Style
Barack Obama is building a library — and grappling again with Chicago politics
CHICAGO — When the Barack Obama Presidential Center opens in 2021, it will sprawl across 20 acres on this city’s densely packed South Side. A museum will occupy one towerlike building; another, dubbed “The Forum,” will house a test kitchen, recording studio and auditorium. The library itself won’t literally house his papers, since they plan to digitize everything, but will feature a rooftop park to complement the complex’s community garden, sledding hill and playground.
The 44th president says he wants it to serve not as a monument to himself but to bigger ideals — democracy, citizenship, civic engagement. Still, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet spoke for many when she predicted that the complex will one day be known around here as “Obamaland.”
For now, as Obama is busily raising the hundreds of millions needed to construct and endow it, ahead of a planned groundbreaking next year, he is once again navigating the tensions and attempting to finesse the politics of the town where he got his start.
Building on public land in a city is always a messy endeavor, and the excitement and pride the city holds for the Obamas is tinged with concerns.
Earlier this month, the former president stopped by the Gary Comer Youth Center to make a surprise visit to a training class his foundation held for local activists. Its director, Ayoka Mota Samuels is a fan and booster, but she has heard the grumbling from some of the neighbors about the prospect of having a massive tourist attraction in their midst.
How will traffic be mitigated? Is the plan to replace the parkland where the center is being built sufficient? Who is going to get the construction jobs?
“It wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t have complaints about everything. . . . People are definitely excited about the library, without a doubt, but they are concerned about ‘how does it impact me?’ ” she said. “Chicagoans are like that about everything. . . . It means that we care about what’s going to happen in our neighborhood.”
...
