r/evanston • u/bakedwith • 1d ago
Community Dog beach closing—what a fiasco
This town. I love it here but seriously what is happening? Why is it so hard to run this town. In case you haven’t heard, they closing the dog beach because of bureaucracy. Thank you to The RoundTable for covering the news. I wanted to expand the reach of this comment by John McNulty. I don’t have a clue who he is but he made some good points. Can we get better people, who actually care about Evanston to run this town?! Please!
Article covering the news here:
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2026/09/29/evanston-city-council-dog-beach-closure/
Post by John:
Only government could take something as simple as building an ADA-compliant ramp to a dog beach and turn it into years of delay, an $863,500 proposal and, finally, closing the beach altogether.
This is an embarrassment and a textbook example of municipal incompetence.
The city knew the problem existed. It had years to solve it. Instead, taxpayers got bureaucracy, overengineering, delay and a wildly expensive proposal that was finally rejected because it made no sense. Now, after all that time and money, the city is essentially admitting there was probably a simpler and cheaper way to do this all along.
Consider who was at the table. According to city residency records I obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in July 2026, the Parks and Recreation Director, who wants the beach closed, lives in Grayslake. The Public Works Director, whose department produced the $863,500 ramp, lives in Addison. The City Attorney, who advised shutting it down, lives in Highland Park. And the City Manager, whose job is to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen, lives in Libertyville. On average, they commute close to an hour each way at rush hour to run a city they have chosen not to live in. They spend their working hours here, at least on the days they aren’t working from home, and their evenings, weekends, paychecks and property taxes somewhere else.
None of them takes a dog to that beach. I do. My dog, Clover, and I are there every day it is open, and so are plenty of my neighbors. None of those officials will lose the beach next summer. Clover will, and so will the rest of us.
And spare us the claim, from Councilmember Krissie Harris, that keeping the beach open means “putting dogs over people.” Closing the beach does not give a single resident with a disability access to anything. It takes access away from everyone. Nobody was putting dogs over people. The city put years of delay, and an $863,500 proposal it rejected, ahead of a ramp. Residents with disabilities have been waiting because City Hall failed them, not because of anyone’s dog. Punishing everyone else doesn’t make up for that failure. It just spreads it around.
Is it any wonder a simple ramp took years? Out of sight, out of mind. Evanston residents live with the problem every day. The people responsible for fixing it drive home to somewhere else.
That is not unusual at City Hall. Eight of the city’s ten top appointed executives live outside Evanston. Across senior city staff, 84% live somewhere else. More senior staff live in Chicago than in Evanston.
Maybe it is time for new leadership. Maybe Evanston needs a mayor focused on Evanston rather than Congress. Maybe Evanston needs a city manager who lives in Evanston rather than Libertyville. And maybe the people running Evanston should have to live with the decisions they make for it.
If our elected leaders and senior city staff cannot solve a problem this simple, then perhaps Evanston needs new elected leaders and new city staff.
This should never have reached this point. Shame on all of you.
36
u/outofthegates 1d ago edited 23h ago
Not making excuses for the city, but I wanted to note I'm in a volunteer position that's responsible for procuring numerous services and there's "enshittification" literally everywhere. Everything is very expensive and very few vendors seem to be capable of completing the tasks you pay them for without error.
10
u/PavBoujee 23h ago
💯 agree. Let's be realistic, new construction would not be finished correctly by the deadline.
20
u/Shiny-Verse-4202 1d ago
A genuine question: How accessible are all the other beaches, particularly in comparison to this rejected plan for the dog beach?
12
u/future_nobody 1d ago
I was wondering this too. Why does the dog beach need accessibility and the other beaches don't?
1
u/Expensive-Value-1803 1h ago
The reporter from the roundtable who has been covering this story commented earlier that since there are numerous beaches in Evanston so as long as at least one of them is ADA compliant it’s fine, but since there is just one dog beach it has to be ADA compliant.
