Evanston saw its share of recurring and long-brewing storylines in 2025, but new ones made plenty of waves too. Here’s a look back at some of them.
Election brings subtle shifts
On April 1, incumbent Mayor Daniel Biss defeated his sole challenger, Jeff Boarini, by capturing nearly 63% of the vote.
Biss’ comfortable margin in securing his second term cemented his role atop Evanston’s politics. But that margin might also obscure the many tensions that simmered in the mayoral contest and in the city’s wards.
The year began with a mounting debate over Envision Evanston 2045, the city’s overhaul of its comprehensive plan and zoning. Biss spearheaded what he called a “bold” effort to transform Evanston, and he pushed for its adoption by April 1.
His critics, including Boarini, called the process rushed and saw the plan as out of character for the city. They had seized on a remark by Biss, who said it would be “immoral” not to act swiftly; he later said he regretted the phrase. The City Council pushed back the timeline in January after an uproar.
Still, the debate would persist as a potent issue, especially in northern Evanston, where residents had previously organized against Northwestern University’s efforts to commercialize its rebuilt Ryan Field.
On April 1, the 7th Ward would go on to elect Parielle Davis — who once created a campaign called “Better than Biss” that inveighed against the mayor for his role in approving Northwestern’s plans — to its open City Council seat.
Incumbents largely succeeded in holding onto their seats, thus preserving some of the dynamics of the previous council. The newcomers nonetheless injected new voices into Evanston’s long-brewing debates: Davis, as well as Shawn Iles, 3rd, and Matt Rodgers, 8th.
And soon the election dissolved into history, because another one looms. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, announced in May she would not seek reelection. Biss, a former state legislator and no stranger to vying for higher office, launched a bid for Congress.
He’s one of more than a dozen candidates, including state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, activist Kat Abughazaleh, school board member Bushra Amiwala and retired FBI agent and crisis negotiator Phil Andrew to have emerged as potential successors.
Turmoil continues at D65
Evanston/Skokie District 65 opened 2025 by slashing $13.3 million in expenses for the 2024-25 school year, but as the next school year began, its quagmires persisted.
In fact, the district is ending the year deadlocked on two major issues: school closures and filling a vacant seat on its board. A decision on the first cannot happen without the second.
District 65 must continue to cut costs as part of its Structural Deficit Reduction Plan, which calls for considering school closures. Some elementary schools operate with a student population below half their capacity, according to Pioneer Press reporting. So by late October, the board narrowed the potential closures to two or three schools.
In early November, however, one Board member resigned, leaving the Board to operate with six. In successive votes in November and December, the board twice deadlocked 3-3 on a proposal to close Kingsley and Lincolnwood elementary schools, as well as on a proposal to close only Kingsley.
The Board, however, has also deadlocked on choosing a replacement, meaning it hurtles toward the new year poised to leave the decision to the regional superintendent of schools. And district officials have said that without a decision on school closures before winter break, D65 will proceed not to close additional schools.
That leaves only one school that will shutter at the end of the 2025-26 school year, Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies. The decision to close it was made by a previous Board.
With school closures effectively off the table, the district will likely, according to the Chicago Tribune, have to cut up to 78 positions to cover an approximately $5 million shortfall.
The district’s financial woes began in 2023, when it revealed that it had run a $7.5 million deficit in the 2022-23 fiscal year, and then it ran a $10 million deficit in the next, per previous reporting. The first disclosure came shortly after Devon Horton’s departure as superintendent.
Scrutiny of the district’s finances under Horton came to a head in October, when a federal grand jury issued a 17-count indictment accusing the then-superintendent of defrauding the district and pocketing the returns.
Working with three associates, Horton concealed his financial involvement in fraudulent contracts the district entered into, according to the indictment. It alleged he enriched himself with $81,000 in kickbacks, among other financial gains.
Horton and the three other men pleaded not guilty.
ICE operation spurs chaotic confrontations
The specter of a full-fledged operation by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement descending on Evanston came true multiple times in the fall.
After the federal government launched its Operation Midway Blitz in September, Evanston residents encountered the masked agents several times and expressed their displeasure. On Oct. 31, a particularly chaotic confrontation ensued at Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street, where an Acura collided with a vehicle used by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.
A Border Patrol agent claimed the car had tailed the crew and then hit them. Other witnesses contended that the agents braked intentionally, resulting in the collision. A review of cellphone and Evanston police body camera footage by Pioneer Press revealed details of the fracas that followed.
The agents detained the sedan driver, as a crowd of witnesses began to record and protest the crew. One agent said, “Get back or I’ll shoot you.”
As the confrontation swelled, agents detained two people from the crowd. The videos show the forceful, violent nature of one of the arrests.
However, the Department of Homeland Security said that one detained man grabbed an agent’s genitals, though the man’s father called the claim a “bald-faced lie” in remarks to Pioneer Press.
The three detainees, all U.S. citizens, were driven around in a Border Patrol vehicle for hours and later released at FBI headquarters west of downtown Chicago without charges.
Operation Midway Blitz ebbed in November, but federal agents returned in force in mid-December. On Dec. 17, Border Patrol agents appeared at the Evanston Home Depot, where they detained a man and where Biss argued with Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.
Over the course of the fall, Biss encouraged attempts by the City Council to stymie immigration enforcement by banning ICE from city property and updating its Welcoming City Ordinance.
Evanston also drew attention for a different display of protest: a Nativity scene set up by the Lake Street Church. The original rendition had baby Jesus’ hands zip-tied in front of centurions labeled as ICE. Church officials said that the scene has seen two rounds of vandalism, as well as damage from heavy snowfall.
Northwestern, downtown, businesses
Northwestern, whose main campus sits in Evanston, saw upheaval aplenty in 2025.
President Michael Schill resigned his post in September after a turbulent tenure. In previous years he presided over a deal with pro-Palestinian protesters and the firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal.
In August, Fitzgerald — who has maintained that he didn’t know about the hazing and sued for wrongful termination — reached a settlement with Northwestern. Michigan State University named Fitzgerald its head coach on Dec. 1.
Henry Bienen, who’d served as president from 1995 to 2009, took over as interim president on Sept. 16. He announced on Nov. 28 that Northwestern made a pact with the federal government to bring back $790 million in frozen funding.
The agreement requires Northwestern to fork over $75 million, ending the months of trepidation among researchers and others after the Trump administration froze federal funding. Among other conditions, the university also agreed to keep following federal anti-discrimination laws and end the agreement with protesters.
Construction continued on Northwestern’s $850 million Ryan Field rebuild, set to finish in 2026. The project has drawn brickbats from neighbors who’ve decried the university’s plan to host commercial concerts there.
But many residents turned their attention toward downtown, where developers have circulated proposals to build residential high-rises.
After hearing impassioned supporters and detractors, the City Council in November narrowly approved a plan to build a 29-story tower on Davis Street with 419 residential units. At 299 feet, it would become Evanston’s tallest building, as well as the tallest residential structure in the suburbs.
Another proposal, which has yet to be finalized, calls for constructing a 27-story residential tower at 1711 Maple Avenue. It would occupy Church Street Plaza’s northern end, where a Chili’s restaurant beloved by Northwestern students closed Dec. 15.
The downtown dining scene lost another stalwart in October with the closure of Bob’s Pizza, whose Tuesday trivia nights drew politicians and students alike. However, the demise of the pies didn’t end the trivia operation, which moved to Prairie Moon.