Roszak Seeks Hotel for Sienna Project

By Mary Helt Gavin

A proposal by developer Tom Roszak to replace two promised condominium towers in his Sienna development with a "select service" hotel has yet to gain support from neighbors and residents. On March 5, about 50 persons attended a meeting at the Civic Center at which Mr. Roszak described the hotel and the reasons for his proposed change. Although none of the persons who spoke appeared to favor the change, Mr. Roszak said several times he would continue to meet with neighbors and work with the City to try to forge a resolution.

The Sienna project is located on a former parking lot between Church and Clark streets just east of Ridge Avenue, facing Oak Avenue. As approved by City Council as a planned-unit development in 2004, the project calls for four condominium towers.

Units in one of the buildings are completely sold, Mr. Roszak said; the other building, he said, is "substantially complete and 50-percent sold." Yet, he said, "Because the [real estate] market is difficult, we are making this change." He noted the original zoning - which he had changed to accommodate his residential project - would have accommodated a hotel.

The hotel - a "select service" hotel - would be operated by the Starwood Hotels group, Mr. Roszak said. Starwood Hotels in this class carry the brand name "aloft," and this one would be called Sienna-aloft. The 210-room hotel, said Mr. Roszak, would have two seven-story connecting towers, a pool, an exercise room and a small bar but no restaurant.  Sienna-aloft, he said, would be comparable to but a "higher level" than a Hilton Garden Inn or a Courtyard by Marriott. The cost would be $160-$260 per night. 

Sienna residents would share the hotel's amenities, thus lowering their association costs, Mr. Roszak said.

Privacy, Aesthetics and Accessibility

Sienna residents expressed concern about the transformation from a private residential area to a more public space. "How is it beneficial that, instead of 130 additional condominium owners there will be 30,000 to 50,000 strangers each year? How is that a benefit to my $800,000 condo?" one resident asked.

A circular plaza near the center of the project, used for automobile turn-arounds, would be more intensely used if the hotel were built. With the planned condos, it would have remained a somewhat secluded plaza, one resident said. Another said she was concerned about the bar area of the hotel - another feature that would attract the public to what is now a private residential area. 

A resident of nearby 1800 Ridge Ave. asked if the hotel could be made more aesthetically pleasing.

Seven of the Sienna units are owned by clients of Center for Independent Futures, a not-for-profit organization that helps procure housing and support services to allow disabled adults to live independently. Dr. Jane Doyle, executive director of CIF, said safety, accessibility and traffic were the main concerns for the CIF clients. "It hasn't been real clear what the safety and security will be with a transient population [the hotel guests]," she added. Talks with Mr. Roszak and the City will continue, Dr. Doyle said.

Asked what he would do if the City turned down his request for a hotel, Mr. Roszak said he would submit another proposal that incorporated the City's suggestions. He also said he would continue to meet with residents, neighbors and CIF to work out a solution. He did not, it appeared, wish to revisit the idea of building the two originally promised condominium towers.

Accessibility
Several residents of Tom Roszak's Sienna development are clients from the Center for Independent Futures, a local not-for-profit agency that helps young adults with disabilities to live independently.

Most seem to enjoy living there but some have experienced difficulty in getting out of the project and then back home. Andrea Harris," who lives at 1720 Oak Ave. in the Sienna project and uses a wheelchair said, "I love my home. It's beautiful. What I don't like is that there is no accessible way to get into it." Accessibility, she said, "traditionally meant [using] the back entrance. One reason I was so excited about this was the idea I could use my own front door."

Ms. Harris and others find that, although the access road from Oak Avenue into the project has a sidewalk, the incline is too steep for a wheelchair. Residents who use wheelchairs must use the fire lane, which opens onto Ridge Avenue, adding about a full block to their route whenever they leave their homes. When she returns home, Ms. Harris said, she can cut through the garage, but she feels it is "dangerous and dirty."

Dr. Jane Doyle, executive director of CIF, said up to nine more CIF clients may move into the development.

