce any encroachments into the public way.
- Rickey A. Voss, Parking Manager, City of Evanston

TG: On Feb. 28, long after election day, on my usual walk to downtown Evanston along Emerson east of the METRA bridge, I began to wonder about a politician's concern for the public welfare when his campaign signs are left for the public to remove.

The accompanying photo is reflects only a portion of the Howard Bookins signs I pulled to get rid of in the trash - and this from only a two-block area.

It doesn't appear to me that the level of eagerness of those who post these signs is matched by any to remove them when an election is over. In addition to the signs in the picture there were more frozen under ice on the sidewalk that I could not remove. Mr. Bookins is not the only one whose workers leave it to the public to clean up after them. I also saw a Schakowsky sign and a Barrios sign but only one of each. - Clif Brown

The Traffic Guy thinks...

... kudos to Evanston resident Jeff Smith, the witty and learned gadfly on many City affairs, who lifted up an issue that TG harps on from time to time: the conversion of public parking space on the streets to private space. Mr. Smith says that one-seventh of our curbside is dedicated to parking for neighborhood residents only (City Attorney Herb Hill says by law we can dedicate up to 50 percent of our curbside to private parking). The price of the residential stickers that allow neighborhood residents only to park in certain designated areas is $10/year, soon to be increased by $5 per year.

Mr. Smith said (as TG has also suggested) that restricting parking around commuter stations discourages people from taking the trains, in contravention to at least one of the City's stated purposes - to encourage the use of mass transit. It also means that those without the stickers are subsidizing street paving, street cleaning, street plowing, etc. for essentially private parking spaces. Mr. Smith pointed out that charging $50 per year instead of $10 per year would bring the City about $400,000 in revenues and that the charge would be comparable to the price of a deeded parking spot - about $50 per year.

Most of the Council ignored most of it, though. Only Alderman Eb Moran suggested there might be some merit to the idea that for $10 (now $15) a year people get what he called "a reserved parking space."

Melissa Wynne, alderman of the 3rd Ward, said it wasn't "reserved parking; it's a hunting license." Council members then raised the rates on non-residential parking stickers.