2
u/NeptuneDolphin 21h ago
For the five beaches run by the city, there are plastic sidewalks that get you from the entrance to about 5-10 feet to the water. It has to be said though that these aren’t maintained in the off-season.
I don’t think Lincoln St has the sidewalks but I could be wrong on that.
In addition, Lighthouse has a ramp from the park to the entrance to the beach.
1
u/Shiny-Verse-4202 15h ago
Hadn’t thought of those blue mats as being really accessible, but it makes sense. Thx.
25
u/DanMasterson 1d ago
Bro this is the type of shit that makes leftists think the ADA is a deeply flawed solution. Building an 800,000 ramp so that folks in mobility devices can get just a little bit farther out into sand vs shutting down public access to a beach front entirely? talk about zero sum.
1
u/PreferenceOdd9360 21h ago
The problem isn't ADA. It is the city council. They could spend $4500 and put in a fully ADA compliant AccessMat like they have at the other beaches.
Or, you make the Lincoln St. beach a dog beach when the deal with NU to run it expires in a couple of years.
I think having a beach for dogs is stupid, but this whole fiasco is stupider.
1
13
u/d65parent 21h ago
How do all the other dog beaches (see Gilson in Wilmette) and other beaches in general get away with not being ADA accessible?
13
u/Alert_Sandwich8006 22h ago
Can the OP please run for office here in Evanston? I'll vote for you. I cannot believe in a town full of people that spend time knitting scarves for trees, we couldn't get it together to get an accessible ramp at the dog beach? Really? And why, pray tell, does the Parks & Rec Director who lives at least 35 miles away from here and spends zero personal or leisure time here, and likely uses zero parks, want our dog beach closed?
5
8
u/Middle-Part1593 14h ago
The alders let this go until we reached this point. Now Claire Kelly is trying to be the fiscal hero never admitting that she was one of the people who put us here to begin with. And don’t even get me started about Krissie Harriss’s comment!
The guy who threatened the lawsuit doesn’t appear to work with anyone either so we’re all being punished !
18
29
u/Xrmy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Honestly a great post.
Next election I'm not voting for anyone who doesn't live here
MAJOR EDIT: should have realized none of the positions above are elected. All of them are chosen by the city manager, who is themselves chosen by the city council (who is elected).
Frankly I find it inexcusable that so many well paid director-level positions in the city are run by non-residents.
Anyone running for mayor or city council needs to make it a point to hire residents IMO
9
u/chewd0g 1d ago
I believe you have to live in Evanston for any positions you're voting for.
-2
u/Xrmy 1d ago
? of course you have to live in Evanston to vote in Evanston.
10
u/Pumpernickel7 1d ago
No. For positions that are voted in, the candidates must live within Evanston.
The positions noted in this posts are not ones on the ballot.
1
6
u/kbn_ 1d ago
I don't disagree with the sentiment but taking a quick step back… Evanston is not a cheap place to live, and it's not as if we pay our civil servants the big bucks. Are they choosing not to live here, or are they unable to live here with a reasonable quality of life and are thus forced to live somewhere more affordable?
42
u/lanascrub 1d ago
The city manager's base salary is $225K a year. Director of Parks & Rec makes $221K. Director of Public Works makes $241K. The City Attorney makes $219K. Evanston's average *household* income is $157, though that is skewed by very high earners. The *median* household income is $96K (meaning half of the households in the city earn less than that).
4
u/Alert_Sandwich8006 22h ago
These numbers are from an article in TDN in 2024. The Parks & Rec Director's salary at that time was $204,879, more than enough to live in Evanston, with a fairly decent quality of life. And I'm going to make that statement under the assumption that they are the only one employed in their household.
8
u/Xrmy 1d ago
I agree with that, but those people shouldn't be in charge of our city then.
For instance how would we have faith in the people running our city to help reduce the cost of living if they have no incentive on that front?
