Turns out there’s been an unwelcome force creeping into South Evanston, killing off commerce and making street corners unsightly. They’ve moved in from the big city south of Howard to take advantage of lax suburban laws – at least until City Council put a stop to it with a brave new ordinance Monday night.

Fear not, Evanston. The invasion of the churches is over on Howard Street.

That’s because a new ordinance makes the establishment of religious institutions in commercial zones – including so-called “storefront churches” – illegal without special exemptions from the city. Take a walk down Howard and you won’t get far without seeing one of these tiny churches dotting the streets, in locations that look better suited for a hotdog stand than a house of worship.

Ald. Ann Rainey, who represents the 8th Ward in South Evanston, had her reasons when she helped initiate the ordinance with another City Council member. The storefront churches are tax exempt, and often remain closed all week save Sunday for services. They use parking in a different patterns than traditional businesses.

But the biggest sin of these storefront churches seems to be precisely that they aren’t stores. The memos from the Plan Commission recommending the ordinance to the City Council say these churches “have a deadening effect” on the commercial districts.

That may well be true. But commerce on Howard Street has bigger problems than churches.

I took ride down Howard today, on the five blocks stretching from Ridge to Clark. By the time I took the turn north toward campus, my unofficial tally of empty storefronts with “For Sale” signs stood at eight.

Talk about a deadening effect on business.

South Evanston has probably been hit as hard by the economic slowdown as any part of the north suburbs. Those empty windows aren’t the fault of the storefront churches or Ald. Rainey or anyone else in the neighborhood. Times are tough.

But if there are good reasons to discourage an exodus of churches to commercial districts in Evanston, it seems to me the timing might be off. I’m all for a bustling commercial district on Howard Street, but I’d rather see rows of churches than a series of empty storefronts.

A business looking to set up shop along Howard shouldn’t have too much trouble if they make the same short drive I did. Hopefully it won’t be long before the economy turns around and the real estate on that stretch of Evanston is in high demand. In the meantime, though, I don’t think it’s too sentimental to suggest a little faith might not be the worst prescription as people deal with the realities of foreclosure and unemployment.

The heavy concentration of these churches could be a blessing – a ready-made grassroots group able to work with city government to reach out to the community in South Evanston. The city could even use the new restrictions to give the existing churches incentive to operate throughout the week and work toward encouraging commercial growth. If the storefront churches take up more community center functions, they could become an asset to Rainey’s ward instead of a financial burden.

But if the churches do nothing but ensure storefronts are kept occupied and maintained until the economic tide starts to turn, that might be blessing enough. Because the problem on Howard isn’t the churches lining the storefronts. It’s the lack of anything else to fill them.

Mike Carson is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected]