The month of "OAKtober" might be wrapping up, but environmental work in Evanston is an enduring effort. Volunteers for Natural Habitat Evanston gathered in Harbert-Payne Park on Oct. 26 to combat the spread of buckthorn, an aggressively invasive shrub.

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/10/28/c...

Evanston's City Council voted 5-4 last night to introduce an ordinance for the 605 Davis St. development. The contentious 29-story project prompted debate over how community housing needs should be addressed — read my meeting coverage in the Daily Northwestern:

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/10/28/c...

Councilmembers expressed hesitance over the city staff’s 2026 budget suggestion to raise property taxes for the first time in five years at the City Council meeting Monday. They also evaluated the infrastructure projects in the Capital Improvement Plan.
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Reported by @rubydowling.bsky.social

Arts Alliance kicked off NU's fall musical theatre scene this weekend with its Garden Party production of "Pippin," interpreted with an apocalyptic flair and political edge.

Read my review of the show in the Daily:

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/10/05/a...

Illinois' statewide 1% grocery tax is about to expire.
Yesterday evening, Evanston became one of 600+ municipalities in the state to adopt a matching local grocery tax to make up that lost tax revenue ($2.5
million annually for the city).

Also out: The fourth annual Peninsula International Dance Festival is coming up at the end of July. Read about the spirit of unity which brings together the over 250 performers who will showcase traditional and contemporary dance from across the globe:

www.sfcv.org/articles/mus...

I have two new articles out in the San Francisco Classical Voice! Firstly, a Q&A with Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot, who told me about his performing inspirations and goals ahead of his performance with the SF Symphony next week:

www.sfcv.org/articles/art...

I helped cover Tuesday's Evanston City Council meeting for The Daily Northwestern. Local governments are feeling the impacts of recent executive orders, and Evanston is helping to push back. Read about the city staff's presentation on "multi-city advocacy":

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/29/c...

The Chicago Sun-Times AI incident was the subject of an ethics discussion in my intro journalism class at the Medill School today. A few important things that came up, outside of the question of whether it's okay to use AI to generate content:

1/4 🧵

This is a pretty classic example (imo) of how journalists are approaching LLMs like ChatGPT wrong. AI should be a tool for journalists to improve their work, not a replacement for doing proper research and reporting— even if it's just finding some fun summer book recs.

"On Swift Horses" is a movie that doesn't shy away from its bold narratives (and attractive cast)— but its sweeping thematic ambition can land a bit heavy-handed. Read my review in The Daily Northwestern:

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/01/l...

A sunset photo I took at Northwestern University earlier this week 🌅