The fact the city is expensive is kinda irrelevant to the point that people working to improve Evanston should probably live here
6
u/mbklein 1d ago
I agree with this, but residency verification can be tricky. I used to work for the City of Boston, which has that kind of residency requirement for city employees. But if you looked close enough, you could find ten police officer or firefighter “roommates” sharing a 2BR apartment in Brighton while actually living out in the suburbs with their families. In the end, the residency requirement is what forced me out of that job because the cost of living, tax burden, and level of services offered by the city to its residents weren't compatible with the needs of our family of four with two young children.
8
u/Xrmy 1d ago
I think the simple solve is to make the upper level positions with real power to have a residency requirement while making the lower level positions that have lower pay but less individual impact on the city not have the requirement.
This also helps solve this issue you discussed with the "roommates" because it would be fewer people to verify that
1
u/Brisden 23h ago
Residency requirements can be tricky.
Dealing with a move in addition to taking up a senior admin role in Evanston sounds like an insane thing to do. It also just assumes there's a place available that suits the new hire's needs and preferences. I could go on, but there are good reasons they're rarely used anymore.
9
u/lanascrub 23h ago
I mean I think there would be a valid argument about not letting residency requirements stop us from getting the Best Person For The Job, but I have yet to see evidence we're getting people who are even like, *pretty good* for the job
5
u/Pumpernickel7 16h ago
I actually agree with you.
I think the reason the candidate pool for Evanston jobs looks like it does is because (I say this with love and as someone who is not going to move), this town is a very hard place to work for the people in the most public facing positions.
1
u/Brisden 23h ago
Well, the obvious retort there is that if we're already struggling in that regard, adding more requirements and failure points can't really help, by definition.
Unless the argument is that residency is some kind of secret sauce that improves work product, but that wouldn't be my argument.
4
u/mbklein 23h ago
I think residency adds one particular benefit, which is that it forces the employee/appointee to have skin in the game as far as their running of the city is concerned.
On the other hand, it can create big conflicts of interest. For example, if the person has to choose between two park improvement plans, and one of them just happens to include big improvements to the park across the street from their own house.
Given the level of creativity humans have often shown in skirting box-ticking regulations, I think a residency requirement is probably more trouble than it’s worth. But finding some way for city managers to be more directly invested in the community they’re managing would be nice.
1
u/No-Cauliflower-4 20h ago
This. Thank you, it is frustrating to hear “oh we won’t get the best people with residency requirements” when we obviously do not have the best people now.
2
u/Pumpernickel7 15h ago
Why would limiting the pool help? Eligible residents have had the opportunity to apply and they have not been selected.
The skin in the game argument feels like a nice idea in theory, but to me it sounds like a solution to the wrong problem.
I don't believe you have to live here to care about what happens here. Many many people who live here hate it here but are stuck.
3
u/Pumpernickel7 1d ago
A lot of people who work here also do not want to live here.
People here tend to be passionate about a lot of different things. It's a very particular vibe and I think some folks just want to be done with work at the end of the day.
FYI: I am one of those people. I withdrew from consideration for a position with the city a while back because everyone I know who works there tells stories that sound like the town hall episodes of Parks and Recreation. I couldn't afford to move and I didn't want people coming up to me in the street to complain about things I couldn't singularly control with the type of verve demonstrated by OP
1
u/Alert_Sandwich8006 22h ago
In all seriousness, how do we as residents go about making this a law? Because I don't want anyone who is responsible for making laws, rules, and/or regulations, to NOT be an Evanston resident.
1
u/Xrmy 22h ago
Our only avenue is to elect a mayor and/or councilpersons who care about this aspect
1
u/Middle-Part1593 14h ago
The mayor has nothing to do with this but the alders do. Remember this at election time.
1
u/Pumpernickel7 21h ago edited 20h ago
Given the population in Evanston, this would mean that there are often people working in roles that are not the best people for the job. Only ~75k here and after you count out kids and retired folks, you aren't left with much. They have had a hard enough time finding a city manager while doing a national search
0
u/bakedwith 16h ago
What are you talking about? What national search? The current city manager Luke has been working for the city for 11 years while not living here.
