Central Street Neighbors Association Est. 2007

CSNA would like to thank all who sincerely participated in the survey we ran in May on how residents feel about some of the basic choices confronting the city. The response was nearly overwhelming for a volunteer organization. However, we have been able to compile the responses and are issuing a preliminary report, downloadable below.

The findings won't be surprising to any longtime observer of Evanston. The short takeaways are as follows:

As many know (but many still don't), Evanston is advancing a comprehensive plan makeover that will set standards for zoning and development decisions for the next 20 years, affecting residential neighborhoods, business districts like those on Central Street, and more. This Envision Evanston 2045 process, however, never asked Evanston residents some underlying questions about overall desired community size and direction. Bigger? Smaller? Taller? More urban? More suburban? Or is the porridge just right? To help fill some of these gaps, please take this survey. It's about a dozen substantive questions and should take only 5-10 minutes or less. Feel free to forward to other Evanston residents. To prevent manipulation in an online age, and limit responses to Evanston residents, we do ask for name and address. Thank you in advance!

Evanston Population, Density, and Development Survey (click to open)

A staple of spring in north Evanston for many years is the annual Garden Fair, tho participating organizations and locations have varied. This Saturday, May 17, from 9am to 4pm at Ackerman Park (Central St.

Despite what seemed like some hot division over direction of both the City of Evanston and its elementary school system, a large majority of voters in Evanston last week elected to sit not just on the fence but on the couch. The Cook County Clerk counts over 52,000 registered Evanston voters on the county rolls. Only 33.5% of them voted. However, the results are interesting.

For decades, Central Street has been home to ice cream,  fitting for a town that claims to have invented the sundae. Hartigan's at 2909 Central, a must-stop at least once a summer for every youth sports family, has been dishing it out since 1996, and old-timers will remember when it was a Baskin-Robbins before that.

Say "CSNA" and many will think mainly of civic issues, but we've always been more than that. Of all the content posted here over the years, possibly the most-visited, with over 100,000 views of the various pages, has been Jeff Smith's 2008 collection of about two dozen native plant species suited to partial or very shady gardens in Evanston. These include, at last look, American bittersweet, Black snakeroot (a/k/a black cohosh; bugbane), bloodroot, Canadian wild ginger, cardinal flower, celandine poppy, Culver's root, false Solomon's-seal, foamflower, goatsbeard, great blue lobelia, jack-in-the-pulpit, Jacob's-ladder, May apple, meadow anemone, midland shooting star, ostrich ferns, prairie dropseed, prairie trillium, Solomon's-seal, spotted joe-pye weed, violets, and Virginia bluebells.

Check out our "book" here:

For those who need an hour or two more of research before voting today, the last hour of the CSNA mayoral debate (sorry, cameraperson missed first 25 min.) is on YouTube here and the full 90 minutes of the CSNA 6th/7th aldermanic (Councilmember) forum, albeit from a side angle, is on YouTube here.

In Evanston, Illinois, running “against Trump” is an easy shot. Minimal risk for a candidate. Evanston voted overwhelmingly Democratic, and likely even most “Trump voters” aren’t even fans but voting on party basis. So if you can get most of the Harris voters, you win, right? Heck, on a nearby block the other day I counted more Harris-Walz signs up than for all municipal candidates combined. However, this easy shot in a deep blue town is also a cheap shot, because to campaign as if Trump is the opponent suggests that an opponent is in the Trump camp. In the April 1, 2025 election -- tomorrow, as I write this -- that’s just not true. Here's why.

Each candidate for mayor of Evanston returned a short questionnaire CSNA sent them in advance of tomorrow's forum (Tue., Mar. 4, 2025, 7-8:30 pm at 2715 Hurd). Click to view or download their responses.

Daniel Biss

Jeff Boarini

All four candidates for Councilmember in Evanston's two northernmost wards returned a short questionnaire CSNA sent in advance of tomorrow's forum (7-8:30 pm at Northminster Church). Click to view or download their responses.

Parielle Davis (7th Ward)

Parielle Davis (7th Ward)

Kerry Mundy (7th Ward)

Kerry Mundy (7th Ward)

Tom Suffredin (6th Ward)

Tom Suffredin (6th Ward)

Candance Chow (6th Ward)

Candance Chow (6th Ward)