Community Corner

Does Evanston Need A Performing Arts Center Downtown?

The city may create a task force to identify a location for a performing arts center downtown and advise officials on how to construct and operate the center.

Evanston aldermen may take the first steps toward creating a downtown performing arts center at Monday night’s city council meeting.

As part of the agenda, they are expected to vote on a motion to create a task force to identify a location for the performing arts center and advise the city on how to construct and operate it. 

City officials and other groups in Evanston have been talking about creating more performing arts space downtown for years, according to a memo written to the council from city manager Wally Bobkiewicz. In 2011, the Downtown Evanston business group commissioned a study evaluating whether the Varsity Theatre (1710 Sherman Ave.) could be reused for performing arts groups, and the city commissioned another study on performing arts needs in Evanston the following year.

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Consultants on the city’s study concluded that Evanston had lots of smaller, successful performing arts groups that needed room to grow. Based on conversations with local theaters and Evanston stakeholders, as well as Northlight Theatre in Skokie, the consultants concluded that the city needed at least four different performing arts venues of varying sizes. They estimated costs for all three theatres at nearly $150 million, but did not determine a source of funding.

Also on Monday night’s agenda: a “safe school zone” at ETHS 

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Earlier in August, council members agreed to delay introduction of a resolution that would establish a “safe school zone” around Evanston Township High School. That resolution appears again on Monday night’s agenda, but it’s unclear whether council members will introduce it Monday or punt the issue again.

As proposed, the safe school zone would extend certain policing powers to the sidewalk across the street from the high school, and many residents have raised concerns over what that would mean for the civil rights of neighbors. At a meeting of the city-school liaison committee last week, Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl suggested that the city should collect a month’s worth of data from police officers on situations where a “safe school zone” would come into play before making a decision.

 

 

 

 

 


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