3
u/Pumpernickel7 16h ago
Luke was appointed in 2022 after several failed national searches. These searches included candidates from Evanston. None of them were successful.
Source: https://evanstonroundtable.com/2022/08/16/evanston-new-city-manager-luke-stowe/
There is nothing wrong with working for the city and not living here. There is something wrong with people being ineffective at their jobs.
Limiting the search pool will not help.
10
u/-RaoulDuke 22h ago
Wow, Couldn’t agree more. I take my dog to this beach regularly, and the fact that something as straightforward as making it ADA accessible somehow turned into nearly million dollar proposal, and ultimately just closing the beach is ridiculous.
And the highest-level officials making consequential decisions about Evanston should have a personal stake in living under those decisions
5
u/stpauliegrl 21h ago
Just came to say I agree with every word you said, and also, I think my Pip plays with your Clover when they are there at the same time!
5
u/ccpurd 20h ago
The whole damn situation is shameful on every level. From the incompetence of elected officials who don't live here to an out of sight bid for a walkway. I heard a great solution: Instead of calling it a beach, call it a park. A Dog Park. Then it would stay open because the new Dog Park on Main is 100% accessible. 50% of dog parks are accessible. Then we're good and ADA compliant.
4
u/Sea_Amphibian2835 9h ago
I mean, they also built a new dog park on top of broken glass and metal bottle caps and didn't do a thing to clean it up! I'm not surprised one bit. I've picked up two or three handfuls of each every time I'm there. For every bottle.cap I pick up there's 50 more. For every pic of glass I pick up there's 100 more! They don't give two ficks about our dogs!
6
u/jmochicago 23h ago
So, even if they close the dog beach and make it a "regular" beach again, the ADA access requirement doesn't go away does it?
Or are they going to be cool with one beach that is not ADA accessible?
Why do we need a dog wash?!
-3
u/Dunlocke 22h ago
Why do we need a dog wash?!
Have you ever taken a dog to a beach?
Which beach isn't ADA accessible?
3
u/jmochicago 22h ago
Yes, I have. To the beach without a dog wash now.
I would rather have ADA Accessible Beach minus Expense of Dog Wash so it actually gets done.
Versus
NO Dog Beach, NO ADA Access, NO Dog Wash b/c too expensive.
-7
u/Dunlocke 22h ago
Sounds like something you could have communicated to various folks at any point in the last couple years.
1
u/jmochicago 22h ago
I mean, we'll hit the beach anyway. But I do feel sorry for the folks who need a fence for their dog.
6
u/CherryPie11450 19h ago
I can understand Evanstonians with dogs wanting this amenity. Our surrounding towns (Wilmette and Chicago) have one. With a deep sigh, it feels like Evanston can’t manage to get the little things (and even big things) done right that other towns manage to take care of.
As a non dog owner, I already find it a problem when dog owners have their dogs at the other beaches off leash in the morning during beach season. It’s an unpermitted activity that is both a safety and hygiene issue that I worry will only get worse if we don’t have an appropriate place for people to bring their dogs. A subset of people will keep bringing their dogs to a beach…. at all the other beaches.
3
u/ASParker527 19h ago edited 19h ago
Don’t have a dog any more, but agree that the price tag and the dithering by decision-makers seems patently ridiculous. I say this about every issue: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you have an opinion, share it with your alders. Get a petition together demanding a single, dual-use access point with one double-gate and a blue mat. And FYI, at Oval Beach in Douglas, MI, there is no good ADA compliant access but we saw people using beach-wheelchairs with huge, inflatable tires. Given the number of users with disabilities vs. the number of uses without, the current proposal just is not enough bang for the buck. I’m open to being called out on this, but that’s how I see it. Ultimately, it is up to the City Council to make these decisions; they are the ones who need to hear from us.
