As customers walk into Fit+Frisky!, a pet store on Davis Street, they’re greeted by Pan, a Siberian cat that two Northwestern students gave to Ald. Judy Fiske (1st). Pan scurries all over the main counter, covering Fiske’s black T-shirt in fur, but Fiske says she doesn’t mind because taking care of animals is ingrained in her family history.
“I’ll rescue anything,” said Fiske, who opened Fit + Frisky! in 2007. “I’m the lady on the block that kids bring run-over pigeons to. We’ll always help, even if we have to drive out to Oak Park’s nature rehabilitation center.”
After defeating incumbent First Ward alderman Cheryl Wollin, Fiske added “local representative” to her duties at the pet store.
As alderman of the ward with the largest NU presence, Fiske has emphasized establishing a “productive dialogue with mutual respect” when dealing with town-gown relations. She chairs the NU-City Committee, which met last week, and plans for the committee to meet on a quarterly basis.
“I want to really establish a productive relationship with Northwestern, not just a ‘whatever you do is fine,'” Fiske said. “If you look back to all the campaign rhetoric, everyone was talking about better relations with Northwestern, but it was always, ‘We’ll let them do what they want.'”
Five generations of Fiske’s family have lived in Evanston, three of which attended Haven Middle School, including Fiske herself. After high school, Fiske studied English at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she met her husband Jonathan. She then took graduate-level courses in architectural design at NU but didn’t complete her master’s in order to take care of her son Andrew, who is now 39 years-old.
But more important than her background as a lifetime Evanston resident is her involvement with neighborhood and civic issues for 20 years, city planner and former mayoral candidate Jeanne Lindwall said.
Fiske was the president of the Preservation League of Evanston and the founding board member of the Northeast Evanston Historic District, among many other neighborhood organizations.
“Most of the other new aldermen don’t remember what was happening in Evanston in the ’70s and ’80s, but Judy was in the neighborhood going back that far,” Lindwall said. “She’s got a long-term notion of where Evanston has been and where it can go.”
After working several part-time jobs while raising her son, Fiske worked as a realtor for 20 years. She said she entered politics “sort of through the back door.”
“It became really clear that the First Ward needed an advocate on the council,” Fiske said.
In spite of her hectic schedule, Fiske still finds time to speak face-to-face with her constituents. She has an open-door policy at Fit+Frisky!, where First Ward residents can come in and voice their concerns, said Matthew Mirapaul, a retired columnist who worked for The New York Times and helped in Fiske’s campaign.
“She really knows every inch of the ward and the people in it,” said Mirapaul, a First Ward resident.
Before opening the pet store, Fiske worked in dog rescue for 25 years and has adopted several rescued dogs. She said animal welfare is a part of who she is.
“I would give up alderman and the store and everything to do that first,” Fiske said. “But I can’t go and rescue animals from Chicago Animal Care and Control because all of them would come home with me.”
