FOIA Gras Third Ward Voter Guide

With no incumbent in the race, it's what the wrestling people call a "triple threat match"

If you want to skip directly to the third ward voter guide, click here. If you scroll to the bottom, ChatGPT provides a summary of the answers.

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Good Morning! Welcome to the day I flood your inboxes with the final burst of election coverage. You can expect:

• Evanston Third Ward Voter Guide (three questions)

• District 65 Voter Guide (eight questions)

• Evanston Sixth Ward Voter Guide (three questions)

• District 65 Endorsements (from a Northwestern Professor, and others)

In the case of candidates, I sent a brief questionnaire with meaty questions relevant to their race that other venues hadn’t asked and might generate newsworthy discussions. Anyway, onto the third ward.

Evanston Third Ward

Evanston’s third ward is on the lower right hand side of the City, east of Chicago Avenue and mostly south of Dempster. It is a combination of dense (actually affordable) housing, single family homes, duplexes, and giant mansions. The center pieces of the neighborhood are Lincoln Elementary School, Brothers K Coffeeshop, Sea Ranch, FOIA Gras Global Headquarters, and SPACE. The main issues impacting residents are transit, schools, development, and parking.

The previous City Councilmember, Melissa Wynne, who served since 1997 is retiring at the end of her term, so there is no incumbent in this race.

Here’s are the three questions I presented to candidates:

1. Lot 1: On the south side of the 3rd ward, near the cemetery is Lot 1. It's a parking lot that is next to subsidized housing. The City sold the lot to the HACC, who has plans to develop the lot. The HACC also forced out a long term resident, allegedly using a battering ram to kick in the door and evict the resident. The HACC has plans to construct very ugly housing and none of the neighbors I've spoken with support this development. What's your position on the development of Lot 1?

2. Transit: The 3rd Ward is one of the most transit-blessed neighborhoods in America, However most residents will attest that the quality of service on the L and the Metra has declined since COVID, and given the current budget constraints issues with the CTA ($577m deficit), isn't going to get better. Given development plans (like Lot 1), how can the City Council work with other governmental agencies (ie the CTA) to mitigate these risks and improve service/accessibility?

3. District 65: D65 was mostly left out of the negotiations involving the new stadium. I think this is a real missed opportunity to build something like the Kalamazoo Promise or at least fund the Foster School. In what ways can the City Council help bridge a better relationship between the City, the public schools and Northwestern?

You can view their answers to the questions on this PDF.

TLDR, Let the Robot do the Work

If you don’t feel like reading the whole PDF, I plugged their answers into ChatGPT and asked it to summarize their “their general worldview, politics and positions.” It provided me with the following answers, which I think are surprisingly accurate for this race.

• Shawn Iles: A progressive advocate for affordable housing and public transit, Iles prioritizes sustainability, social equity, and leveraging city assets to address community needs while emphasizing collaboration and systemic reforms.

• John Kennedy: A pragmatist focused on local control and fiscal responsibility, Kennedy is skeptical of large-scale developments, critical of Northwestern’s tax-exempt status, and prioritizes neighborhood interests over outside influences.

• Gennifer Geer: A transparency-driven reformer, Geer supports development with strong public accountability, favors creative funding solutions for transit, and seeks stronger collaboration between the city, schools, and Northwestern to maximize community benefits.

Early voting starts on Monday. Good luck to everyone!