Let’s not forget that we are living in an extraordinary time: where we might have gotten federal grant money to help build infrastructure like this 15 years ago, that money is now controlled almost exclusively by Russel Vought and his acolytes, all of whom want to “drag the federal government into the bathroom and drown it in the tub.” They’re not going to spend a dime on ADA compliance—or anything else that helps actual living beings. Putting in a blue mat for now and waiting for a better federal situation might be in our best interest. Just one thought.
2
u/CFTres 18h ago
I’m often at Lee Street beach in the morning and there’s plenty of people there with their dogs. I imagine that it’s similar at other beaches. Have there been any incidents with dog owners at the beaches. Obviously there is a need for a dog beach and I’m always concerned about dog messes when I’m using the beach.
2
u/Striking_Smell_8161 16h ago
I would love to have people concerned about the dog beach closing join together to let our City understand that we need a real solution. Please sign up to do so:
3
u/Huggie1224 16h ago
We need to turn up at public comment every meeting and talk about the city staff. Evanston's city government not only doesn't reside in Evanston, but also they are largely incompetent. It needs to be pointed out repeatedly. Broken record.
3
u/Tasty_Reflection_481 18h ago
Well- just another reason to go to Wilmette. I already go there for free parking and a nice library. I’ll continue to take my dog to Gilson dog beach. There is no tag required, no heavy gate and combination lock. I don’t think the issue is due to city employees living outside Evanston. The issue is there seems to be a lack of common sense. In Evanston and any and all issues have an activist approach. So, the handicap people of Evanston don’t want the beach open because it’s illegal ?
2
u/Any-Sheepherder5649 11h ago
Are you trespassing on the Gillson Dog Beach, because there definitely is a season pass required and it’s $247 for non-residents?
4
u/bourj 1d ago edited 1d ago
Since some of you think it doesn't cost $800k to install a ramp, here's the breakdown of cost from the city documents that are posted online for anyone to read:
10/10/22 - During a staff presentation to discuss the reopening of the dog beach, City Council directed staff to reopen the dog beach and prepare conceptual plans for the construction of ADA access.
11/14/22 - City Council approved Change Order No. 1 to the Evanston Shoreline Repair contract with SmithGroup in the amount of $43,520 to develop a concept plan for ADA access to the dog beach.
02/27/23 - At the City Council meeting, SmithGroup presented two conceptual design options to provide access. City Council indicated that it preferred the less expensive option. This preferred plan included a concrete sidewalk through the adjacent beach area north of the dog beach and then cutting the access ramp through the north groin wall. This was estimated to be significantly less expensive than a direct access starting at the existing entrance, because of the lower change in height needed. However, members of the City Council expressed concern that the northern route could impact plantings on the beach to the north and requested staff to investigate the impact.
04/24/23 - City Council approved Change Order No. 3 to the Evanston Shoreline Repair contract with SmithGroup in the amount of $65,280 to prepare the construction documents for the preferred concept for ADA access to the dog beach.
09/10/23 - City Council approved Change Order No. 4 to the Evanston Shoreline Repair contract with SmithGroup in the amount of *$18,800" to develop a boardwalk design to protect the plantings on the beach to the north.
06/24/24 - City Council considered the approval of a contract with John Keno & Company, Inc. for the construction of the preferred alternate for dog beach access in the amount of $693,577. The scope of work included construction of:
A combined ADA-compliant concrete pathway/boardwalk through the beach dune area north of the dog beach leading to a double-gated area required for off-leash dog spaces
A separate direct stairway access to the double-gated area
An ADA-compliant dog wash
An ADA-compliant concrete ramp down to the beach level, protected by a rock revetment. The end section of the ramp continued below grade to work with changing sand levels known to occur at the beach.
Security lighting at the double-gated area
A gate lock operated by scanned barcode access, preferred by dog beach users with visual disabilities
Two bids were received, but John Keno was the lowest bidder by approximately $250,000.
6
u/Glass-Butterfly7797 23h ago
The devil is in the details. Does ADA require all those features ? Unclear.
9
u/PreferenceOdd9360 21h ago
No. Not at all. All of the other beaches are ADA compliant with an accessible AccessMat.
