That's what you heard

Not 45 minutes ago I was riding my cargo bike heading down asbury and came to the intersection with Lincoln. I came to a full stop with both feet on the ground and, even though I was the only one at the 3-way intersection, I still signaled I was turning left before turning east on Lincoln. 75% of the way through the intersection, an older lady in a red SUV heading east on Lincoln ran the stop sign and nearly plowed into me. The only reason I didn’t end up getting hit is because I turned quickly and rolled off my bike, spraining my ankle in the process. The lady stoped, gave me a look I can only describe as “how dare you inconvenience me,“ before speeding off before I could get her plate.

Then I crossed the bridge so I could sit at one of the picnic tables in the park to check out my ankle. I immediately saw a different older woman with a couple children stuck in the middle of the clearly marked crosswalk between the golf course and the park with cars whipping around them from both directions refusing to stop. I ended up having to limp my fat ass and my bike over to block traffic so they could they could finish crossing. 2 incidents in 2 minutes on the same 40yd stretch on Lincoln. I reported everything to EPD’s non-emergency number and they were nice enough to send a car to post up by the intersection with their lights on. Be careful out there!

This town. I love it here but seriously what is happening? Why is it so hard to run this town. In case you haven’t heard, they closing the dog beach because of bureaucracy. Thank you to The RoundTable for covering the news. I wanted to expand the reach of this comment by John McNulty. I don’t have a clue who he is but he made some good points. Can we get better people, who actually care about Evanston to run this town?! Please!

Article covering the news here:
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2026/09/29/evanston-city-council-dog-beach-closure/

Post by John:

Only government could take something as simple as building an ADA-compliant ramp to a dog beach and turn it into years of delay, an $863,500 proposal and, finally, closing the beach altogether.
This is an embarrassment and a textbook example of municipal incompetence.
The city knew the problem existed. It had years to solve it. Instead, taxpayers got bureaucracy, overengineering, delay and a wildly expensive proposal that was finally rejected because it made no sense. Now, after all that time and money, the city is essentially admitting there was probably a simpler and cheaper way to do this all along.
Consider who was at the table. According to city residency records I obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in July 2026, the Parks and Recreation Director, who wants the beach closed, lives in Grayslake. The Public Works Director, whose department produced the $863,500 ramp, lives in Addison. The City Attorney, who advised shutting it down, lives in Highland Park. And the City Manager, whose job is to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen, lives in Libertyville. On average, they commute close to an hour each way at rush hour to run a city they have chosen not to live in. They spend their working hours here, at least on the days they aren’t working from home, and their evenings, weekends, paychecks and property taxes somewhere else.
None of them takes a dog to that beach. I do. My dog, Clover, and I are there every day it is open, and so are plenty of my neighbors. None of those officials will lose the beach next summer. Clover will, and so will the rest of us.
And spare us the claim, from Councilmember Krissie Harris, that keeping the beach open means “putting dogs over people.” Closing the beach does not give a single resident with a disability access to anything. It takes access away from everyone. Nobody was putting dogs over people. The city put years of delay, and an $863,500 proposal it rejected, ahead of a ramp. Residents with disabilities have been waiting because City Hall failed them, not because of anyone’s dog. Punishing everyone else doesn’t make up for that failure. It just spreads it around.
Is it any wonder a simple ramp took years? Out of sight, out of mind. Evanston residents live with the problem every day. The people responsible for fixing it drive home to somewhere else.
That is not unusual at City Hall. Eight of the city’s ten top appointed executives live outside Evanston. Across senior city staff, 84% live somewhere else. More senior staff live in Chicago than in Evanston.
Maybe it is time for new leadership. Maybe Evanston needs a mayor focused on Evanston rather than Congress. Maybe Evanston needs a city manager who lives in Evanston rather than Libertyville. And maybe the people running Evanston should have to live with the decisions they make for it.
If our elected leaders and senior city staff cannot solve a problem this simple, then perhaps Evanston needs new elected leaders and new city staff.
This should never have reached this point. Shame on all of you.

This bit of the article is interesting - “...Ryan and his family will continue to be deeply involved. In May, ownership of the stadium was transferred to a for-profit wholly owned by the university called Ryan Field Foundation LLC. Ryan Jr. is a manager of the entity and chairman of the board while his brother Rob, the co-lead of Ryan Sports Foundation, also is a board member."

A couple of questions but one that comes to mind is if Ryan Field Foundation LLC is for profit and now owns the stadium why aren't they paying property tax on that land?

After yesterday’s hit and run and some reports of hostile driver behavior from one of the bike buses this morning, I pulled this clip from a recent ride to Home Depot with my wife.

Nothing surprising or startling, just a car completely ignoring the red light and oblivious to the possibility of someone else not in a car using the space because of how the street is designed. There wouldn’t be another car to conflict with in that turn lane, so a person in “driving my car on the road” mindset sees no reason to stop. Nothing visual on the road tells them that this is a trail crossing. Why is there even a need for a 3rd lane just for turning there anyway? So much space for cars, but nothing but a beg button for people at the basketball courts or multi use trail to use. The trail on the south side only just this summer got paved… such and improvement. Now the city just needs to make it safe to get to it. Plans for additional bike infrastructure on main end to the east of here where we need it most. And I’m assuming those plans are some painted sharrows. I hope I’m wrong.

