Good Tuesday morning, Evanston.
The City of Evanston lifted its vaccine and mask mandates on Monday, the same day Evanston Township High School District 202 lifted its mask mandate and Northwestern University shifted to a mask-optional model in most administrative and non-classroom communal spaces.
However, despite the more relaxed guidelines, most Evanston shoppers and diners continued to wear masks, as did many of the students exiting the high school at day’s end.
In a 7-0 vote, Evanston City Council members on Monday approved Mayor Daniel Biss’s appointment and Juan Geracaris was sworn in to fill the Ninth Ward City Council seat. He is believed to be the first member of the city’s Latino community to serve on the council.
COVID by the numbers: Four new cases were reported Sunday, Feb. 27, the last day the city updated case totals. The seven-day average is 11 cases per day.
Elsewhere on the RoundTable website
Art installations, sunsets and s’mores at Evanston Made’s Winter Wonderland. Decorated with ornaments and art installations, the trees on the Canal Shores Golf Course have never appeared more glamorous. Evanston Made transformed the golf course into a Winter Wonderland.
The week in photos: Feb. 21-28. Our hearts break for the people of Ukraine, and the fear and pain they are feeling. Remembering Ukrainians he encountered on a trip to Ukraine, Mike Roche submitted a photo he took in Kyiv in 2017.
At This Time: Monday at 2:45 p.m. History makers Morris “Dino” Robinson Jr. and Jenny Thompson show a document they used to write a report that won a prestigious award from the National Council on Public History. They were named the nation’s top public historians for their detailed summary of racial discrimination. It helped Evanston create the reparations program. (Photo by Richard Cahan)
Members of library Black outreach group resign over denial of stipend. At the Feb. 16 Evanston Library Board meeting, library trustees were told that almost all the members of a committee formed to aid in the purchase of materials for the Black community have resigned after the group was denied compensation for its work.
Good to Go is here to stay, despite challenges. After 20 years of cooking up their beloved Jamaican cuisine, husband and wife team Tony and Lenice Levy say the key to working together has been understanding one another’s strengths and weaknesses.
NU Hearing Aid study seeking participants. In the U.S., only 20% of the 30 million adults over the age of 65 suffering from hearing loss purchase and use hearing aids. But Northwestern’s Auditory Research Laboratory is working on a joint patient-centered hearing aid trial and recruiting new qualified participants.
Levy Lecture: Jennifer Armstrong discusses women who invented television. Journalist and author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, a self-described “professional TV nerd,” is an expert on pop culture, the history of television and a few iconic television programs. She presented the Feb. 22 Levy Lecture.
NU Dance Marathon returns for in-person event after 2-year hiatus. Nearly 1,000 Northwestern undergraduates will trade a weekend of studying for 30 hours of dancing at Dance Marathon 2022.
Guest essay: Bill aims to improve school lunches for those who need them most. Tim Sonder, co-leader of Edible Evanston, writes that the Better School Lunches Act would expand access to higher quality school meals for low-income and minority students while opening up opportunities for farm-to-school initiatives.
Join our team: The Evanston RoundTable is growing! Check out our jobs page for opportunities in editorial, development and advertising sales.
Become a member!
We look to you, our most loyal readers, to support our mission to report news that strengthens and enlightens our community, encourages civic engagement and bolsters our democracy.
Over 90% of our funding comes from donations from readers like you and almost all of our expenses in 2021 were news gathering, reporting and publishing.
Many of you have made a financial gift to the RoundTable in the past year and we are so grateful for your support. If you have not yet done so, please consider joining this community of supporters!
Thank you to our recent supporters: Paula Cleave, Bob and Patti Crews, Julie Friend, Rosalie Greenberger, Sandi Johnson, Robert and Marian Kurz, Dennis Shea.
And thank you to companies matching employee gifts: Bank of America Charitable Foundation (Thomas Merkle) and Salesforce.com (Dan Chiss).
Around the web
The Daily Explains: What’s happening with economic development in Evanston? The city government is working with business districts to rejuvenate the economy and has approved over a dozen large-scale building developments over the past 18 months.
Black film at Block Cinema. The Block Cinema at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art is presenting a program of 12 experimental shorts that bring the bodies and spirit of Black people to the big screen.
These Chicago bars and restaurants are raising money to help Ukraine. A roundup of fundraisers in response to the Russian military invasion.
Like what you’re reading? Share it!
If you appreciate the RoundTable newsletter, please forward it to friends and suggest that they sign up!