Curt's Cafe South Music Fundraiser

Hosted at the newly renovated Curt’s Cafe South on 1813 Dempster Street, the Evanston West Village Business Association is proud to host Donovan Mixon and company as they entertain the community with the smooth sounds of jazz. The concert is free and BYOB, but we encourage you to purchase food from the Heavenston Menu at Curt’s Cafe. We hope to see you there!

http://www.evanstonwestvillage.org/events/

The First Parklet in Evanston!

How fun is this? Hewn on Dempster wants to build the First Parklet in Evanston! Visit the project on kickstarter or read about the project below. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hewnparklet/hewn-parklet

Help us build Evanston's first parklet! We will transform a parking space into an urban park for the entire community to enjoy.

Evanston needs a parklet!  Help us create a public "front porch" on Dempster St.

What is a Parklet?

Basically, it's taking a parking space and turning it into a small urban oasis for all to enjoy. Parklets usually consist of places to sit with table surfaces, bike parking and landscaping or planters. They are great spots to enjoy the neighborhood as a casual and comfortable outdoor space.  

The First Parklet in Evanston!

There are currently no parklets in Evanston.  The City of Evanston asked Hewn to pilot the first parklet.  By helping build the parklet you contribute to the success of this pilot program, which is the basis for more parklets in Evanston.

The Plans

The Parklet will replace the 20 minute parking space directly in front of Hewn (810 Dempster St).  It will be made from many of the same materials you see in our store...reclaimed wood and corrugated tin will help provide the basis for the structure.  Planters with native plants and herbs will provide screening from the street.  Benches and tables made from salvaged oak tree stumps will provide comfortable places to sit and eat with your neighbors and friends. The structure will be wheelchair accessible.  A bike rack will be attached to the east side of the structure, freeing up the sidewalk for pedestrian traffic.

We Need Your Help!

We have worked with the City of Evanston, our contractor and architect to  plan this project, but we cannot finish it without your help!  Your pledges and donations will allow us to pay for the building materials, labor, architectural plans, and other items associated with the construction and installation of the parklet.  While many of the people working with us are providing a reduced rate for their services, the parklet will still cost approximately $14,000.  No donation is too small and every level is appreciated.  The actual costs are likely to be above this amount, so your help is greatly appreciated.

And We Need It Soon!

To enjoy the parklet for the bulk of the summer and fall, we need to get it built as soon as possible.  Our current goal is to have the parklet completed by the beginning of July.  We hope that the community will be able to enjoy the parklet for several months, until the cold and snowy Chiberian winter returns!  The parklet will be removed and stored inside during the winter months.  It will be re-installed in the spring.

About the Team:

The innovative design for the parklet was provided by Evanston's own Petrick Architecture (www.petrickarchitecture.com). Scott Simpson Builders (www.scottsimpsonbuilders.com) serves as the contractor for the project. James Kozar of THIS Inc. (www.makeitthis.com) produced our Kickstarter video. Four Finches (www.fourfinches.com), our neighbor just west of our store, will be creating the planters.  We thank the City of Evanston for their help and collaboration with this project.

Hewn is celebrating one year of business this month at 810 Dempster St.  We are a small artisan bakery specializing in naturally fermented breads, pastries, sandwiches and great espresso.  

Risks and challenges

Challenges come along with any project. We feel confident that the team behind the parklet will help us overcome any obstacles that might arise. Your support is crucial to make this parklet a reality here in Evanston.

We will share updates throughout the construction progress to all of our supporters.

If we are fortunate enough to surpass our fundraising goal, any leftover money will serve to dismantle the parklet and store it for the winter months.

If Your House Were On Fire, What Would You Take?

Yesterday my friend Julia IM'd me to tell me the house across the street from my apartment was on fire. My stomach dropped immediately, as we have friends across the street. After securing the exact location of the fire, I established that our friends were safe, but two families and their pets would be displaced.

By the time I got home from work, the street was totally blocked off with more than 10 emergency vehicles and with crime scene tape blocking the sidewalks around the burnt building. Fire investigators were working on establishing the cause of the fire. The building damage from the fire  is extensive and I can see all of this from my living room window.

Witnessing accidents always makes me take stock of what I have and yesterday I found myself looking around my apartment scanning items that I would grab if my house was on fire. Photo albums is all I could think of but I have no idea where any of them are. I guess I would grab Ella the bunny and run.

Foster Huntington, a blogger/traveler/designer, has been collecting images of what people would take in a fire on his tumblr theburninghouse.com. You can submit a photo and list of what you'd take and Huntington will post it on the site. Below is Noah's photo of what he would take. What would you take?

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Thank you for reading my blog Evanston Newbie, a blog dedicated to helping you too fall in love with Evanston, just like I did. If you have any questions or need to get in touch with me about this blog, Evanston, or anything else you can email me at thelisadshow@gmail.com. Also feel free to send me announcements about upcoming Evanston events and I will promote them here!