Wiener and Still Champion Declared a ‘Great Neighborhood Restaurant'

Evanston's own Wiener and Still Champion, 802 Dempster St., has been named one of only a handful of "Great Neighborhood Restaurants" by the Chicago-based LTHForum.com.

Earler, Citysearch.com recently named Wiener & Still Champion's French fries as among the four best in Chicagoland and among the top ten fast-food restaurants in the area.

Reflecting on the high standing of his French fries at Citysearch.com, owner Gus Paschalis said, "We make sure to start only with fresh Idaho potatoes … .They have the perfect starch content to fry up crisp on the outside, while still retaining a soft, slightly moist interior with a lot of great flavor."

The Wiener and Still Champion, open every day for lunch and dinner, has been serving Evanston and the surrounding community since 1975.

YJC Spring Job Fair

Job-seekers ages 16 and up are invited to attend the Youth Job Center of Evanston's annual Spring Job Fair. It will be held on April 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave. Job-seekers should arrive no later than 2:30 p.m.

Representatives from more than a dozen local employers in the retail, shipping and hospitality industries will be in attendance, with applications for permanent and seasonal positions at the ready.  YJC job fairs are unique in that only employers who are currently hiring attend the event.

Resumes and appropriate interview attire are strongly recommended for job-seekers - first impressions are important.  The job fair is free to all attendees (employers and job-seekers).

For more information, contact Tricia Maharaj, YJC Employer Outreach Coordinator, at 847-864-5627, ext.13, or by e-mail: tmaharaj@youthjobcenter.org.

Central Street Business Association Presents Retail Therapy Night IV

The Central Street Business Association announces its late-night shopping event, "Retail Therapy Night," will be held for from 6 to 9 p.m. on April 17.

The merchants, whose shops are located in the 1900-2100 block of Central Street, will offer special sales, refreshments, in-store entertainment and a spring bounty of surprises to celebrate the end of the long, cold winter of 2007-08.

Some stores will also be giving back to help women in difficult circumstances.

Stella, a women's clothing and gift boutique, will feature a trunk show by decoupage artist Shelley Rottenberg from Granger, Ind., who creates "functional art" decoupage in memory of her sister Lisa, who died from breast cancer. Portions of the store's proceeds that evening will, in Lisa's memory, benefit the Inova Fairfax Hospital Living with Cancer Group.

Coventry Eye Care will feature author Anastasia Royal, signing her novel, "Undoing I Do," about the unraveling of a marriage. Special goodie bags and discounts will be offered as well.
Visit www.centralstreet-evanston.com.

Arrest Made in Sept. 18, 2007 Shooting

The Evanston Police Department reported that Troy Randle, 2216 Thome, Chicago, was arrested in the shooting of a 27 year-old Skokie resident that took place in the 800 block of Case St., Evanston in the early morning of Sept. 18, 2007. The victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

The police department said in a prepared statement that the states attorney's office approved charges of  attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and aggravated battery with a firearm.

Mr. Randle appeared at a bond hearing March 27, and a bond was set at $1 million, police said.

The Evanston Police Department said investigators from the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force assisted Evanston detectives in gathering information concerning this incident. The Department acknowledged the assistance provided by the victim's family and friends and the community in attempting to resolve this case.

HUD Certifies Interfaith Housing Center to Expand Foreclosure Prevention Role

Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs has been certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a Housing Counseling Agency, which places Interfaith on HUD's approved referral list and qualifies Interfaith for additional HUD funding for its foreclosure prevention work. Interfaith is one of only two HUD-certified housing agencies in north suburban Cook County, and the only one to specialize in foreclosures caused by predatory lending.

"Foreclosures are the latest threat to diverse and affordable communities in the northern suburbs," said Interfaith's Executive Director Gail Schechter. "Interfaith's new certification gives us additional capabilities to broaden our outreach and our services as we seek to foster an open, stable and healthy housing market during this difficult economic environment."

In Evanston the number of foreclosure filings has increased from 96 in 2005 to 179 in 2007, an 87 percent increase, according to a recent report by the Woodstock Institute. In 16 northern suburbs the number of foreclosure filings has increased from 389 in 2005 to 840 in 2007, an increase of 141 percent.

