Central Street Neighbors Association

I just wanted to remind our Central Street Neighbors that the 2008 Northwestern Football season begins this Saturday at 11am with a home game against Syracuse. The expected crowd for Saturday's game is about 25,000. Future home games for this season are:

September 13th vs Southern Illinois University at 11am
September 20th vs Ohio University at 11am
October 11th vs Michigan State University (Game time TBA)
October 18th vs Purdue University at 11am
November 8th vs Ohio State University (Time TBA)
November 22nd vs Illinois (Time TBA)

The task of a citizen or property-owner seeking to overturn a municipal zoning or land-use decision has become a little more complicated, or a little easier, depending how you look at it, as a result of two laws passed in the last three years by the Illinois legislature.

Ultimately, the environmental effect of bike lanes will take more study, as pointed out in Joe's thoughtful post below and the comments that follow. But it does appear that they make traffic a little safer.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 contained an article out of San Francisco concerning an individual who argues that building bike lanes is, in fact, causing more polution. Bob Anderson has sued in state court and has effectively stopped the implementation of San Francisco's 527 page bike plan while an environmental-impact study, which is expected to take at least another year, is completed.

Over the last year, those who have been in favor of "development" (i.e., high-rise development) have oddly enough repeatedly used the term European to describe their vision. At the same time they have attacked the so-called fallen souffle look of Evanston.

Gun control arouses passions. But the Evanston City Council made the smart move in voting to modify its handgun ban. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling likely rendered Evanston's ordinance unconstitutional.

Some have argued that, because the Supreme Court case only dealt with Washington, D.C.'s ordinance, and the District of Columbia is not a state, that the reach of the decision is limited, and that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states. That's a risky position to take.

Have some thoughts about how Plan Commission meetings and the planning process could better serve the public? The Rules Committee of the Plan Commission together with City staff has posted a web page where the public can submit additional comments and suggestions about Plan Commission meetings. Go to http://www.cityofevanston.org/rulescommittee -- the link to provide comments is at the bottom of the web page.

The nonpartisan Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization ("IVI-IPO")'s Far North chapter will hold an endorsement session tonight at the Wilmette Library, 1242 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, offering residents an opportunity to compare multiple candidates up for election on Nov. 4. At 7 pm, the group will consider the contested race for 17th Dist. State Representative between incumbent Republican Elizabeth Coulson and Democratic challenger Daniel Biss. At 7:30, the 9th Dist. State Senate race

As of this morning, only 1 of the last 8 scheduled meetings of the City Council Planning & Development Committee ("P&D") has its minutes published on the City website where they are normally listed. While the P&D meetings are open to the public,

With respect to the issue of height in the Core District and Central Core District (Fountain Square Block), the Plan Commission took the following actions last night: