Speaking as a small business owner, I’m joining the call for new leadership for the First Ward. Downtown Evanston desperately needs creative, energetic, collaborative representation from the First Ward. We need an alderman who will find innovative and effective supports and remedies for our small businesses, to ensure the recovery and revitalization of our downtown. We cannot afford to continue with representation that is ineffectual, lethargic and unresponsive.
In the 8 years Found has been open, Alderman Fiske has not once reached out to see how things were going or if there was anything we might need; this includes throughout the pandemic when, as you can imagine, we desperately could have used her support.
Clare Kelly has proven to have the drive, enterprise and industriousness that is needed — now, more than ever — to take on the challenges of restoring and strengthening Evanston’s downtown. Clare has met and continues to meet with the SSA Directors (Special Service Areas) to better understand the damages and stresses caused by Covid 19 and to collaborate on future measures to repair and rebuild our downtown.
Clare has researched city government best practices from across the nation for helping small businesses succeed through the pandemic and even brought some of these ideas to the City Manager last Spring. We’ve seen Clare in action in the past successfully take on city challenges (all while raising children and teaching high school). Clare will bring effective representation to the First Ward, support the economic and cultural engine that is our downtown, and strengthen the Evanston community as a whole.
Please join me in supporting Clare Kelly for First Ward Alderperson.
Amy Morton
Owner: Found Kitchen, The Barn Steakhouse
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