Growing in Chicago, Irv Levinson spent many days playing sports and taking classes at a local recreation center.
“It was a place for a young guy to grow up,” he said.
Now Levinson, 71, would like to see one near his home in southeast Evanston.
Evanston City Council accepted a study April 22 that stated there is a need for a recreation center in southeast Evanston. But Mayor Lorraine Morton said that though City Council had accepted the survey, no city funds or staff labor would be used to investigate the project’s feasibility.
“The directive was we were not supposed to pursue this at this time,” said Doug Gaynor, Evanston’s director of parks, forestry and recreation.
Brailsford & Dunlavey, the Washington-based firm that surveyed southeast Evanston residents, presented three proposals for a possible center. The least expensive option would cost more than $7 million, making it a heavy burden on a city with an almost $4 million budget deficit.
As a candidate for alderman of the 8th Ward in 1973, Levinson said he touted the idea of a recreation center in southeast Evanston and considered the air space a possibility. He has his own idea where the money for the center should come from.
“I urge Northwestern to make a lasting contribution to the city by making a generous donation for this recreation center,” Levinson said. “We’d stop nagging you for at least a year. We’ll even name it in honor of the president of Northwestern.”
Brailsford & Dunlavey’s study concluded that there were no indoor recreation facilities within a 10-minute walk of the area bounded by Ridge Avenue to the west, Chicago Avenue to the east, Oakton Street to the north and Howard Street to the south.
The firm’s most expensive proposal would involve buying the air space over the Skokie Swift El tracks and constructing a bridge that would include a recreation center.
The proposal, which calls for the creation of 100 parking spaces, would cost more than $15 million.
At a community meeting in January, Levinson again proposed the center be built in the air space.
“Nobody lives there,” he said in January. “Birds fly over there.”
A second option would cost more than $10 million and would be built on what is now a parking lot at the intersection of Clyde Avenue and Brummel Street. Under the third and least expensive proposal, the center would be built on the parking lot at the intersection of Sherman Avenue and Austin Street and would cost more than $7 million.
Though the center might not be built for a long time, if at all, it has strong support in southeast Evanston. Residents came to the April 22 council meeting to voice their opinions about the need for a center.
“All we need and all we ask for is to have something nice in our area,” resident Charles Loiseau said.
