In September 2019, the City Manager of Evanston left his position (after 10 years) for another position. Voters and officials knew well in advance of his leaving that we would need to find a new City Manager. Many public discussions were had, both before September and after, with voters making it clear at every opportunity […]
Evanston, IL
The second part of this email contains a “Citizen Comment” that I submitted to the Evanston City Council in November 2019. The first part of this email provides some context for why I am sharing this now, in June 2020. I submit this to all of you — fellow Evanstonians — as my contribution to […]
The night before Earth Day 2020, filmmaker Michael Moore made a surprise announcement about the release of a new film. The film is Planet of the Humans, directed by Jeff Gibbs, with Moore as Executive Producer and author/scholar, Ozzie Zehner, as Producer. The U.S. climate movement hasn’t been the same since — a good thing, […]
Author/activist Naomi Klein made an interesting observation recently, during one of her many “stay at home” teach-ins and interviews during this 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Passover having just ended, she likened the last 40 years — 1980-2020 — to the Jews’ 40 years of wandering in the desert. A similar observation is posted on the homepage […]
On April 9, 2020, the Public Banking Institute released a short and pithy economic relief plan for real people (not corporate “people”) and local economies. In its Open Letter to Congress, PBI outlines four immediate actions. Last night (April 13, 2020) during a City Council meeting (being held virtually because of social distancing), I made […]
On April 5, 2020, I sent this email to 50+ residents and business owners in my hometown — Evanston, Illinois. The email was a cover letter to my proposal for getting some quick cash to all Evanston residents during this first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal is in a separate blog:COVID Cash: Emergency […]
How local community banks can turn into temporary “public” banks, for the benefit of everyone. U.S. people and local economies are going to be in need of a lot of emergency cash in the next few months. The 2020 growing season is just getting started for U.S. farmers in the Upper Midwest. We need to […]
On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the Governor of the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on ON-SITE CONSUMPTION of food & drink for all Illinois food businesses—grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, bars, etc. The moratorium is currently scheduled to continue through March 30. Of course, the situation around COVID 19 is completely fluid no matter what time […]