First Ward residents received an update on economic development and a crash course on how to navigate the city’s meeting portal at the ward’s Thursday night meeting.

The meeting included a notification of retail and office vacancy rates and a list of new business openings by Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak. Zalmezak shared that the downtown retail business vacancy rate is less than 6%. In comparison, he said the office market remains weak, with vacancy at 18.5%. 

Evanston, like many other cities, has still not returned to regular office use following the COVID-19 pandemic, as people continue to work from home, he said. An increase in remote-work jobs also strains small businesses, particularly restaurants that don’t get as many customers during lunchtime, as a result of overall decreased foot traffic, Zalmezak added.

​“The office market is still in flux,” Zalmezak said. “We have to transition from this post-COVID office world that we’re in and reset.” 

​Zalmezak highlighted 19 new business openings downtown, 10 of which are in the 1st Ward. 17, a plant based restaurant, Crave Cookies and Land & Lake Cafe are among the recently-opened 1st Ward businesses. Seven more businesses will be opening soon, Zalmezak said. ​

At the beginning of the meeting, residents gave feedback on new signage downtown that prohibited residents from riding bikes, scooters and skateboards on sidewalks. 

​In reaction to residents’ safety concerns, Evanston Transportation and Mobility Coordinator Sarah FioRito noted that the city will have “youth Evanston mobility ambassadors” at different community events this summer. The ambassadors will educate residents about transportation initiatives and safety, and the city will also hold formal community classes like City Cycling 101, FioRito said.

​“We’re just here letting folks know what appropriate behavior is on the sidewalk and just working to reduce potential collisions and unsafe behavior,” FioRito said.

City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza, who worked on creating the city’s new website, also trained attendees on how to find specific information in the meeting portal, including how to view previous meeting recordings and agendas.

​Mendoza also walked residents through applications for board, commission and committee positions. 

She said there are currently 19 vacant positions on boards, commissions, and committees, with applications available in both Spanish and English. 

​Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) encouraged residents to apply.

​“For me as a council member, having these boards, committees and commissions when you all deliberate in a focused way on something, and then we get it on Council, it’s so much easier to ponder on an item if I know that I’m getting the feedback from a board, committee or commission that’s really dedicated to focused attention on that one item,” Kelly said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the timeline of the meeting and to reflect that City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza spoke about the city’s meeting portal.

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