If you've crossed the intersection of Green Bay Road and Emerson Street in the last 37 years, you've been treated to the aroma of Hecky's ribs. A part of Evanston passed away when Hecky Powell, 71, a graduate of Evanston Township HS, and Northeastern Illinois U, and founder of Evanston's landmark barbecue, died from covid-19 May 22nd. Hecky was an icon: a role model, father figure, and mentor to many young people.

Hecky's Barbecue is open 7 days a week. The smoker was turned off for a time following Hecky's death, but is grilling again. Hecky's has managed to keep on their entire staff during the pandemic, and is donating meals to hospital workers, shelters, and the Evanston Fire Department.

For many teenagers Hecky's Barbecue was their first job.
Hecky's motto: "It's the Sauce".  
Hecky Powell posed for a photo wearing a "No Mask No Sauce" mask to help Evanston's efforts to combat the coronavirus.
His days of making thousands of pounds of ribs a week are too soon behind him.

Evanston, IL, home of Hecky's Barbecue, is in the news. Evanston is one of the American and European cities that others can look to to understand how to reduce and eliminate traffic fatalities.

'Mayor Pete' Buttigieg, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, recently hosted the mayor of Evanston, IL, as well as several other American mayors of cities that have achieved zero traffic deaths in a year. "It sounds so remote to set out a vision for zero traffic deaths in a year some people might view it as pie in the sky," said Secretary Buttigieg, "but Hoboken, New Jersey hasn't had a single traffic fatality since 2018. There are things we can learn from Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ; Evanston,IL; Edina, MN, each of which has experienced at least one year and sometimes several years with zero traffic deaths. These are not the biggest cities in America, but they are not the smallest either. In Europe, Amsterdam and Copenhagen are among those cities that also might offer solutions.

"The goal - every year - is to add to the roster of cities that have zero traffic deaths in a year." What the Department of Transportation is "seeing is a level of intention, with mayors ready to use their visibility to call for greater safety culture: road design that encourages vehicles to ride at - and drive - at safe speeds, and measures that protect pedestrians, by installing the right kind of lighting signals, crosswalks, medians, and the way that the concrete bumps out into the street.

"Measures for a greater safety culture will be different from one city to another, but the more communities embrace safety as a goal and put serious resources into it, the more lives are going to be saved." That's why the federal government is helping on the resource side and the DOT is helping fund planning activities to effectively reach safety goals.

"One of the most important functions of the DOT is to enforce federal motor vehicle safety standards. We are constantly revising and refreshing those standards based on things like the familiar crash test dummy process and other things we can do to assess the safety of any vehicle that goes out on the road. We're doing continued research and work on new vehicles looking not only at the traditional measure of safety for the occupant, but also at the safety of these vehicles from the perspective of anybody who might come into contact with them at an intersection."