McKinley Park Neighborhood Plan

McKinley Park’s economy is largely made up of a network of small and locally owned businesses. While this contributes to the neighborhood’s diverse and unique commercial offerings, it can also make it difficult to coordinate and organize the business community. Throughout the planning process, community stakeholders emphasized their desire to maintain the diversity of the neighborhood’s businesses. Embarking on joint promotional campaigns and better equipping local businesses to work together will help McKinley Park better capitalize upon and attract business from residents and visitors.

Rather than relying upon each business to conduct individual marketing, the community should develop more community-wide promotional events and campaigns that highlight the diversity of restaurants and stores in McKinley Park. One strategy is to work closely with Choose Chicago, whose mission is to promote Chicago businesses to visitors, including developing collective web and print promotional materials that can greatly increase the advertising reach of McKinley Park establishments. Supplying Choose Chicago with a current directory and map of McKinley Park businesses — as well as basic text and other materials that provide cultural, commercial, and historical information about McKinley Park — will help Choose Chicago promote or cross-promote McKinley Park to potential visitors in other venues on behalf of the community.

A coordinated marketing campaign focused on the diversity of McKinley Park can help draw visitors, customers, and potential residents. A good starting point would be to make sure MPDC’s website and Facebook page reflect the diverse businesses and services of the neighborhood. In addition to continuing to promote community-wide events and programs, MPDC should use online guides and social media to create clear connections between festivals in the community and local businesses. Posting more physical signage or web-based directories about the many retail and dining options in McKinley Park can help direct visitors to more places when they arrive in the community. Putting up a comprehensive directory and map of businesses in areas like 35th and Archer, the Ashland commercial plaza, the CMD, or along the Archer corridor will help orient visitors when they arrive in commercial nodes and provide suggestions of places that they should visit.

A QR code feature could provide further information, such as recommended dishes and other guidance for visitors unfamiliar with the community. MPDC may explore the possibility of developing a mobile and web app that can provide directory information and dish recommendations. The “Go Lakeview” app from the Lakeview and Lakeview East Chambers of Commerce may provide a good model that could be adapted by MPDC.

Partner with a marketing program at a local university to develop a marketing campaign

As part of a larger marketing initiative, a good practice would be for business development groups (such as MPDC and 36Squared Incubator) to organize local business owners to design an innovative marketing campaign that highlights events and the diversity of restaurants and stores in the community. A partnership with a marketing strategy firm or marketing program at a local university would be one effective approach to developing a campaign. Potential partners include Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Business Administration, or Arturo Velasquez Westside Technical Institute’s Business and Professional Services program. Giving existing local businesses a central role in developing the campaign can help ensure that the strategy supports the longtime business owners who have invested in the neighborhood and its residents for decades, rather than just attracting new investors from elsewhere.

The marketing campaign should initially highlight the businesses that distinguish McKinley Park from other neighborhoods. For example, popular restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores that offer products that are hard to find elsewhere. It could be helpful to create a practical guide to the different cuisines currently available in the community, making it easy for the uninitiated to try an establishment — and perhaps a cuisine — they have never tried before. This practical guide can be made available at local businesses along the community’s commercial corridors, as well as online.

Organize community events designed to bolster visitors

Recognizing that events often require significant financial or staff support, the community should continue to employ strategies to help reduce barriers to event organizing. Some activities only require coordinated business promotion and advertisement rather than any active oversight or management. The typical preparations, labor, and costs associated with major events can be avoided by using decentralized event formats, for example, having a variety of stores and restaurants host informal musical performances throughout the day. Working closely with local businesses, as well as other partners such as local elected officials’ offices, MPDC should develop additional events designed to bolster visitors and stimulate the local economy. Some ideas include:

• Coordinating a Taste of McKinley Park or other themed dining promotions on a regular basis to showcase local cuisines and provide visitors with tips and suggestions about specialty dishes.
• Developing guided or self-guided tours of the neighborhood, with an attention to cultural or historic landmarks.
• Organizing art, film, or performance fairs that celebrate Latino/a, Chinese, and Chinese-American artists, filmmakers, musicians, and chefs (similar to the McKinley Park Farmers Market Concerts, Otro Ritmo Punk Music Concert Series, and the Make Music Chicago and Ma’s Day of Action with Yo-Yo Ma).
• Coordinating a scavenger hunt as a fun and participatory way to bring people to different places within McKinley Park and learn more about the community.

These activities can help to bring more foot traffic into local businesses and provide more visible advertising for McKinley Park’s many commercial establishments. To better meet this need, the community should develop campaigns that entice visitors to stay in McKinley Park for dining and shopping after such events through restaurant deals and storefront open houses.

Photo gallery from "McKinley Park Celebrates Memorial Day," published May 31, 2018, in the McKinley Park News: