'Racist' Policy Repealed: Evanston Beaches Now Free On Weekends

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston City Council voted Monday to phase out the city's policy of charging its residents for access to public beaches.

Starting this week, Evanston residents will no longer need a pass or a token on Saturdays, Sundays or Mondays to visit one of the six public swimming beaches operated by the city.

Aldermen also directed staff to come up with a plan for free beach access to all Evanston residents every day for the 2022 season. Previously, only Clark Street Beach was free to Evanston residents — and only on Mondays in June and July.

The new policy was adopted via a 5-4 vote on 4th Ward Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma's substitute motion, which replaced a plan 8th Ward Ald. Devon Reid placed on the agenda for Monday’s meeting shortly after he was sworn in two weeks ago.

Reid said Evanston's policy of charging for beach access is rooted in racism and emphasized that the City Council had already passed a resolution calling for an end to structural racism.

"I can't think of one policy that this city engages in that upholds structural racism more than charging for beach access," Reid said. He said the city's first Black alderman, the late 5th Ward Ald. Edwin Jourdain, had introduced measures to end segregation in public spaces like the lakefront back in the 1930s.

"The council said, 'We'll do it, but we'll do it by charging for beach access under the guise of keeping our beaches beautiful,'" according to Reid, who described the process of charging for beach access as "ridiculous" and "very clearly racist and classist."

"We don't charge for access to any other public space," Reid said. "We need to end this today."

---

Reid also questioned city staff over the estimated $1 million budget shortfall projected to result from ending the policy described in a memo from Lawrence Hemingway, director of the parks, recreational and community services department.

In North Shore lakefront communities between Evanston and Lake Forest, a park district with an independent board levies its own property taxes, sets its own budget and controls beaches separately from the municipality. In Evanston, the parks department receives its budget from the general fund and does not have its own board.

In his memo, Hemingway said the city was already set to lose out on the $200,000 in revenue due to its decision not to run an aquatics camp. That, combined with the loss of $1 million in anticipated revenue from the sale of beach passes would leave a 20 percent shortfall in his department's budget, he said.

"This shortfall would put the department in an unfavorable position trying to balance this fiscal year. It would require the elimination of existing positions, programs and events to make up this dollar amount," according to Hemingway's memo.

The parks director also warned of legal entanglements should the City Council implement a policy that only applies to Evanstonians.

"If we offered free beach access to [Evanston] residents and charged non-residents, we could be sued for discrimination and violation of equal protection. The rationale for offering free beach access to residents and charging non-residents would be creating a discriminatory classification scheme that must be related to a legitimate governmental purpose," he said.

In response to questions from Reid, Hemingway said it was possible to make the beaches free but he would much prefer doing so through in next year's budget.

"I'm not advocating that there remain a token process, I want to be clear about that," Hemingway told the council Monday.

---

"Just give the department the time to address this in a timely fashion through the budget process," he said. "My staff, when they see that tokens are going away and now we have a $1 million shortfall, my response has been, 'Look the council has to find that money.' But right now, I don't have a direct answer. Because everyone right now is concerned about programs, or their building being cut, or staffing cuts, if we don't have this $1 million."

Before a vote was taken on the proposal to immediately eliminate the beach tokens, Nieuwsma introduced a substitute motion, which superseded Reid's motion and took the city's top attorney by surprise.

"I join Councilmember Reid in the the sentiment that beach tokens are racist. Asking somebody to stand in line and prove their financial dire straits to qualify for a free token is humiliating. I believe that access to our community's most valuable natural resource that should be available to all Evanston residents, no matter how much money you make, for a variety of reasons," Nieuwsma said.

"Having said that, I'm mindful of the economic constraints that we are under, and the unintended potential consequences of making a change, not only on our budget, but if we're trying to make up money, something else is going to have to be cut, and who's going to be hurt if we cut another program?"

Nieuwsma suggested starting by expanding the city's policy of offering free access to Clark Street Beach to include Sundays and Mondays at all beaches for the entire season.