This Saturday is YEA! Day Arts Festival in Evanston

26th Annual Young Evanston Artists Festival
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Dempster St. & Chicago Ave., Evanston

Tentative Schedule:

4 a.m In the dark of the morning on YEA! Day, a small group of volunteers can be seen loading display panels off a U-Haul truck and placing them at designated school locations.

6 a.m. A volunteer crew arrives and four teams put up all the panels in preparation for the teachers.

7 a.m. Another volunteer group arrives to blow up balloons and tie them on parking meters, lampposts and trees.

7:30 a.m. House of Rental arrives

8 a.m. Teachers arrive with art work to set up their schools’ presentation

8 a.m. Volunteers arrive to set up the Silent Auction

8 a.m. A crew arrives to set up the sound system for the performing arts

9 a.m. Volunteers arrive to set up the YEA! booths where baseball hats, t-shirts, tattoos, snacks and refreshments are sold

10 a.m. Crowds arrive. We have ignition and lift off: YEA! Day explodes with excitement and enthusiasm

4 p.m. The YEA! festival comes to a close and is dismantled piece by piece by all of the teachers and volunteers. But the YEA! program, itself, continues…influencing school arts programs throughout the year.

Dec. 22: Last day to ride the Santa Train

Dear Readers, I am so sorry that I only got hip to the Santa Train yesterday but if you're organized, you can do one last ride today! Take the Yellow line from Howard and ride the train round trip into Skokie, click here for the schedule.

For the last three years, the CTA has created a Santa Train that rides around all the various CTA lines at designated times. You can board the train and see Santa and his reindeer, enjoy holiday music and get candy from elves! The inside and outside of the train is completely decorated, to include joke Christmas ads on the inside of the trains.

Today is the last day to ride so if you miss it, be sure to make time to go next year. The Santa Trains starts riding the CTA lines after Thanksgiving and goes until just before Christmas. For the full schedule and background info, click here.

Below is a short slide show of the Santa Train pulling in and out of the Dempster Street station last night.

From www.transitchicago.com:
About the train
The Chicago Transit Authority is getting into the holiday spirit with our popular Holiday Train! Santa and his elves will ride the train passing out candy canes and season's greetings.

The spectacular train is an amazing sight - during the daytime and at night. The outside of the six-car train is adorned with holiday seasonal images. Thousands of twinkling lights outline the shape of the train and windows, with even more lights running across the tops of the cars.

Interiors of the cars are decked out with thousands of multi-colored lights, red bows, garland, and red and green overhead lighting. The hand poles are wrapped to look like candy canes.

As the train pulls into each station, Santa waves to the boarding passengers from his sleigh on an open-air flatcar carrying his reindeer and decorated holiday trees.

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Thank you for reading my blog "Evanston Newbie", a project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni

Get There: The Purple line to Linden

Check out our youngest child riding the Purple line to Linden. And why is this worthy of a blog post? My children are totally new to the concept of riding on buses and trains and walking everywhere. They've both done an excellent job transitioning to this new means of transportation and so far are patient when waiting for trains, calm when mom puts them on the wrong train and occupied with reading material while taking a long ride.

We recently took the Metra Downtown to the Field Museum and the El home. The Metra was faster in that it only makes one stop before getting to the Ogilvey Station in Downtown, but then we had to take a bus to get to our destination, which added about 20 minutes to our trip and an extra $5. We took the El home and because the CTA shares fares, you can transfer from a bus to the El within 2.5 hours and pay a portion of the fare. The El is much closer to the Field Museum but takes more than 45 to get you to Evanston unless you can grab the Purple line, which we couldn't do because it was off hours. Do I have this right? And when is the CTA going to start running the Purple line express on the weekends, giving Evanstonians the option to get to Downtown Chicago quickly?

This critique cannot possibly be new and I'm very curious to learn more transportation tricks. What is the fastest way to get to Downtown Chicago from Dempster? What passes get you the best deals and where do you buy them? Maybe you can help me figure this all out by emailing me at thelisadshow@gmail.com.

Lastly I have to give a shout out to the conductors, ticket takers, bus drivers out there in Chicagoland - you are the BEST. I have never met such friendly public transportation workers in an American city. On one recent bus ride we were actually reminded gently that our stop had come up and that we should get off the bus. Very classy indeed. Good job Chicago.

For your next trip, visit the CTA website at http://www.transitchicago.com/.

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Thank you for reading my new blog "Evanston Newbie", a recent project that I am using to chronicle my new life in Evanston. Do you have favorite Evanston bakeries, bike shops, events that you can recommend? Send me an email at thelisadshow@gmail.com and I will post my review on this blog. -Lisa Degliantoni