Why are there groups that consider the new Obama Presidential Center being built in Chicago a “threat”?

This Tuesday, the former president of USA, Barack Obama, and the former first lady, Michelle Obama, laid the first stone of what will be the Obama Presidential Center (CPO), an institution dedicated to the cultural and social promotion in the southern area of Chicago.

“Chicago is where almost everything that is most precious to me began,” Obama said in reference to the place where he met Michelle – and where the former first lady grew up – his two daughters were born and where he lived for several years, while teaching Law at the University of Chicago.

“It comes naturally for Michelle and me to want to contribute to Chicago and South Chicago in particular … We will always be grateful, and the Obama Presidential Center is our way of giving back some of what this incredible city has given us, but also We are building this center because we believe that it can contribute to the struggles of our times, ”he continued, according to an article in the Chicago Sun Times.

The CPO is expected to be completed in five years, it will have a museum of the ex-president’s personal belongings, a library, a plaza and areas for leisure and sports.

However, the construction has been the target of different groups that see it as a threat mainly to the environment, since it will be erected in Jackson Park, classified as a Historic Site.

OPPOSITORS TO THE CENTER

The Jackson Park land covers 223.2 hectares south of Chicago, Illinois, including the shores of Lake Michigan. It was designed in 1871 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and its remodeling in 1893 made it one of the largest and most important parks in the city.

The park contains a series of monuments such as the Statue of the Republic, as well as spaces such as the Japanese Garden and the Museum of Science and Industry. In addition, it is an important habitat for fauna, especially for birds, of which up to two dozen different species can be found.

Therefore, in 2016, when it was decided that the park would house the Obama Presidential Center, there were no shortage of groups that opposed the project, mainly because of the impact it would have on the environment.

For the construction of the CPO, 8 hectares of Jackson Park will have to be occupied, several hundred trees removed, a 71-meter high tower erected and the surrounding vehicular lanes redesigned. All this will lead to an investment of 200 million dollars that will come out of the communal treasury.

Two of the main groups opposed to the CPO are the NGOs Jackson Park Watch and Protect Our Parks. This last organization has been the most active in terms of the legal sphere, presenting a series of lawsuits against the work, including one that in August they sent to the Supreme Court to stop construction alleging the “imminent danger” to which they are exposed “ the historical and environmental elements of the park ”.

“By building the CPO, they will need to demolish significant parts of Jackson Park, its historic resources, landscaping and trees, which, in turn, will negatively affect the environment, historic landscape, wildlife, and migratory birds,” notes the lawsuit collected by The Hill.

The legal recourse was imposed after a federal court earlier this year denied the same petition to groups opposed to construction. In September, the Supreme Court’s response was the same, dismissing the complaint and giving the CPO the green light.

CENTER DEFENSE

In response to opposition voices, more than 100 South Chicago residents, business owners and community organizations came together in a coalition dubbed “Enough is enough” to support the construction of the center.

In a letter, the organization claimed to be fed up with the legal obstacles that had been brought against the work during the last five years, stating that the only thing it was doing was delaying the generation of jobs, tourism and revitalization of the community that would arrive with her, according to state television WTTW.

“The southern zone is fading. We need duty stations and anchoring institutions. The Obama Center will do that not just locally but globally. It will do more than put us on the map ”, Ernest Sanders, director of an organization dedicated to the revaluation of the southern part of the city, told WTTW.

“Protect Our Parks and Jackson Park Watch care more about trees and traffic than about the lives of people who are affected by decades of systemic divestment, job loss, poverty and limited economic opportunity,” reads the letter from those. support the CPO.

WTTW further notes that the letter accuses the organizations of practicing “paternalism disguised as community advocacy” and qualifies their obstruction as “indifferent and lacking in sensitivity to a people who still yearn to be seen and heard.”