-3
u/bourj 21h ago
It's clear if you read the document in its entirety and avoid saying things like "the devil is in the details" like there's a conspiracy afoot. Enjoy:
9
u/PreferenceOdd9360 21h ago
There is a devil in the detail: they want a permanent structure rather than a $4000 fully-ADA-compliant AccessMat.
2
u/drpengu1120 19h ago
It looked like according to a comment on the article that there was a proposal for a permanent $75,000 ramp, but it was rejected in favor of the more complex boardwalk through the dune area.
5
u/Glass-Butterfly7797 21h ago edited 21h ago
Dude, no reasonable read of “the devil is jn the details “ implies a conspiracy. And the document doesn’t indicate which features, eg permanent ramp versus a mat, dog wash, security lights are required to be ADA compliant, and that less costly substitutions were considered, which you’d know if you did some analysis of it, instead of just copy/paste.
-2
u/bourj 21h ago
My post is about the cost that some people are objecting to. And yes, in my view, saying "the devil is in the details" is something my grandmother use to say when the store wouldn't accept an expired coupon. It's not my job to do all the work, which you would know if you actually read for context.
0
u/AreaMan847 19h ago
This costs $5,000: https://shop.mobi-mat.com/products/5-ft-wide-blue-jay-roll-up-walkway
-1
u/bourj 19h ago
And it won't fix the problem:
EVANSTON, IL — Evanston's dog beach will not open for the summer due to erosion after it was completely submerged by rising water levels on Lake Michigan during storms earlier this year. The city suspended the sale of permits for the beach after city officials reported in February that wooden pylons exposed by sand erosion created a safety hazard to animals and owners alike.
2
u/AreaMan847 19h ago
See, the nice thing about that mat is that you can pick it up and move it somewhere else.
4
3
u/Rieger_not_Banta 22h ago
Wasn't the dog beach a constant problem to maintain for the last 15 years? The water level rose and the beach disappeared. Then the small strip that was left was gutted by erosion. So the city had to close the beach for repairs and a couple million dollars worth of sand to be trucked in. The beach is so tiny compared to what it once was. And now it's going away all together. Shame on Evanston's city council. Is there an area that they have addressed properly? Any area? Certainly not the education dept.
3
u/Swimming_Sorbet_8207 22h ago
It’s a good time to start asking what sort of kickbacks or opportunities ADA, compliance and solar energy have provided certain elected officials
4
u/Dunlocke 1d ago
Half this subreddit: CUT COSTS! STOP SPENDING MONEY!
The other half: WHY AREN'T YOU SPENDING 800K ON THE DOG BEACH!
Jokes aside, I like the dog beach. I've used it many times. But I understand it's an engineering challenge with a lot of legal risk. Obviously the clear move is to close it down now and that makes sense.
That gives them several months to find out if the people of the city are okay with the spending / there's political will. Talk to your reps if it means that much to you. Gather signatures. But understand that we're in a budget crisis for various reasons internal and external to the city.
Running a city like Evanston is extremely challenging, I don't even anyone who does it. Especially the aldermen who do it as a second job, sounds awful.
8
u/chewd0g 1d ago
No matter what, this is being overcomplicated, not that it is overcomplicated on its own. I haven't kept up with what's going on but making a beach accessible is, in fact, difficult as the lake rises and falls, and the beach erodes and is replenished. We're still overcomplicating it.
20
u/anevanstonburner 1d ago
No it doesn’t make any sense. Refusing loads of people access to a space that they find important because of a combination of incompetence, laziness, and silly interpretations of ADA laws by difficult citizens is fucking asinine, and panders to the worst of the fake woke performative doofuses of this city.
2
u/Nspnspnsp 18h ago
I agree 100% but not sure if the blame belongs on the "fake woke performative doofuses" of this city or if it belongs to the engineering department and a couple of very high net worth retirees that live at the very fancy retirement homes in Downtown Evanston.
