Municipalities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and Skokie, Illinois, urged a federal judge on Friday to continue blocking aspects of Republican President Donald Trump‘s travel ban.
Thank you Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs for visiting Skokie's Arie Crown Hebrew Day School
Skokie Caucus Party 2016: A Party of Ideas & Ideals
The Mayor, Clerk and Trustees of the Village of Skokie join with other active members of the Skokie Caucus Party to discuss the past 3 years since the last election and look ahead.
Packed house at Skokie town hall on mental health
Last week marked the 16th annual town hall meeting in Skokie on mental health care, a gathering sponsored by Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center, which is a nonprofit outpatient provider serving Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Lincolnwood and Evanston.
For the first time, organizers said, the main auditorium in the Skokie Public Library was filled and an overflow crowd watched the Feb. 10 event by television in an adjacent room. Organizers said 230 people — mostly those who work in the health care field and community leaders — attended, more than double the count from last year.
“Each year at our town hall meeting, we welcome our community to this important discussion about mental health services and the political and economic factors that impact us all,” said Point CEO Ann Fisher Raney.
During the last few years, panelists have painted an especially bleak picture as they say critical funding for mental health services have been jeopardized by fiscal uncertainty and state and federal political tumult.
Turning Point CFO Marsha Hahn, who moderated the town hall, said that Turning Point had to decrease psychiatric services because of grants that failed to come through. Her comments came after it was mentioned that Lake County has a wait list of two to eight months for psychiatric services, depending on the site.
State Rep. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, said she serves as vice chair of the first mental health committee created in the Illinois House and promised to address this issue.
“We need to help our providers,” Fine said. “What’s very frightening to me about the pressures we’re putting on our not-for-profits is that we’re adding one more job to the list of things to do…We’re saying, ‘please perform these services but we’re going to use the money to pay something else right now and maybe we’ll get to you later.’ And that’s not fair.”
State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, called Springfield “a mess,” but he said he and state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, will oversee a project that focuses on mental health.
“(We) are about to undertake an entire look at the mental health system in the state of Illinois,” Lang said. “We are going to dismantle piece by piece and bolt by bolt and take a very long time to do it, but when we’re finished we’re going to have a better and more supportive health system in the state of Illinois.”
Leslie Combs, district director for U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9th District, said the congresswoman is committed to trying to protect the Affordable Care Act, which the president and other Republicans have said they want to repeal.
“Before the ACA was passed,” Combs said, “people died because they didn’t have insurance and that’s what will happen here.”
Combs acknowledged that there are elements of the act that need fixing, but, she said, the law should not be taken away.
“Mental health service costs could grow exponentially,” she said. “It would take away access to preventative treatment and create barriers for access for those most vulnerable who are also, as we know, disproportionately effected by mental health illness and substance abuse issues.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner was invited to the town hall meeting, organizers said, but he did not appear.
Some in the audience raised concerns that veterans with green cards are being deported after arrests related to mental health issues.
Combs said Schakowsky supports federal laws that prevent those who fought for this country from being deported.
“As a nation, we should be protecting those who we made promises to and who protected us and put their lives on the line,” added Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-13th District. “I think the thing to do is to just keep talking about it…You have to keep reminding us at every place where there’s a discussion that there is this group of people who have a unique bond to this country because of their service.”
Shout Out from Skokie Review: Former White House official Moe Vela visits Skokie
Moe Vela says he wears many hats — among them former White House official, Hispanic leader, author of “Little Secret Big Dreams,” motivational speaker, business leader and lawyer. According to his book, Vela became the first Hispanic American and first gay American to serve two senior executive roles in the White House. He recently visited Pharmore Drugs in Skokie.
Q: What were some of your roles at the White House?
A; I served during the Clinton administration as chief financial officer and senior adviser on Latino affairs in the office of Vice President Al Gore, and later during the Obama administration as director of administration for Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in the southern tip of Texas in a little town called Harlingen on the Mexican border.
Q: What was growing up in your hometown like?
A: I grew up Latino Catholic, son of a pioneer family. Going to Mass, my priest was telling me I couldn’t be who I knew I was. I knew I had a little secret since I was 4 years old. I knew I was gay.
Q: What is your book about?
