The six steps, at a glance
One beach, two efforts starting now
63rd Street Beach sits inside Jackson Park — no park identity of its own, no council of its own. Two separate efforts begin at the same time.
63rd Street Beach currently sits inside Jackson (Andrew) Park — Park No. 19. Getting to a fully independent, community-governed beach means doing two distinct things at once, because they depend on different Chicago Park District offices and different kinds of evidence.
The case for a new park
History, precedent, and an evidence dossier — the formal case asking CPD to recognize 63rd Street Beach as its own park.
This track builds the case for distinct park recognition — the history behind why that isn't as unusual a request as it sounds, and the dossier of evidence needed to ask CPD for it in writing. Status: the recognition case is in progress and has not yet been submitted to CPD.
Building the council itself
Bylaws, board structure, financial controls, and CPD's registration process — 510 documents across 12 phases, standing up the new Bongo Beach PAC.
Track B covers bylaws, board structure, financial controls, and the full CPD registration process needed to stand up the community council once the beach exists as recognized ground. Twelve phases are drafted; Phase 0 (the Pre-Formation Gate) is still pending a CPD response.
Why both move together
CPD generally recognizes one council per park, and Jackson Park already has one. If Track A succeeds, Track B's path opens up — so neither waits on the other.
Track B's own Phase 0 depends partly on how Track A resolves — CPD's guidelines recognize only one registered PAC per park, and Jackson Park already has one (JPAC). If Track A succeeds, Track B's path gets much more straightforward. That's why both tracks keep building in parallel instead of waiting on one to finish first: nobody knows yet which piece resolves first, and neither track's paperwork is wasted if it doesn't.
Every open question, in one place
761 items across 28 sections. Answer what we can ourselves first (green) — call an outside agency (orange) only once that's exhausted.
The team's working motto“Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance” — when we do reach out, we go with 100% confidence, having left no stone unturned on our end.
The Matrix is closer to a decision tree than a flat checklist. Each item is already sorted into one of a few real states: something we can answer ourselves from precedent (self-resolved), something that genuinely needs an outside agency's answer (externally routed), or something where nobody has identified the right contact yet (unknown). The real job is clearing everything answerable on our own side before anything gets escalated outward.
Pick one of 28 sections and jump in
Choose a section based on interest or expertise, whenever you're ready. Not sure where you fit? Call 414-909-3279 to talk it through.
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