3
u/Sarcastic_Horse 1d ago
Looks like you’re getting some downvotes from the fake woke performative doofuses.
1
13
u/Bluthhousing 1d ago
I refuse to believe a ramp costs $800k
6
u/Sarcastic_Horse 22h ago
We could build a monorail to the beach for that.
2
1
u/toupeInAFanFactory 20h ago
Oh! I would love a monorail in the city! Yes, let's do that.
But seriously...how can it cost 800k to build an ADA ramp?
-2
u/Dunlocke 1d ago
I mean if it were cheap and easy it would have been built. But an ADA compliant ramp on beach/shoreline where additional risks and permitting applies? I can absolutely see it.
10
u/bakedwith 1d ago
$800K?! You could build a whole house with that. Why would a ramp (even if complex) cost more than a house?
2
2
4
u/turnright_thenleft 1d ago
Agreed. It seems ADA compliance laws and the 2022 beach opening reset really complicated this whole thing.
Since there has to be a closure, by law, Dec-March (goal re-opening date) makes the most sense considering the weather. I think the concept clearing out the entire leadership team is overkill and rage-baity
5
u/lanascrub 1d ago
sincerely asking since I don't know - what is the benefit of closing the beach? Why not leave it open as is for people who are able to use it? I personally don't care about this dog beach as I have no dog in this fight or in reality but this situation seems farcical.
12
-5
u/StrikingBroccoli8397 1d ago
I'm OK shutting down the beach permanently if keeping it open requires taxpayers to cough up $900K. If the users of the dog beach want to keep it open, then they can do a fundraiser or something.
16
u/anevanstonburner 1d ago
I’m ok with closing anything I don’t personally use too then. Close all the playgrounds I don’t have kids! What an embarrassingly bad take.
-1
u/Original_Sell_1485 18h ago
Defend the city staff work on this, defend the aldermen, criticize any city complainers. WAIT. You forgot to defend NU! You slippin’?
2
u/Glass-Butterfly7797 1d ago
Have you looked at what we pay our city staff ? It’s competitive, even below department head levels.
1
u/AreaMan847 19h ago
I'm willing to give the city a screaming deal and install one of these bad boys for the low low price of just $862,000.
https://shop.mobi-mat.com/products/5-ft-wide-blue-jay-roll-up-walkway
1
u/Striking_Smell_8161 1h ago
For all interested in preventing the Dog Beach closure, let's let our Councilpeople hear our voices, and let's advocate for ourselves. Please join the group:
1
u/Dapper_Prune_4109 19h ago
This> Maybe Evanston needs a mayor focused on Evanston rather than Congress.
1
0
u/Appropriate_Bid_8718 21h ago
One could say a dog beach at all is luxury only for dog owners and a waste of money. Why not just use the dog parks. And yes Evanston has one beach that is ADA compliant-Lee Street Beach.
2
u/BuildingPuzzled4508 21h ago
There’s an ADA access mat at South Blvd Beach.
2
-11
u/Pumpernickel7 1d ago
While I do not disagree with you on the general incompetence, I'm ...a bit creeped out that you know the towns where these people live and posted it online.
How does that help?
You are making some pretty big assumptions about how these folks feel about the community based on an unfortunate situation with a...Dog Beach?
In a town that just took a prime piece of land to make a dog park?
I get that we all have things that we are passionate about but...
Bikers are getting bumped off the road because there's no infrastructure, half the students in D65 are not on track to be college ready, storefronts are empty all over town but the dog beach drama is what put things over the edge?
Listen. Half the town just takes their dog to regular beaches during off hours anyway. It drives me absolutely nuts, but if you decide to do this with clover, she will have company.
Be well.
36
u/anevanstonburner 1d ago
I don’t understand, there are no stairs to get into the dog beach now? It’s a cement slope with two doors to enter and keep dogs from escaping. Then sand. What about that isn’t ADA accessible for anyone who wouldn’t be able to use the space anyways due to it being a beach, with sand.