A: My book is not about being gay. My book is about believing in yourself and persevering and understanding that every one of us, regardless of who we love, regardless of who we are, regardless of our religion, our culture, our heritage, that every one of us is worthy of our place at the table of life. That is the crux of the book.
Q: How did you get to Washington and play such an instrumental role?
A: I was working for a private corporation in Austin, Texas and one of my colleagues in passing said a friend is looking for talented people to go to Washington and work with her in the Clinton administration.
Q: What was your work with the Clinton administration?
A: I started at the Department of Agriculture of all places. Three years into the administration, we’re sitting in a bar and a dear friend of mine said in passing Al Gore’s office is looking for some help for six months. ‘We’re looking for a lawyer type,’ the friend said. I said, ‘I’m a lawyer type.’
Q: How did you serve the vice president?
A: I was asked to audit all the files and folders because (the office) was behind in some payments. It was 1995 but they knew (Gore) was going to run even then so they knew they couldn’t owe money.
Q: Where did you move from there?
A: Six months later, when my term was up and I turned in a report, I was called in to meet the vice president because he wanted to thank me. I get goose bumps right now even remembering that. It was such an affirming moment. He said he wasn’t here to just thank me but to ask me to be his next CFO and senior adviser on Latina affairs and LGBT matters.
Q: What is the key to being a good public speaker?
A: Always speak from your heart. If you keep it real, and you’re open, and you’re genuine, and you truly, truly love, I don’t care what anybody tells you, you’ll succeed. There’s two keys — genuine authenticity and humor. If you make somebody laugh, at that moment you actually love each other.
Skokie Science Park Sold to Local Firm, Willis Tower Owners
SKOKIE, IL – American Landmark Properties, the owners of Chicago’s Willis Tower, completed its purchase of the the Illinois Science + Technology Park last week. The Skokie-based company paid $77 million to acquire the 23-acre campus along Niles Avenue and Searle Parkway from Forest City Enterprises, based in Cleveland, which purchased the park from Pfizer in 2005. There are about 25 firms currently leasing at the park, providing an estimated 1,500 jobs to the area, according to the village.
“The Illinois Science + Technology Park represented a rare opportunity to acquire one of Chicago’s premier life science and technology campuses,” said John Roeser, Executive Vice President, American Landmark Properties. “The three existing fully renovated lab and office buildings are currently 86 percent leased to leading domestic and multi-national life science, energy, and nanotech companies.” The campus also is home to the the Oakton Community College Nanotechnogy Education, Employment and Economic Development Initiative and the Skokie Innovation Labs business incubator. Other major tenants include NorthShore University HealthSystem, Astellas Pharma, LanzaTech, Vetter Development Services USA and the German health care company Fresenius Kabi.
“The Village of Skokie is pleased that American Landmark Properties, a world-class developer from our very own community, now owns the Illinois Science + Technology Park,” said Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, who also thanked Forest City for its stewardship of the property. “The Illinois Science + Technology Park is a significant contributor to Skokie’s employment base and economic growth,” said Van Dusen. “I expect that the park will continue to grow and contribute to Skokie’s economy while also providing economic stimulus for the state and Midwest region.”
Plans for the property could include up to 1.3 million square feet of new lab and office space and a 500,000-square-foot, retail and residential development on Oakton Street in downtown Skokie, according to American Landmark. Filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission showed Forest City accumulated nearly $44 million in losses on the ISTP before looking to sell the property, Crain’s Chicago Business reported in 2015.
Skokie mayor eyeing more economic development this year
Unlike the beginning of some years in Skokie, 2017 strikes Mayor George Van Dusen as “deceptively quiet,” he said.
“The first couple years of the last term we had some tumult,” Van Dusen recalled.
In this election year, the Caucus Party incumbents — including the mayor, all trustees and the village clerk — are running unopposed in April.
Van Dusen, 73, was first appointed to the Skokie Village Board in 1999 after serving as trustee and seeks his fourth elected term in April.
Looking back at the start of his current administration, Van Dusen points to the controversy regarding beekeeping regulations in Skokie and the 10 days the village had to adopt an assault weapons ban among other issues.
“For the most part, we’ve just gone about our business,” he said. “Most of the challenges have been created by what isn’t going on in Springfield.”
