What I'll Do
Turning Envision Evanston 2045 from a plan on a shelf into code, funding, and accountability.
Listen first
Real community engagement — not decisions made in rooms without you.
Lead the zoning rewrite
With legal precision and an equity lens — and with our history in mind — turning the plan's housing goals into actual code.
Balance, not division
Evanston has room for single-family homes and other housing types side by side.
The Evanston Family Promise
Any family that moves here and enrolls in our public schools should feel invested in — affordable housing priority and parental support.
Hold Northwestern accountable
As an attorney, I can review past community benefit agreements line by line, negotiate, and follow through.
Education
Housing and enrollment go hand in hand — schools stay full when neighborhoods thrive. Rising costs push families out, enrollment drops, school budgets shrink, programs close. Housing and D65 are the same crisis; fix one, and you start fixing the other.
The Evanston Diversity Enrollment Initiative
An honest effort to recruit diverse families from Chicago's bordering neighborhoods, with relocation support tied to public school enrollment, in partnership with Northwestern, our hospitals, and major employers. The 8% decline in Evanston's Black community can't be ignored.
Defend Evanston's commitments
The Evanston Restorative Housing reparations program is anchored in this city's own documented history of zoning harm. I'll defend it as an executive responsibility, including in active litigation.
Protect Evanston's neighbors
Immigrant families are part of this city's fabric, and city government should protect them — with a clear protocol for all city property and city employees.
Carry equity forward
A lifelong commitment to overcoming the systemic barriers women and minorities face — in housing, business ownership, and safety — shapes every policy decision.
Keep climate commitments moving
Under the Healthy Buildings Ordinance and the Climate Action and Resilience Plan — efficient, well-built housing is both more affordable and more sustainable.
“We have the vision. Let's build it.”— Jade Carpenter