Ald. Clare Kelly, 1st Ward, opposed Nieuwsma's compromise proposal. She noted there was $700,000 sitting in the Fleet Management Fund at the end of last year that was never returned to the General Fund.

"The funding is there. We can do this. And if we don't do it, it's really just about stall tactics at this point," Kelly said. She said making the beaches free would be an appropriate way of rewarding Evanstonians for a stressful 18 months of living through the coronavirus pandemic, and it may even be an eligible expense for federal COVID-19 relief money.

"This is entirely possible financially. I'm going to absolutely fight that our taxes do not increase this year, and I say this with an eye on fiscal accountability and responsibility. We can do this financially. Not to do this now begs the question [of] what we're really doing."

Ald. Peter Braithwaite, 2nd Ward, said he had heard more from residents about this issue than any other during his decade on the council.

"I am in support of moving forward to the beach access, but we're talking about a million-dollar gap in our budget. We're attempting to do what we do during budget season, which I'm having a difficult time making that leap," Braithwaite said.

"And so, Erika [Storlie, city manager], just to put this into context, I think it's clear what we're supposed to be voting on, which is moving it to Human Services [Committee]."

But that was not what the City Council was actually voting on. In fact, Nieuwsma's substitute motion to make beach access free two days a week for the summer of 2021 and direct staff to prepare for it to be free seven days a week in 2022 was the one on the table.

"I don't think anyone tonight has proposed to kick anything to human services, although that was mentioned in some documents sent over by staff at some point," Mayor Daniel Biss noted.

---

Storlie said the budget implication of scrapping beach tokens was relatively minor, though it would lead to drawing down some money from reserves. By comparison, she pointed to the city's $250 million unfunded public safety pension liability.

"That's real numbers. So what we're talking about here is simply a rounding error in the grand scheme of all of the debts that the city currently holds, in addition to our debt service fund, which funds all of our capital projects. When we pay for capital projects, we don't put any cash toward them. We borrow all the money, every year. That's a practice that, as your city manager, I would recommend we don't do," Storlie said.

"Big picture: the city has many liabilities that we are responsible for paying. Many of them, pension funds included, are hundreds of millions of dollars. So this is just a policy discussion for the council. We can figure out a way to come up with $1 million, but it will draw down our fund balance and we will not be able to spend that money on anything else. We will not be able to pay down pension, we would not be able to pay down debt."

Nieuwsma's motion was adopted with the support of Braithwaite, 3rd Ward Ald. Melissa Wynne, 6th Ward Ald. Tom Suffredin and 7th Ward Ald. Eleanor Revelle.

After Nieuwsma indicate he would be open to adding an additional free day, Reid followed up with a motion to suspend the rules to enable Nieuwsma to make a motion to reconsider his substitute motion, swapping Sunday for Saturday. Both were adopted unanimously.

Kelly motioned to amend Nieuwsma's plan to also include free Sundays, which was approved by an 8-1 vote with Wynne voting against.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, former mayoral candidate Sebastian Nalls — who during his campaign described having personally witnessed waste during his time working under Hemingway inside the parks department — said putting a price on beach access negatively affects Black Evanston residents.

"Even though the wording of the ordinance does not say it in name, the consequences are one and the same," Nalls said.

"Even though we have been touted by many as being one of the most progressive cities in Illinois, we still have one of the most blatant forms of de facto segregation remaining as law in our city."

Ald. Cicely Fleming, 9th Ward, who said she personally had no interest in beachgoing, called on councilmembers to carefully consider throwing language equating diversity with cost.

"I want us to be racially equitable and all those kind of things but we can't keep talking about we have to make things free if we want Black people to attend. We are multifaceted people, and we don't always attend spaces based on cost," said Fleming, who is Black.

"That's a real pain in my ass that I'm going to keep pushing you guys on, because I think we do it and I think the community does it," she added. "We should not then be making policy decisions based on how many Black people came to the free beach. And then we're going to make a bus to get them in the 5th Ward, and then all kind of crazy nonsense. So let's just please be mindful of that stereotype that we put into our community."