Good morning, Evanston.
Yesterday, the Evanston Community Foundation announced Sol Anderson as its third President and CEO. Mr. Anderson most recently served as Executive Director for I Grow Chicago, a nonprofit in the south side Chicago community of Englewood, which works to eradicate the roots of violence. He has lived and/or worked in Evanston for the past 15 years; one of his earliest positions was serving as Youth Coordinator for the City of Evanston.
Mr. Anderson succeeds Elspeth Revere, who was Interim President and CEO after having taken over from Monique B. Jones in December 2020.
ECF is one of the largest grant-making foundations in Evanston, with over $30 million in assets. In 2020, ECF raised $4 million and distributed $4.3 million in grants to community nonprofits and small businesses as part of the Evanston Community Rapid Response Fund.
Publishing trends come and go, but the City’s Strategic Plan and Comprehensive General Plan – standard reference works for local officials contemplating land use and capital improvement decisions since the mid-1980s – are badly in need of updating, say City officials.
“I’ve kind of told people it looks to me like it’s from a different planet, not just a different era,” said Mayor Daniel Biss, about the Comprehensive General Plan, adopted in 2000.
“Good Days” by SZA played through a speaker at the Larimer Park picnic shelter as members of Evanston Fight for Black Lives collected books for the incarcerated at their “Tie-Dye and Book Drive” event this past Sunday afternoon. Julia Shoaf, Nia Williams, and Lauren Davis, who led the event, set up areas for donors to tie-dye shirts, read the latest issues of Womanly Magazine, and listen to a mix of R&B and pop music while they waited for Evanstonians to drop off more than 300 hundred books for Cook County prison.
Elsewhere on the RoundTable Website
Evanston Farmers’ Market Returns for the Summer. Nothing beats an Evanston summer: the lake, the music, the food, and of course, the crème de la crème, the Evanston Farmers’ Market. For 46 years, Evanston residents and visitors have relished, on sunny Saturday mornings throughout the summer, meandering through the maze of tents filled with flowers, fresh fruit, and handmade baked goods.
COVID-19 Update on June 22: No New Cases in Evanston in the Last 12 Days, 191 in the State Today. The weekly number of new cases per 100,000 people in Evanston, suburban Cook County, Chicago, and the State are each at or below 13 and the test-positivity rates in each region are at or below 0.9%. The low rates indicate that the amount of testing in each region is adequate. The number of people in the State who are being vaccinated continues to grow, but at a very slow pace.
Ridgeville Park District Thanks Ann Rainey
Linda Ann Barr, founder and principal of The Fix It Company, a remodeling and handyman business, passed away last month after a courageous battle with cancer. Linda loved Evanston, and to some, was the unofficial Mayor of Evanston with the happiness the town brought her over the years.
Frances Willard House Reopens July 1st. The Frances Willard House Museum will reopen for tours starting Thursday, July 1. The house has new procedures in place to welcome visitors in a way that is safe and manageable for visitors and staff. Tours will be available by reservation only during normal business hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
Around the Web
- Large swath of Wisconsin coastline designated a marine sanctuary to protect historic Lake Michigan shipwrecks. The designation, subject to congressional approval, will protect 36 shipwrecks, 21 of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.
- What will become of the pandemic pets? The author reminds us that a pet is an animal that lives in a home, has a name, that we don’t eat, and muses about what owning animals really means.
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