CONTENTS: Four new blogs + 2 news items on the following topics:— Local Foods— Participatory Budgeting— Universal Basic Income— Lakefront Misconduct Report TO: — Evanston voters, media, political groups, businesses, activists, institutions— Residents in my neighborhood (Nichols Neighbors)— Some non-Evanston voters with Evanston connections & interests Hi, all —I don’t know how much more energy I’ll […]
Public Trust
I’m sure most of us in Evanston are relieved to have some closure on the sexual misconduct at City lakefront operations. Knowing how these kinds of trauma work their way through survivors’ lives, I would not be surprised if more information surfaces, even years from now. But having read the report (released in Feb. 2022) […]
In 2009-10, I was lucky enough to learn about Participatory Budgeting as a way to promote real democracy. I was doubly lucky to learn from the first PB project initiated by a U.S. municipal official, the 49th Ward of Chicago where Alderman Joe Moore and his wife, Barb Moore, spearheaded the process. Evanstonians know the […]
Happy 2022, all. A reminder that this is an ELECTION YEAR and that the Illinois primary is later than it used to be: June 28, 2022 (instead of in spring). The filing deadline is March 14, 2022. The general election is Nov. 8, 2022. It looks like most of Evanston’s elected officials are running again […]
I was not planning to send out a newsletter today, but thanks to Mary Rosinski for alerting Evanstonians to the City Council vote on the 5/5 TIF District tomorrow (Oct. 25, 2021). Luckily we have some good, hyper-current resources for you to read (including a blog that I wrote in September but wasn’t able to […]
There are two items in this newsletter, one short, one long. The short item has some practical tips for preparing our Evanston land for the winter—and for next year’s growing season and beyond. The other, longer item contains some practical tips for rethinking our local, statewide, and national feminist strategy — a rethinking that is […]
We made a big mistake. I’m sorry; 20th century feminist strategy was way off base. On the other hand, to give my 70-year old self some slack, I never resonated with the mainstream feminist strategy of my generation — the Equal Rights Amendment. When it was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the […]
Evanston, Illinois is in a crisis of public trust. The root causes of this crisis are thousands of years old (erosion of women’s personal and public authority), hundreds of years old (moral and logical contradictions in the U.S. Constitution), decades old (acceleration of climate disruption and economic disparities), compounded by national and global events of […]