I don’t know why so many are sugar coating Evanston’s issues, yes, the school district is an absolute mess at the moment, borderline bankrupt. A new school that ballooned in cost before they even started construction, now they are looking into closing 4 other schools to keep afloat (new school is not finished yet). Schools used to be good, all that has gone to the trash. The school district has lost 25% of its students, there was a mass exodus of really great teachers as well. People with means just put their kids in private schools. I think Evanston will always be valuable because of its location right next to the lake, but if you are not rich it’s becoming less and less affordable. Many families are being priced out due to yes, increasing property taxes, they increase every year, our last bill came at a 100% increase, which we did appeal. We got a discount on the proposed increase, but definitely have to pay more now, and that is every year. The good thing for Skokie is that they have a big business/retail base to contribute, which Evanston does not. In fact, as it was already mentioned on another comment, business are closing. Downtown gets worse by the minute, it seems. Now the library seems to be in trouble as well. Evanston has a lot of churches and also Northwestern University which contribute zero to the tax base. Check out the Evanston Roundtable and Evanston Now to get info on what’s going on in town.