Raise a Glass to 10 Years: McKinley Park News Marks a Decade of Neighborhood Storytelling — and an Oktoberfest Is Coming to Celebrate the Community It Covers
By Socialhood News · Mckinley Park ·
Two milestones are landing in McKinley Park this fall, and they both point to the same thing: a neighborhood that has quietly built something durable. The first is a birthday. The second is a party — and neighbors are invited.
The McKinley Park News, the neighborhood's homegrown digital publication, is marking its 10th year of covering the Southwest Side. The outlet, which launched in 2016 with a singular focus on a single Chicago neighborhood, announced the milestone on its homepage this August. For a decade, McKinley Park News has operated as a genuinely rare thing in the current media landscape: a community publication dedicated exclusively to one neighborhood's businesses, events, residents, and civic life. In an era when local news has contracted across the country, the outlet has kept running — tracking development approvals, surfacing community programs, maintaining a neighborhood events calendar, and connecting residents to everything from Park District registration dates to river kayaking sessions. Ten years in, it remains the connective tissue of a neighborhood that has a lot going on.
The outlet's longevity reflects something true about McKinley Park itself. This is a neighborhood with an unusually active civic infrastructure — the McKinley Park Development Council, the McKinley Park Civic Association, the Aquinas Literacy Center, the Midwest Asian Health Association, block-level volunteer networks, and a commercial corridor in active transformation. A publication that covers all of it year after year doesn't survive unless the community it serves keeps generating stories worth telling. McKinley Park has obliged, consistently.
And now, just as the neighborhood's news outlet hits its tenth year, the community is gearing up for one of the more spirited fall gatherings on the calendar: an Oktoberfest at the McKinley Community Play Garden, 3518 S. Wolcott Ave., beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 26, 2026. The Play Garden — a beloved green space tucked into the residential heart of the neighborhood — has become one of McKinley Park's most versatile community gathering spots, hosting programming for kids, families, and neighbors across seasons. An Oktoberfest there brings a classic autumn tradition to an outdoor setting that already has strong community buy-in.
The combination of a neighborhood milestone and an upcoming community celebration captures McKinley Park at a characteristic moment. The neighborhood has spent the past several years stacking wins — new housing approvals, corridor investments, park and river access improvements — and what the Oktoberfest and the News anniversary share is a sense that the people doing that work deserve a chance to gather, mark time, and enjoy what they've built. A play garden in late September, a neighborhood publication turning ten: these are not small things.
For neighbors who want to mark the McKinley Park News anniversary, the simplest way is to use the publication — read it, contribute to it, and share it with newer residents who may not yet know it exists. The outlet is available at mckinleypark.news and covers everything from permit filings to community events. For the Oktoberfest at the McKinley Community Play Garden, put September 26 on your calendar and head to 3518 S. Wolcott Ave. at 6 p.m. — it's the kind of neighborhood gathering that doesn't require a reason beyond showing up. Stay connected to everything happening on the Southwest Side at mckinleypark.news.
Sources:
1. https://mckinleypark.news/
2. https://mckinleypark.news/events/showcase-events/event/29538-oktoberfest
3. https://mckinleypark.news/events/all-events