Good Monday morning, Evanston.
If you are a consumer of news like your friends at the RoundTable, perhaps you opened up the Chicago Tribune online or at the table and saw the headline about Evanston in the editorial section. It highlights a very serious issue that we in Evanston are going through: “Evanston can’t be so rough on its city manager that no one wants the job.”
There may be some valid points in the editorial, many of which Evanstonians have brought up this past year as we enter our third search for a city manager. That’s why the RoundTable hosted the recent town hall with the city to foster more discussion about the process. But if the Chicago Tribune wanted to counsel Evanston, why take clever but needlessly snide potshots at their neighbor to the north? It doesn’t sit well when you start by writing, “Evanston, where contention floats through the air” and calling our City Council members “cantankerous.” We respectfully respond to this editorial with a wag of the finger, ask you to park the high-handed attitude and #DobetterChicagoTrib. Now, on to other news.
Police are still looking for information about last week’s murder of Servando L. Hamros, 29, while the family is trying to raise funds to defray the funeral costs for the father of two. Hamros’ father, Servando Camargo, set up a GoFundMe page two days ago, according to the site, saying his son and his younger 6-year-old daughter were playing Pokémon GO, the mobile phone treasure hunt game, when they were approached by the gunman on July 14.
The latest episode of the Evanston Rules podcast features Cedric Singletary, who founded the Facebook page “You Know You From Evanston When.” He discusses his perceptions of the duality of Evanston and how his experiences growing up in Evanston have influenced him. Being a self-described underdog, Cedric tells hosts Laurice Bell and Ron Whitmore about the resilience modeled by his elders and how those experiences made him who he is.
COVID-19 by the numbers: 36 new cases were reported Thursday, July 14, the last day the city updated totals. The seven-day average is 41.9 cases per day.
Elsewhere on the RoundTable website
The Art of Making Art: Beth Adler. Beth Adler is an artist and printmaker who works primarily on paper. Recently she incorporated cyanotype into her printmaking methods. Cyanotype is an alternative photography process using chemicals and sunlight.
“Dear Jack, Dear Louise opens at Northlight Theatre,” and our reviewer describes the two-act rom-com by Ken Ludwig about his parents’ courtship during World War II as “charming.” The show will run at Northlight through Aug. 7.
A look back at 100 Levy Lectures. RoundTable reporter Wendi Kromash highlights some of the 100 Levy Lectures presented by the Levy Senior Center, which she has organized since January 2017. With the June 28 lecture by Northwestern Prof. Tracy Vaughn-Manley being the last presentation of 2022, Kromash asks readers to “treasure the intellectual, emotional, financial and political power of the seniors who live among us.”
Letter to the Editor: District 65, please follow the Open Meetings Act. Jonathan Baum rejects the reasoning given by Superintendent Devon Horton for why last week’s Evanston/Skokie School District 65 meeting was closed to the public. “Sadly, this is hardly the first time this board and superintendent have essentially blown off the Open Meetings Act,” he writes.
At This Time. Art lovers of all ages study the work of 50 painters who took part in Evanston’s first Plein Air Art Festival. Artists planted their easels around the city this week and then exhibited their work at a competition Sunday in Fountain Square. About 300 people voted on their favorites.
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Around the web
Mayoral ally tapped for CPS board, pushing out member against city’s plan for new Chinatown school. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday she plans to appoint former Ald. Michael Scott Jr., whose father Michael Scott Sr. served as president of the Chicago Public Schools board from 2001 until his death in 2009. His appointment will push out current board member Dwayne Truss, who opposed a Lightfoot-supported proposal to build a new $120 million high school in the South Loop last month.
John Froines, chemist and anti-war activist put on trial with the Chicago 7, dies at 83. Known for being a defendant in the trial of protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention, Froines died Wednesday at the age of 83 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., according to his daughter. After his acquittal on all charges in 1970, he went on to become a renowned chemist, professor, environmental activist, and even a federal bureaucrat.
“Systemic failures” in Uvalde shooting went far beyond local police, Texas House report details. A Texas House committee released a report Sunday on both the background of the shooter and the police response at Robb Elementary School. A total of 376 law enforcement officers responded to the school, “devoid of clear leadership, basic communications and sufficient urgency,” the report states.
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