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Evan and I grabbed some patio seats at the Uptowner Cafe one recent spring afternoon. We chat about Las Vegas, (sub)urban planning, how to make your voice heard in local government, baseball, brain surgery, and drawbridges. Enjoy!
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Evan: I’m in urban planning, and any local government in North America needs that. My first position was in Durham, North Carolina, and during the pandemic I was looking for a bigger city. Las Vegas gave me an offer, and I was feeling that mystic, romantic, call to go west…you learn pretty quickly that it isn’t for everyone. I didn’t like the desert. A lot of the communities – including the Jewish community – were kind of exclusionary. And the job wasn’t what I expected it to be. I felt so disassociated from that that I needed a change.
Maryland came calling first [with a job offer]. But I was thinking, moving here, how do I get to enjoy a little bit of everything? So I moved to Alexandria, and every morning I go over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge praying that the drawbridge isn’t open. It’s just a great time on the Beltway.
Samuel: First time I’ve heard those words associated with the Beltway. What’s kept you here?
Evan: When I came here, there were so many Jewish organizations that were able to help me find my niche. I’ve been doing Shabbat Clusters, Trybal Gatherings, YJP stuff. Meanwhile, in Vegas, it was sort of just Chabad. It also helps that there’s so much to do here – museums, trendy restaurants. And, my mom works at the University of Virginia, so she’s here quite often, and definitely relies on me to help her go out to try different restaurants.
Samuel: You mentioned that the Vegas Jewish community felt inaccessible – how does that compare to the DMV?
Evan: The Jewish community [here] allows the spectrum of Jewishness; you fit into whatever level that you think is good. So if I want to go to observant Jewish events, I can go. If I feel like it’s too much and I just want conversation with other Jewish people, I can find the organization or group to do that. It doesn’t feel like I’m specifically doing Jewish things; it just so happens that the people I’m doing things with are Jewish and have similar values, yeah? That’s what I’ve really appreciated.
Samuel: The job that brought you here is in planning. What is that like?
Evan: I’ll start with this: anytime I travel to a new city, I find myself thinking about, like: do they have crosswalks here that are appropriate for ADA standards? Is the signal timing good? I’m thinking about the blueprints of the city, rather than the places I’m going. It ends up being this lens that I physically see whenever I go anywhere.
So, a lot of urban planning is focused on sustainability, livability, cost of living, ensuring that we’re utilizing our resources in the most sustainable and cost-effective ways. One of the things I’m looking at is the fabric of people’s communities – where they work, where they shop, where they live, if they have access to a park, if that access is safe and nearby. A lot of planning is balancing: how do we get people to the places that they need and want to go safely and efficiently? We can’t just plan for cars. We have to plan for people.
Samuel: For people who want to advocate for themselves in these planning decisions, how can they get involved?
Evan: If you’re organized and active in your local community, you will know more about the things that are directly impacting you in your everyday life – sometimes even more than what is happening at the state or federal level. If I were a person outside of the planning community and wanted to be more involved, I would definitely look up my local community groups, your organizers. We as the government hold open houses and events that talk about projects. Let us know what your thoughts and feelings are. Obviously, things cost money and take a lot of time, and we’re the planning department; we can only recommend things. We have elected officials that have to decide, and we have agencies that have to construct those things. It’s a long, difficult chain from idea to implementation, but you can get involved from the get-go.
Wherever you live, whatever you do, definitely get involved with people in your community. You don’t have to talk to all your neighbors, but you need to know what’s going on within your community. It’s where you work, it’s where you live, it’s where you sleep. It is the most impactful thing in your life.
Samuel: You’re a Texas Rangers fan. I’m a Philadelphia Phillies fan. I love baseball, but I talk to so many people who think it is too long, too boring, et cetera. Make the case for baseball.
Evan: I don’t work for the Washington Nationals – but, if you’re bored on a Tuesday night and there’s a home game, they have $5 concessions. If you want to go with your friends and talk about the week, or your plans coming up, or just want to be out having a good time instead of being stuck in your apartment, go! Get a ticket, drink a beer. You don’t even have to watch the game, it’ll just be going on. That’s one of my favorite things about baseball: there’s room for any amount of attention you want to give it.
Samuel: It’s one of the only sports where, reasonably, you can bring a book!
Evan: Exactly! When I lived in Durham, I lived near the minor league stadium. It was perfect. I could walk there from work, go with coworkers or friends, and the vibe was incredible. There’s the in-between innings stuff where they have people do races or bat spins, or the mascot drives around on a go-kart. Just wacky stuff.
There are baseball people who take it all seriously. Like when playoff time comes around, I’m not going to be messing around. But if it is a random day game in May, it’s an outdoor environment, the weather’s good…it’s a great time to just catch up or relax or watch the silliness on the field.
Samuel: Give me a prediction for this year.
Evan: The problem is they don’t let pitchers throw complete games anymore – but I want to say that when he gets back to pitching, Shohei Ohtani throws a no-hitter. He’s transcended the sport so much, and I’m absolutely shocked at how that happened. You don’t get a lot of people who can pitch and bat – and now he’s in one of the largest markets, and they just won the World Series. I don’t know what more he can really do. Maybe he hits for the cycle and throws a complete game shutout. He can just singlehandedly do it all. He’s close to the impact on baseball as Michael Jordan had on basketball.
Samuel: A few quick ones to close. What’s something you’re bad at?
Evan: I did band and a lot of music stuff in high school and college, so I have a lot of rhythm, but one thing I cannot do is dance. I was a playing performer, not a dancer. Do not catch me on the dance floor.
Samuel: What are you feeling proud about right now?
Evan: We released a preliminary plan for something at work and had a couple open houses to talk about that with our community. My supervisor and I established these open houses and they went very smoothly – things are going pretty good at work right now.
But ultimately, what I’m most proud about right now is that my dad had brain surgery in January, and two weeks later he was out of the hospital doing rehab, and a month later he’s basically back to normal. He was able to come visit last week, and it was his first time flying in a long time. He’s almost back to normal, and it’s one of the greatest things – to see your dad going through this and being almost fully healthy again.
Samuel: You can invite any three people to Shabbat dinner. Who are you bringing and why?
Evan: That’s a tough one. I think I’d go with Pudge Rodriguez, the guy who originally got me into baseball; Jane Jacobs, one of the godmothers of advocacy in city planning; and maybe my favorite actor right now, Walton Goggins – the actor, not his…interesting character on The White Lotus this season. I don’t think these three have any real crossover at all, but it sure would be interesting to see them interact with each other.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Evan: You’ll hear 25 opinions from 21 different people. And they’re all valid!
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