City Taking Steps to Decrease Sex and Drug Dealing at Sheridan Square

The city of Evanston is hoping a change in parking rules on Sheridan Square will cut down on drug dealing and prostitution in the area.

The city’s Transportation and Parking Committee voted Wednesday to approve a six-month test of the restrictions after hearing complaints from residents that a diagonal parking area that faces lakefront riprap rocks north of the beach entrance has increasingly become a haven for illegal activities, according to Evanston Now.

If approved by the Council, new rules will make the 45 diagonal spaces along the rocks be limited to neighborhood residents all the time and the 16 spaces near the beach entrance open to the public but limited to a three hour limit.

Currently, parking there is open to anyone before 9 p.m. and after 6 a.m.

“We need to get these changes in place as quickly as possible,” said Third Ward Alderman Melissa Wynne. “We don’t have these activities elsewhere on the lakefront.”

A retired Chicago police officer notified the board of his experience in finding “soiled condoms and the small Ziploc bags used to sell narcotics” in the area with diagonal parking.

Read more via Evanston Now