The McKinley Park Development Council toured the Chicago Indoor Sports and Razzmatazz Family Fun Center at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, March 21, including a peek at business operations, updates on council projects and event announcements from neighborhood groups.
General Manager Simon Horwell led the tour and explained the single business's dual role in providing both huge indoor areas for soccer, basketball, volleyball and other sports, and a large, arcade-driven entertainment space with food and drinks.
Representatives from the McKinley Park Community Garden share plans for their spring build-out at the new garden location.Significant updates on council projects included a grant application to work with the Great Rivers Chicago project, which looks to connect and expand riverside parks, natural areas and pedestrian walkways. This potentially includes a full-blown river pathway stretching from downtown to nearby Park No. 571 in Bridgeport, and possibly over Bubbly Creek to McKinley Park, said council President John Belcik.
Representatives from the McKinley Park Community Garden shared their plans for this spring's build-out at the new garden location. Heather Breems and Katie Flores, representing the McKinley Park Advisory Council, informed the group of the park's plans to dramatically expand its natural area; they shared their call for volunteers to help their major planting event on Earth Day, April 22.
Flores also provided updates on the McKinley Park Play Garden and promoted the Play Garden Planting Day on April 15. The official launch of the play garden is this June, although kids have already found the partially constructed space and started playing, Flores said.
Other council business included reports from the business committee, the events committee and the committee managing the council's project with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) to create a neighborhood development plan. The beautification and culture committee shared their plans to move forward with finding local artists to create murals within the neighborhood.
The next meeting of the McKinley Park Development Council is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18, at Aquinas Literacy Center, 1751 W. 35th St., Chicago.
Katie Flores and Heather Breems, left, share plans for dramatic expansion of McKinley Park's natural area at the meeting.
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