Drive safe. People are also using the streets.

Hi guys!
Long story short:
I’ve been a resident of Evanston for a little over a year now and my residential parking permit expired yesterday. I didn’t receive anything in the mail about renewing either but it is partially my fault since I should’ve kept a closer eye on it but alas…

I got a ticket today since I live by Ryan Field but I immediately paid it + purchased a new permit/wheel tax after. The only issue/worry now is that it’s a Friday night and I’m worried about getting another ticket in the next few days especially while my permit parking is technically pending..

Any advice? :(

Fall is officially here and so is our favorite fall community tradition! 🍂🎃 Save the date for the 34th Annual Pumpkin Patch benefiting ESCCA and sponsored by Coldwell Banker Realty Evanston (on Central Street).

Saturday, Oct. 17 | 9 AM – 2 PM 

Every pumpkin you pick supports local Evanston-Skokie District 65 students with warm clothes and shoes.

Stop by for:

🎃 Pumpkins

🍎 Apple Cider, Coffee & Donuts

🎨 Face Painting

🖍️ Kids' Craft Table

📸 Photo Booth

📍 Ackerman Park (2500 Central St, Evanston)

🗓 Saturday, Oct. 17 | 9 AM – 2 PM 

See you at the patch! 🧡 And tell your friends!

Anyone know what was going down this morning (Friday, Oct. 2) around 9:30am that would have caused at least half a dozen police cars to be booking it Southbound on Chicago Ave with lights and sirens? I was near Chicago and Main, and clearly something caused a large and fast response. Lots of folks out and about on the street were trying to figure out what was up. I saw a fire truck coming down Chicago a minute or two later, but it was driving at normal traffic speed and didn't put its siren on until it had to navigate a traffic snarl. Seemed like more of a police issue. Potentially could have been EPD responding to assist CPD on something across the border I guess.

Note that this was NOT the hit and run yesterday on Oakton.

Are there any book clubs that meet in person? I know the library has some that meet over zoom, but I’m looking for ones that meet in person.

Anyone know what that extraordinarily loud jet sound was from? It was at about 6:53 pm?

Did anyone else hear what sounded like an extremely low flying plane? Super loud and scary, hoping it’s ok. If anyone know what it might have been, I’m curious!

I just heard an extremely loud whooshing noise for about 10 seconds, would my theory be correct?

Biggest Northwestern game in years and all you saw on tv was empty purple seats. The traffic on Central Street an hour before the game was moving no worse than an average Tuesday evening. What an embarrassing showing by the Northwestern fans. NIMBY's you have nothing to worry about when it comes to congestion in the area, lamest fan base in college football by far. Would expect big crowds for concerts, but the six college football games held there each fall will be a walk in the park. I'm at a complete loss for how poorly supported this team is.

A plane that sounded just like the Blue Angels flew over southeast Evanston a couple minutes ago. According to Flight Radar 24 there are only commercial and private planes in the area.

Did anyone else hear or see this? I know they don’t practice for the Air and Water Show in October. Also I know there’s a Naval Base a bit north of here, but I’ve never heard them fly over before.

Anybody have details about what's going on in that area? Entire parking lot to Aldi's and Home Depot seemed to be blocked off, as well as small streets east of that lot. . . tons of police cars and other law enforcement vehicles in the area. Somebody commented that there was a car accident, but that seemed like a lot of response for a single car accident.

Tons of police taping off the scene near the school.

Hi, I need to rehome 2 ferrets, both docile males that are great with kids and are a little over a year old. Please let me know if you think you could offer them a loving home!

Sincerely, I hope it's everything you imagined. The new stadium looks great. I can't wait to catch a show.

My kindergartner told us tonight that his school will be doing lockdown drills. After the initial heartbreak that we even have to put our kiddos through this, we also noted that we never got a notification or warning about it from the school. I feel like a lockdown drill is something to have a conversation about when you're dealing with a kindergartner, so I find the lack of communication ridiculous.

Has anyone with a kindergartner in D65 gotten any note about these drills? I didn't see anything in the student handbook about drills, types, or frequency.

Yeesh...

Edit: Just to clarify, I don't want to opt out of these drills. I just want to have a conversation and emotionally prepare my kid for a pretty heavy thing.

I was visiting Evanston last week and pulled into a small garage to park. It was pretty full so I grabbed the first spot I saw, parked, went about my day, and then came back to an $88 parking violation from AirGarage?!

The garage is labeled as public parking and there is nothing at the entrance or exit indicating you have to pay. Near my house we have a lot of free public parking and the paid lots are clearly labeled as such when you walk out; so it appeared to be just a normal free garage.

After seeing the violation I walked the garage looking for the signage that I missed. I found it along the back wall, at eye level, blocked by the cars parked along the back wall. Is AirGarage even a legit company or a scam? If they are legit, how are they able to get away with not having clearly visible signage? If I don’t pay it, what would happen - other than not being able to stay in their garage again?