In a move that has ignited allegations of cronyism and political favoritism, a sitting Evanston school board member is seeking over $80,000 in public funds for her private restaurant—from a city fund she helps oversee.
Nichole Pinkard, a member of Evanston/Skokie District 65’s school board and a professor at Northwestern, recently requested an $82,510 loan—of which $59,510 is forgivable—to cover non-budgeted fire suppression upgrades at her new restaurant, Free Flow Kitchen.
The breakfast-and-lunch spot, which opened last month in Evanston’s Fifth Ward, sits directly across from a new public school under construction—and within the boundaries of the Five-Fifths Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, where Pinkard herself sits on the advisory board.
The loan was approved by the city’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) with minimal documentation provided by Pinkard—no business plan, no financials, no cash flow projections. The only written justification for the loan came in the form of a brief staff memo.
Councilmember Parielle Davis noted she had to submit far more documentation when applying for a federal SBA loan and questioned how the project reached the approval stage with such little detail.
However, supporters, like Fifth Ward Councilmember Bobby Burns—who chairs the TIF advisory committee Pinkard sits on—insist the investment is justified. Burns compared it to previous city-backed restaurant deals, including one that failed and saw only 30% of the public funds recovered.
Critics are calling it a textbook example of conflict of interest and a “symbol of lax governance.”
“I don’t want to be so harsh toward Democrats, but this is what happens when you have no one watching—no one watching the henhouse,” John Foley, assistant committeeman for the Evanston GOP told North Cook News. “These guys are out of control.”
Free Flow and the Five-Fifths TIF are not the full extent of Pinkard’s involvement with public investment or conflicts of interest.
As a learning sciences professor at Northwestern University, Pinkard created the Digital Youth Network (DYN) and the learning platform L3.
DYN and L3 have partnerships with Evanston/Skokie School District 65—where she is a sitting school board member—Evanston Township High School District 202, the City of Evanston, Evanston Public Library, McGaw YMCA, Family Focus, and Youth and Opportunity United (Y.O.U.).
The scope and scale of these cross-sector partnerships suggest significant investment from both public and private sources, including potential municipal, philanthropic, and university-backed support.
Foley argued that Evanston’s political culture has become complacent, with little accountability or resistance to how decisions are made.
“The people of Evanston mindlessly vote for this stuff and because they mindlessly voted for this stuff and there’s no friction in terms of oversight, the most basic question is: where’s the outrage?” Foley said.
Foley expressed skepticism about the willingness of Evanston’s dominant party to act.
“Do you think the Democratic Party of Evanston is going to do anything about this?” he said. “The answer, of course, is no, because they’re all in bed with each other. I mean, is there anybody—any elected official in Evanston—who’s going to raise this question?”
Foley pointed to what he sees as a disconnect between public activism and civic accountability, criticizing what he described as performative engagement by many Evanston residents.
“You’ve got thousands of people showing up for the Evanston No Kings Rally — you can look at the pictures on the Evanston RoundTable — they’re all a bunch of gray-haired, white-haired, blue-haired… you know, primarily women, secondarily men,” he said. “And you would think that they would care about how their community is actually being run — and they don’t. And so this is what happens when you have an apathetic community, one that gives the impression they are so enlightened and progressive. But there’s no oversight, because they won’t allow any idea that there would be someone overseeing this and calling it out.”
Foley says the problem goes far beyond this one loan.
“There’s just no one at the table,” Foley said. “It’s the uniparty and I know that there’s a joke line about Evanston as being the ‘People’s Republic of Evanston,’ but there’s a lot of truth to that.”
Foley warned that one-party dominance often leads to downfall, citing historical examples and drawing a parallel to Evanston’s current political landscape.
“That’s what brought down all sorts of governments that have been run by one party throughout the history of mankind, and Evanston is no different,” he said. “They think they’re more enlightened and sophisticated.”
Foley drew a sharp comparison between Evanston and its larger neighbor to the south, highlighting concerns about one-party rule and governance.
“Chicago is run by one party,” he said. “Corruption in Chicago is legendary—almost a point of pride in Chicago. Because of that, Chicago is not considered to be a well-run city. That’s just a statement of fact. Evanston is becoming kind of a mini-Chicago.”
Foley likened the situation to a political echo chamber, where scrutiny is dismissed and taxpayer oversight is nonexistent.
“The idea in Evanston that there would be oversight is met with cries of racism, when all we’re asking for is basic oversight and to ensure we’re being good fiduciaries of the taxpayers’ money,” he said. “But for some reason, that concept never seems to enter into the conversation—that there’s an advocate for taxpayers.”
On the challenge of oversight and advocacy in Evanston, he explained the limitations faced by local Republicans.
“There’s no advocate for taxpayers in Evanston,” he said. “Just being honest, the Republican Party of Evanston has meager resources. We’re basically a bunch of working people, not working for the government. We are independent private sector people trying to do our jobs. So we don’t have the resources to really be a taxpayer advocate.”
Foley criticized low civic engagement in Evanston, pointing to voter turnout as a key example.
“You’ve got an apathetic community. For instance, in the school board elections, maybe 30% of people vote.”
And when voters do turn up Foley said they routinely select the worst candidates.
“Over 90% of the community of Evanston votes overwhelmingly for Jan Schakowsky, overwhelmingly votes for Robyn Gabel,” he said. “Evanston had a chance to vote for a more centrist Democrat for mayor in (Jeff) Boarin. Roughly 65% of Evanston voted for Daniel Biss.”
Biss, a former state senator, proposed raising Illinois’ income tax to the highest in the country while running for governor in 2018.
Meanwhile, Schakowsky, who has represents Illinois’ 9th Congressional District since 1999, was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America early in her political career and held a leadership role in the Midwest Academy, a group with covert socialist leanings that sought to influence the Democratic Party from within.
Schakowsky was also once accused of being compromised by foreign agents. In a 2009 interview, Sibel Edmonds, a whistleblower working as a translator for the federal government, alleged that Turkish intelligence operatives targeted Schakowsky by orchestrating a same-sex seduction and secretly recording the encounter for purposes of extortion.
Foley argued that Evanston’s political homogeneity leaves little room for alternative viewpoints or accountability.
In a city where the Republican Party claims fewer than 300 members in a population of 75,000, Foley admits the opposition to such candidates is limited—but says that must change.
“The Evanston Republican Party is very outmanned,” he said.