But that doesn’t mean the village hasn’t been active — especially when it comes to economic development, according to the mayor. The end of the recession, he said, has “unleashed” some successful development activity.
“There’s been tremendous economic development the last couple years,” said Van Dusen. “In each of the last three years, we’ve exceeded 5,000 building permits. That’s a record.”
Several new commercial developments are expected to open this year starting with Skokie’s first Culver’s restaurant next week in the 9400 block of Skokie Boulevard. In the last quarter of the year, Van Dusen said, a new Target store could be ready to open at the southwest corner of Dempster Street and Bronx Avenue in the village’s West Dempster Street Corridor.
The store is expected to occupy 33,000 square-feet on property the village purchased that was once home to a dilapidated shopping center, according to village data on the development project. Nearby is another village-owned property slated for an auto parts store.
“We were patient with these properties and that paid off,” the mayor said.
Van Dusen said he is hoping patience also pays off for the former restaurant site at Oakton Street and Lincoln Avenue in downtown, which the village also owns. He had predicted 2016 would be the year in which development plans would be announced there, but that didn’t happen..
“We came close,” he said, adding that plans for a promising mixed-use development ultimately fell through. The mayor said there continues to be interest in the site.
A new three-retailer center is being built in the 9300 block of Skokie Boulevard, Van Dusen said. The site had been home to one hotel or another for more than 50 years.
The village’s two shopping centers and surrounding areas have also been active, according to the mayor. Westfield Old Orchard on the north is scheduled to open revamped luxury movie theaters in the fall, he said. Two small shopping areas have recently opened near Village Crossing along Touhy Avenue on the south. A popular bar-be-que restaurant is scheduled for a 2017 opening there in the 5200 block of Touhy, he said.
Development challenges still remain, Van Dusen admitted, including filling vacancies along a stretch of Skokie Boulevard near downtown.
Negotiations over the sale of the Illinois Science + Technology Park in downtown Skokie continue, he said. The park now has more than 1,500 employees, according to the mayor. Owner Forest City Enterprises announced more than a year ago it was selling the biotech park, which sits on 28 acres of property that once housed a pharmaceutical company. The open campus has a handful of buildings occupied by various science and medical companies.
Forest City officials originally said they expected the park to fill more quickly with more buildings being constructed based on demand, but the recession slowed down that demand, they said. A sixth building on the site was slated for construction with the help of a state grant that never came through because of the fiscal crisis in Springfield, Van Dusen said.
The mayor said he believes there are companies that would occupy that building, but only a shell sits on the site because of insufficient funds to complete it, Van Dusen said. He said he is hopeful the completion of the building could be part of a new buyer’s plans.
The village now wholly owns The North Shore Center For the Performing Arts, which will likely see upgrades in the future, he said.
Skokie is in the 26th year of a property tax freeze for the village portion of taxes, and that pattern is likely to continue, Van Dusen said. The village’s solid commercial base has allowed for the annual freeze, while other taxing bodies need property tax revenue, he said.
“The other units — the schools, the park district, the library — are not excessive in their property tax levies,” he said. “What we need is school finance reform.”
A couple years ago, an independent study of Skokie police operations inspired a plan to increase patrol officers and overall staffing of the Skokie Police Department.
Since then, new officers were hired and Skokie introduced a new mobile police station. The idea, Van Dusen said, was to bring more police presence into neighborhoods.
These actions came after some residents raised concerns following some high-profile crimes. However, statistics have shown that Skokie crime is not on the rise, Van Dusen said.
Although the mayor has not yet seen crime numbers for 2016, he said, he expects rates of incidents to remain relatively unchanged.
In recent years, Skokie has undergone a lot of transition at the top — changes in its village manager and assistant village manager, some trustees and other positions. Van Dusen said 2017, however, begins with Skokie having reached “a nice stable area” after “seamless” changes.
“I think in this next year, we’re going to see a lot of planning,” he said. “I want to take a look at East Dempster Street and Skokie Boulevard and East Oakton Street. There are some things we’ll look at to try to help those areas.”
@SKReview_Mike
Always great spending time with the family at a Skokie treasure, Ken's Diner!
