Evanston beach passes will be available for purchase beginning Monday as the city prepares for the summer season.

Swimming beaches will open on May 29. To be eligible for entry to a beach during operating hours, community members must have a season beach pass or a daily pass. 

Residents who live in zip codes 60201 or 60202 and can provide supporting documents listed in the fee assistance application or the District 65 Recreation Scholarship letter sent by the school district qualify for fee assistance. The 50 percent discount is valid for one year, and can be used for recreational programs, classes, camps and beach tokens.

Further, Parks and Recreation director Lawrence Hemingway told The Daily in March that all Evanston Township High School students between 14 and 18 years old can pick up a free 10-punch beach pass, and families that qualify for free-and-reduced lunch can obtain free beach tokens at any community center throughout the city. 

Despite these programs, historians and advocates say beach admission fees are a city effort to block marginalized residents from the lakefront — and a practice repeated throughout Evanston history.

Beach tokens will be available for in-person pick up at the Evanston Ecology Center, the Robert Crown Center, the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, the Chandler-Newberger Community Center and the Levy Senior Center.

This year, the city partnered with Viply to provide residents a digital option to purchase their passes via the Viply app. 

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Twitter: @delaneygnelson

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