Typically, households in danger of foreclosure have been lower-income older adults, people of color, and people with blemished credit, said Ms. Schechter. Given the national and local projections, the number of foreclosure filings in the northern suburbs is expected to continue to climb - and this against a backdrop of rental stock gone-condo and more affordable, smaller homes being demolished in favor of housing stock that is increasingly unaffordable for fiscally-strapped households, she added.

Interfaith's free foreclosure prevention service includes one-on-one mortgage counseling, assistance in re-negotiating loan terms, referral where necessary for legal assistance or low-cost government home improvement programs, and help obtaining deferment of payments for financial or medical reasons.  Interfaith also works in collaboration with other housing counseling, government, and public policy advocates in the Chicago area, a role positively recognized by HUD. 

Homeowners can contact Interfaith directly 847-501-5760, ihcns@interfaithhousingcenter.org or via a link on the HUD website www.hud.org or via a toll-free 800 number referral.

Mayor's Summer Youth Job Fair

Summer employment opportunities are available for teens at the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program Job Fair, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on April 19 at the Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.

The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is a nine-week summer work experience for in-school Evanston youth 14-18 years of age. In addition, teens are assigned to the community service component, where they perform tasks that include cleaning parkways, alleys, traffic-calming circles and some parks. 

Teens should come to the job fair appropriately dressed. For more information call 847-866-2920.

Possibilities Turns 30

Still Crazy after All These Years

Katie Coil, owner of Possibilities, 1235 Chicago Ave. shows off a goose lamp, one of the many unique gifts her store sells.

By Victoria Scott

Find a gift for a 40-something man who is throwing a birthday party for his 8-year-old self? It sounds like a Day-after-April-Fool's-Day challenge.

Oh, and be sure the gag gift makes him laugh, not gag.

Meet the party invitees, husband and wife, as they poke, wind up and otherwise sample the merchandise at Possibilities, 1235 Chicago Ave. Egged on by the store's proprietor, they seem to be having a ball.

"We should have come here in the first place," says the wife. "I could buy a hundred things."

Some of those hundred things were here 10 years ago, when the RoundTable came in 1998 in search of a good story for the April 1 issue.

This novice journalist made her RoundTable debut with Possibilities on April Fool's Day - both phrases applicable-- just a month and a half after the paper took its first bow on Feb. 18.

Margaret Lurie and Mary Lesch owned the store then, but Katie Coil, who bought it three years later, was already in the picture - including the RoundTable one.

In spring 2001 Ms. Coil, who had worked at Possibilities for four years, was taking an eight-month break when Ms. Lesch asked her to lunch.

Ms. Coil enjoyed the lunch -- and bought the business. She was "almost 23," she says, and will mark her seventh anniversary as owner on July 1, about the time both she and the shop turn 30.

So what has changed, we wondered?

"I wanted the store to stay quirky, eclectic, unique," says Ms. Coil. "But a different set of eyes finds different things." She loves "walking around with people," she says, "but I don't want them to think I'm breathing down their necks." Those who just get a kick out of looking are welcome to dawdle -- and do, she says.

Like her predecessors, Ms. Coil carries a wide selection of real gifts, with new emphasis on bath items, beaded purses and jewelry by small design firms.

She recommends Oprah's favorite "Lug bag," a multi-pocketed nylon wonder, as a travel carry-on. And she can hardly keep the clever purse hanger in stock. Though her strongest demographic is middle-aged women and girls, she says, "4 to 94, we try to have something for everyone."

Customers earn a 10-percent credit on every purchase. On Valentine's Day they get the year's worth in the form of a handwritten certificate for merchandise credit.

"The community feel" of the shop is the best part of her seven-day-a-week job, says Ms. Coil. Not only does she know customers by name, but "the Chicago-Dempster Merchants Association are all very supportive."

