There are three classic commercial districts in Evanston, The Main-Dempster Mile, Central Street, and Downtown Evanston. Evanston is where the best of urban and suburban living come together. I am an Evanston native and have lived in Evanston for most of my life (I am currently in my 20s). Furthermore, their decision to demolish the Harley Clarke mansion at the behest of a privately funded group of neighbors is equally troubling I certainly don't have faith in their ability to mold anything. But overall, the other mid/high-rises look exactly like the type of character-ruining developments I'm afraid of. I'm all for reasonable in-fill and some of the low-rise projects do look quite nice. Neighborhood vs municipality aside, I've not been impressed by the Evanston's city council's seemingly alder-manic style approach to rubber stamping many of the projects (perhaps too many). The Maple and both Oak Ave developments look particularly out of sync here. A few of these are just glorified towers-on-a-parking-podium (a la South Loop or West Loop), which are a huge buzz-kill for any city aesthetic, in my opinion. I hope you're right, but this approved list doesn't exactly seem to sway me. So Evanston is in far better shape to mold itself the way it wants to be than the West Loop is. Evanston is a municipality the West Loop is a neighborhood. The city council has been pretty tight on how it regulates height and density and a number of high profile plans were nixed by the city.Įvanston obviously differs from the West Loop. In short, it's a great town, but I wasn't ready to go long on it.Ĭall me naive, but do not see the West Loop thing happen in DT Evanston. There's a real concern that some of the new proposed developments (which are getting taller, and more massive), are going to kill the ambiance of the downtown: canonization could stymie the walk-able ambiance that exists today, becoming sort of like a LOOP or LaSalle Street. Basically, it runs the risk of becoming a victim of it's own success. I worry that Evanston will go the way of the West Loop: too much of a good thing, leading to developers ruining a good thing. The other concern I have is about the future of downtown, itself. I understand property taxes go largely to school funding, but I don't think district 65 and 202 are really up to par based the assessments. The city earns the dubious distinction of having Illinois' highest property taxes. On the other hand, Evanston's property taxes are horrendous: it's part of the reason why home prices are relatively "cheap." You can find a quality single-family home in Evanston for under $700k, and nice condos for less than $300k, but what you save in flat price, you'll lose in taxes. Basically, it checks a lot of boxes for folks looking to have the best of both worlds: urban + suburban. For me: it's just the right amount of density. On the one hand, it's an ideal inner-ring suburb: close to Chicago, wonderfully-diverse housing stock, thriving downtown, and access to light-rail. It's an area I seriously considered moving to, before settling on Chicago itself. In my heart, I love it, but I have concerns.
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