Skokie mayor: Menorah lighting event a gesture of hope, unity
The annual menorah lighting in downtown Skokie is a yearly reminder for Rabbi Yochanan Posner how fortunate he is to be an American and to be able to practice his religion in public.
Several dozen attendees came out Dec. 28 on the fifth night of Hanukkah this year to enjoy the prayer, songs, latkes and donuts and a fire dancer.
The event took place at Skokie’s Site of Civic Pride. It’s where, for over three decades, representatives from the village and Lubavitch Chabad of Skokie have celebrated the Jewish holiday with the lighting a traditional menorah and also an electric menorah that stands roughly six-feet tall in the public square.
Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen addressed the crowd gathered and noted that various other representatives of the local government, including village manager John Lockerby, had come out to join in the festivities
Posner, who leads holiday celebrations and education programs at Lubavitch Chabad, said he remembers coming with his father, Rabbi Yosef Posner, director of the Chad, to prepare for the annual public celebration as far back as the early 1980s. The event is especially meaningful to him because many of his Jewish relatives in Russia and Poland had to hide their faith from public view or risk persecution, he said.
Of all the Jewish holidays, Posner said Hanukkah is most representative of outreach to the greater public and a menorah lighting that’s open to all, no matter their faith, is a perfect way to celebrate the “festival of lights.”
Attendees — who ranged in age from infants to older adults — gathered around the latkes, also known as potato pancakes, and the donuts, both of which are foods typically eaten during the Hanukah holiday, chatted between the prayers, songs and the featured entertainment of the night: A fire dancer who spun around various flaming batons. A man dressed in a dreidel costume — the small four-sided spinning top bearing letters of the Hebrew alphabet often present during Hanukkah celebrations — posed for photos with the attendees.
In an address to the crowd, Van Dusen reminded attendees that celebrations like this are a illustration of Skokie’s commitment to a diverse and unified community.
“We live in very challenging and very difficult times,” he said. “Change is afoot and we don’t know what change is coming.”
Community unity provides “the kind of stability that will ensure our great future” no matter what changes come down the pike, Van Dusen said.
Skokie resident Debbie Holstein, 42, who attended the event with her parents and a family friend, said she did so because the celebration was a way for her to recognize and celebrate the right to religious freedom she and her fellow Americans are afforded.
Posner said he agreed with the mayor’s statement about the uncertain times both domestically and abroad.
He said he can’t tackle all the world’s problems and the best he can do is to “illuminate” the community with a “good and positive message.” The yearly menorah lighting allows him to do that in Skokie, he said.
After all, Posner said, the best way to fight darkness is with light.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelancer.
New Veterans Park wall installed to honor Skokie military men, women
by Mike Isaacs
Veterans Park, near the heart of downtown Skokie, is adding one more way to honor past and current service men and women enlisted in the military.
Workers recently completed installation of a new wall in the park that will eventually include bricks engraved with veterans’ names, said Skokie Park District Executive Director John Ohrlund.
Ohrlund said the idea for the wall was raised by park leaders about a year ago during the park district’s budgeting cycle. Veterans Park was created as a venue to honor U.S. military men and women and includes several monuments and benches surrounded by landscaping. One of the town’s smaller parks, it has always been a setting for quiet and contemplation rather than sports and loud activity, park leaders have said.
“Some of the commissioners thought this was a really good idea,” Ohrlund said about constructing a tribute wall. “A memorial wall is probably the wrong word for it because it’s intended for both living service people and those who have already passed away too.”
“That seems to be the best time,” he said. “We want to celebrate those who have served their country in the military — both those living and those who have died. The concept is that friends and family of servicemen and women will pay for engraved paver bricks that will be added to the wall.”
According to park district officials, the wall measures about 150 square feet. The park district spent about $6,000 on it, Ohrlund said, which does not include some landscaping that will surround the wall.
The park district expects to publicize the wall and the sale of the bricks at least a month or two before Memorial Day, Ohrlund said. Since the park opened nearly a dozen years ago, it has been home to the village’s annual Memorial Day commemorations.
“A park with this name, and with already having a memorial to other service organizations in the park, we just thought this was a very appropriate way to further honor our military families in Skokie,” Ohrlund said.
Twitter: @SKReview_Mike