Possibilities aims to make shopping easy. She says it is not unusual for regular store customers to stop in en route to a birthday party. They know they will find a gift - and complimentary wrapping. Even neighbors take advantage of online ordering at www.possibilitiesshop.com.

But despite its good manners, Possibilities' has not lost its funk.

Take the goose lamp Ms. Coil says predates even Mmes. Lurie and Lesch. She spotted one in a 1978 photo and has sold four in the last month.

Some other old favorites still draw chuckles. Squeeze one of the fine art pillows for the sound effects -- the Mona Lisa giggles, and Michelangelo's God and Adam extend their reach to the tune of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."

Here, where fame invites political incorrectness, Diana Windsor's driver's license/ID - like Elvis's - is good for a laugh but no drink.

But for truly bad taste it is hard to beat the gum. The Next to the Last Supper flavor, wrapped in the painting and sporting a "King of the Chews" slogan, "did well when ‘The DaVinci Code' was out," says Ms. Coil. Dum Gum, certified "Idiot Proof" and bearing a picture of George Bush, is a current hot seller.

There are gifts of good cheer -- a book called "The Breakup Repair Kit" -- and congratulations -- the huge "Diamond Bling" key chain Ms. Coil ties onto every wedding gift she gives.

The prospective party guests settle on the toys Ms. Coil calls "jitter critters" for the birthday boy, who loves mechanical things. "We've been selling them for years," says Ms. Coil, as she sends each little wire wind-up across the counter to do its buggy dance.

"People need laughs," says the husband, waxing nostalgic for the remote-controlled fart machine he once bought here.

Possibilities can bring out the 8-year-old in anyone.

The Preservation Scene in Evanston

This iron fence in the 1400 block of Ridge Avenue is designated as an Evanston landmark.

By Mary Brugliera

In March 1994 the City Council unanimously approved the Preservation Ordinance.  (The whole document is available on the City's website, www.cityofevanston.org.)

This ordinance established the following: a Preservation Commission of 11 members; standards for binding review by the Commission of construction, alteration and  demolition projects proposed for houses or structures that are landmarks or are located within historic districts; standards and processes for nominating landmarks and historic districts; and processes for appeals of Commission decisions to the City Council.

The ordinance also includes a list of current landmarks.  There are approximately 800 of them in Evanston, from the Grosse Point Lighthouse to a Luxembourg farmhouse to the iron fence in the 1400 block of Ridge Avenue to the Charles Dawes house (current home of the Evanston History Center).  The Lighthouse and the Dawes House are among only a few hundred National Historic Landmarks.

Evanston has six historic districts - Lakeshore, Ridge, Thematic Apartment House and Northeast Evanston - also on the National Register of Historic Places, a largely honorary designation.  This Register is maintained by the National Park Service under the Department of the Interior. 

The two other districts are only on the National Register:  Oakton, and a northeastern corner of the Northeast Evanston district. 

Some residents of these two neighborhoods did not want to be designated as Evanston districts, as they objected to the binding review aspects of the Evanston ordinance.

Evanston's Preservation Ordinance and the binding review by the Commission apply only to locally designated landmarks and structures within the historic districts.  Thus the two National Register districts have no real protection. Buildings in these two can be dramatically altered or torn down whenever and however the owners wish.  There are a few Evanston landmarks within these two National Register districts, and those, of course, are subject to Commission review.

It is possible to find out whether a house or apartment building or store is in a historic district, or is a landmark, by calling up its address on the GIS part of the City's website. 

Two notes of interest: Through May there is a free exhibit on preservation in Chicago in the atrium of the Santa Fe building at 224 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago (on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Street, next  door to Orchestra Hall).  Entitled "Do We Dare Squander Chicago's Architectural Heritage?" the exhibit gives a very interesting history of all kinds of preservation efforts, beginning in the mid-1960s.

Closer to home, mark the calendar for 10 a.m. on May 10, when the Chicago Architecture Foundation will premiere its new Evanston Downtown tour.  The tour, given every Wednesday and Saturday, will start on the steps of the Evanston Public Library.  For more information on fees and dates, go to www.architecture.org.