Skokie’s Year in Review 2023: Housing, bomb threats, Yellow Line crash
Skokie was in the news for a wide range of reasons in 2023, including a Yellow Line crash, an ordinance on housing, rallies and protests after the Israel-Hamas war erupted, allegations of conflicts of interest among village officials and bomb threats to schools, libraries and businesses in the village.
1. Reactions to the Israel-Hamas war
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, about 25 supporters of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network organized a sit-in protest in U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s district office in Skokie, urging the congresswoman to support resolutions that would guarantee the protection and human rights of Palestinians living in Gaza.
Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the USPCN, said the group specifically addressed Schakowsky because she is the vice president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has demonstrated “unbreakable” support of Israel.
Police were called in shortly after the group arrived, and Schakowsky’s staff allowed the group to speak to Schakowsky via phone before they retreated to a back room. Most protesters remained until after the office closed for the day, and then police gave the protesters three verbal warnings to leave. Most did, but police took seven protesters into custody and cited them with trespassing.
On Oct. 22, the Midwest Regional Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center organized a Solidarity with Israel event at the Ateres Ayala kosher banquet hall venue on Touhy Avenue.
The rally attracted about 200 pro-Palestinian counter-protestors, who wanted to emphasize the realities for those living in Gaza under Israeli attacks.
The rally spread across Touhy to the Lincolnwood side. A 39-year-old Chicago man outside the Lincolnwood Town Center mall hit someone with his vehicle in a hit-and-run and when confronted by numerous individuals raised his gun and fired a shot in the air. Police said nobody was hurt in either incident, and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to press charges.
On the Skokie side of Touhy Avenue, Zevulen Ebert, 33, of the 5000 block of Oakton Street, was charged with four felonies for allegedly pepper spraying a group of people. According to a court record, Ebert was waving an Israeli flag in front of a group of Palestinian supporters when an individual attempted to take Ebert’s flag. The document said a verbal exchange followed, and Ebert discharged his pepper spray.
Reactions to the war included more than just protests. Forty high school seniors from Ida Crown Jewish Academy planned to go on a monthlong trip to Israel from Dec. 17 to Jan. 11 to volunteer in the agriculture sector and other parts of the economy in desperate need of workers.
“I feel like it’s my duty to go and help,” said senior Ayelet Appel. “There are people my age who are serving in the army. The minimum I can do is go over and help with whatever people need.”
“Here, we kind of feel hopeless,” said her mother, Hamutal Appel. “We can do some things here, but it’s not enough. Having the opportunity to send a child to help will make a difference.”
2. Housing
In June, developers bought office space at 5400 Old Orchard Road and got approval from the Village Board for their plans to create 245 apartments and 49 townhomes. The apartments would range from studios to three-bedroom apartments.
Another developer also saw a chance to bring more apartments to the same stretch of Old Orchard Road between the Skokie Courthouse and Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center. In December, the Plan Commission approved plans for GW properties to convert two seven-story office buildings at 5202-5250 Old Orchard Road into high-end apartments.
Some residents expressed concerns that the new housing was priced too high. For months, the Village Board discussed a proposed affordable housing ordinance that would have required all housing developments that have more than 11 units to provide some affordable housing units or pay a fee-in-lieu to opt out of it.
In November, the ordinance failed to pass with a 3-4 vote on the Village Board.
3. Independent trustee brings ethics complaints
Skokie’s sole independent village trustee, James Johnson, made a series of ethics complaints to the Ethics Commission during the year, with some of them accusing the village’s legal department of having a conflict of interest, given their political affiliation with the Skokie Caucus Party, the dominant political party in Skokie for over 60 years.
His colleagues on the Village Board filed a motion asking the Ethics Commission members to dismiss his complaint, and recommended Johnson be sanctioned with a $5,000 fine for “frivolous” ethics complaints.
Ultimately, the commissioners did not sanction Johnson but dismissed his ethics complaint.
Twice in 2023, the Illinois Attorney General launched an investigation into the village for Open Meetings Act violations. The first investigation was over the Ethics Commission hearing an ethics complaint made by Johnson while the Commission was not in an open session.
In November, the Attorney General’s office again investigated the Village Board for approving closed session minutes in a closed session. Johnson filed the request for the review of that incident.
Mayor George Van Dusen acknowledged the violation of the Open Meetings Act at the Dec. 4 Village Board meeting, and the Village Board approved the minutes at the Dec. 18 meeting.
Johnson’s allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest have drawn the ire of trustees during Village Board meetings. In a September meeting, Trustee Ralph Klein told Johnson to “shut up” when Klein criticized Johnson for not participating in any commissions. Johnson was rejecting the reappointment of commissioners to the ethics board of at the time.
At the Dec. 18 meeting, Johnson accused trustees and the mayor of having a conflict of interest for appointing members to the legal department. Trustee Alison Pure Slovin pointed out that in other governing bodies it doesn’t matter if a legal department has someone who belongs to a political party.
4. Bomb threats
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office charged Jacob Spiro, 23, of Skokie, with disorderly conduct for bomb threats he allegedly called in or made by using the internet. According to Skokie Police documents, 56 bomb threats were made to public libraries, businesses, schools and other institutions in Skokie, Morton Grove, Wilmette, Niles, Des Plaines and Chicago.
The first of 16 incidents in Skokie occurred on Sept. 30, when police were dispatched to the 7-Eleven located at 4843 Church Street to respond to a 911 call claiming that there were bombs in the building, per the reports. Police investigated and determined that the threat was not credible and the call came from a non-initiated cellphone not registered to any network or person.
An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.
5. Yellow Line crash
On Nov. 16, A CTA Yellow Line train approaching the Howard station, near the border of Chicago and Evanston, hit a snowplow on the tracks. Twenty-three people were taken to hospitals after the crash, three of them in serious or critical condition.
Since the crash, the Yellow Line has not been running and the CTA is offering free shuttle bus service from the Yellow Line stops to and from Howard.
6. Electoral reform
Three citizen-initiated referendums to reform elections in Skokie were approved by voters in 2022, and the village began implementing them this year. The referendums included making elections nonpartisan, introducing staggered terms for elected officials, and creating a new map that will split the village into four districts so that one village trustee would be elected from each. Two trustees would also be elected from within the entire village’s boundaries.
The trustees elected by the districts would have the same powers as those voted on at large, and the village’s council-manager government would stay the same.
The districts are about the same size geographically and by population. The consultants hired to make the map presented their map to residents at the Skokie Public Library in September and October. Residents got a chance to give their feedback.
The first elections to be governed by the electoral reforms will take place in 2025.
7. Concerns about rising antisemitism
In the weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Anti-Defamation League tracked a 388% increase in antisemitic events compared to the same time period as last year.
“It’s a very uncertain time for Jewish people,” said Rodi Glass, a Holocaust survivor. “It’s a very frightening time.”
Skokie Police investigated two hate crimes involving antisemitism in November. One involved unknown individuals destroying yard signs that said “We Stand with Israel” from 10 locations near Church Street and Kostner Avenue, according to Skokie Police.
Skokie Police also investigated gang graffiti at a kosher pizzeria in Skokie as a hate crime. The graffiti had a swastika on it.
