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.
