The Obama library is coming to Chicago. Will local residents be displaced?

[cinematicdiversions]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/24/obama-library-chicago-gentrification-fears

But the development, expected to break ground this fall, has not arrived without controversy. Over the last six years, the Obama Foundation, which will fund the OPC, and the city of Chicago have courted scrutiny from two groups: park preservationists upset at a private development being built on public land, and community organizers who fear that low-income Black neighbors will be displaced by rising rents and land speculation.

A major flashpoint has been affordable housing. A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that housing prices in the area rose between 2010 and 2017. “While rents vary, there is clear evidence of rising rents in newly renovated and new construction units, which the majority of current renters cannot afford,” researchers wrote.

Some residents and community organizers have spent years saying the city, the Obama Foundation and others should reach an agreement that sets jobs aside for locals, protects affordable housing and supports Black businesses.




There has been a trend in the idea that we cannot improve our housing stock because it will displace the neighborhood. Which both ignores the ever changing nature of cities as well as common sense and decency. This is particularly strange in a declining city like Chicago that is bleeding residents and has been for a while.

[dawg day]

1. It's all about location, isn't it?

The lake restricts growth eastward. The library is about as far east as it can get. The surrounding neighborhood is ripe to zoom up in cost, near a major university and a quick commute downtown.