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Residents protest hotel proposal near Obama Center amid nearly $500 rent hikes
NBC Chicago ^ | 4/30/25 | Mariah Rush

Posted on 06/28/2025 2:22:09 PM PDT by Libloather

Philon Green was forced to move out of Woodlawn because of skyrocketing rent prices. He wanted to stay at Jackson Park Terrace — down the street from the under-construction Obama Presidential Center — but his landlord raised the rent from about $800 to $1,300.

Green said the property wasn’t in the best condition, but he enjoyed the area.

Being priced out of the neighborhood was a concern shared at a protest Tuesday morning by other Woodlawn and South Shore residents, who now fear rental prices will rise if a proposed luxury hotel gets city approval.

“When you got people’s rent going from $850 to $1,300. You’re telling people you don’t want them in the neighborhood,” said Dixon Romeo, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.

The group organized the protest at the project’s vacant, grass-covered lot, not far from the Obama Presidential Center campus.

Aquinnah Investment Trust wants to build a 26-story hotel next door to Island Terrace, an affordable housing development at 6430 S. Stony Island Ave. The investment firm is headed by Allison Davis, a veteran real estate developer and lawyer who was Obama’s first boss out of Harvard Law School.

The hotel, proposed for 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Ave., would have up to 250 rooms, as well as retail and office space, 118 parking spaces and 12 bicycle spaces, according to documents...

**SNIP**

“When you can fast-track a luxury hotel — while everyone around that hotel lives in blight, knowing that that’ll raise the price to push them out — you’re intentionally trying to gentrify a neighborhood,” Romeo said.

Residents blame the Obama Center as the reason for rent increases and the displacement of residents. They said the massive project has attracted “predatory” developers, who have targeted the area in recent years.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcchicago.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Local News; Outdoors; Travel
KEYWORDS: chicago; gentrification; hotel; hussein; rent

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From April. The bath house is supposed to open soon. Sure hope they got that rebar spacing issue solved. Would be a real shame to see cracks in that monstrosity.
1 posted on 06/28/2025 2:22:09 PM PDT by Libloather
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Obama Foundation unveils memorabilia from Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage on 10th anniversary

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/obama-foundation-memorabilia-supreme-court-same-sex-marriage/


2 posted on 06/28/2025 2:22:58 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Libloather

Obama bin Laden.

Whatever.


3 posted on 06/28/2025 2:25:33 PM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Libloather
“When you got people’s rent going from $850 to $1,300. You’re telling people you don’t want them in the neighborhood,” said Dixon Romeo, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition.

Well, duh, Romeo! Liberal elites need to clear out their new neighborhood to make room for the influx of Obama worshipers. Thank you for being a useful idiot to help them elect Obama. And now that you are no longer useful, what does that make you?

4 posted on 06/28/2025 2:31:19 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: Libloather

Back in 1976 my rent (in a duplex) went from $125 a month to $275. The reason? The owner sold it to someone.

My solution? I got a better job and BOUGHT a house.


5 posted on 06/28/2025 2:31:51 PM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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From Feb -

Major lawsuit over the Obama presidential center

Concrete subcontractor is suing the structural engineer, Thornton Tomasetti, alleging racial discrimination and unreasonable interference in performing their work.

https://www.thebuildingcodeforum.com/forum/threads/major-lawsuit-over-the-obama-presidential-center.37592/


6 posted on 06/28/2025 2:33:43 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Jim W N

I wonder how much of the archive is physical material. I would think that almost all of it is digital. It’s probably just a shrine.

The rent rates going up in the area is what’s called gentrification.

The residents will move to: 1. Berwyn, 2. Cicero, 3. Aurora, 4. Naperville and Matteson. Good luck to you.


7 posted on 06/28/2025 2:38:38 PM PDT by KingLudd
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To: Libloather

A luxury hotel on Stony Island?! That’s crazy. I lived in Hyde Park for college, and Stony Island was not a great place to be at night. The ladies would be advised to stay east of Ellis, North of 60th, South of 53rd, West of Lake Michigan at night. We guys might venturee out there at night for White Castle, or farther down for Leon’s Bar-B-Q.


8 posted on 06/28/2025 2:41:47 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: cuban leaf

Dude. No room for logic on this board. 😎


9 posted on 06/28/2025 2:46:07 PM PDT by Hyman Roth
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To: Libloather

“They said the massive project has attracted “predatory” developers,”

Predatory developers versus predatory residents. Who does one root for?


10 posted on 06/28/2025 3:29:43 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: cuban leaf

Novel concept


11 posted on 06/28/2025 4:35:46 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there)
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To: cuban leaf

In 1977 my landlord died and the estate broke my lease and kicked me out. Rather than trying to find an apartment at the same great price I had, I moved in with my girlfriend and married her.

I guess that wasn’t such a bad move since I’m still married to her 48 years later. Except that after all this time she figures I’m pretty much not going anywhere so she is getting kind of bossy LOL


12 posted on 06/28/2025 4:42:41 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there)
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To: Libloather

So many idiots actually thought Obama actually cares about them. Suckers.


13 posted on 06/28/2025 6:25:46 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Organic Panic

AND Hussein is killing the planet.

Clear-cutting 640 Jackson Park trees makes a mockery of Chicago motto ‘City in a Garden’

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/6/25/21303206/chicago-lost-trees-city-garden-letters-charlotte-adelman-obama-presidental-center-jackson-park


14 posted on 06/28/2025 6:32:26 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Go, Maroons.

The Obama Center, like its namesake, is shaping up to be an overhyped bust. Do even leftists still give a crap about visiting a library and museum dedicated to this tiresome fraud?


15 posted on 06/28/2025 6:53:59 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: irishjuggler

Well, if they like libraries, Harper, Regenstein, and Crerar are all within walking distance. Plus some pretty nifty old school bookstores (e.gf. Powell’s) on 57th Street.


16 posted on 06/28/2025 7:54:34 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: alternatives?

Amen. The entitlement in what I call “Slumtenants” is amazing. Especially since C19. They want the Taj Mahal for free—a nice place to destroy.

I have a vacancy at below market rent since March. Plenty of inquiries. All bad. You are not allowed to discriminate based on evictions, subsidization, criminal history and the like so that just encourages more of the same.

Meanwhile, property insurance has tripled, taxes have doubled along with utilities and maintenance materials.


17 posted on 06/29/2025 10:35:52 AM PDT by AbolishCSEU (Amount of "child" support paid is inversely proportionate to mother's actual parenting of children)
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To: AbolishCSEU

P.S. This is upstate New York.


18 posted on 06/29/2025 10:36:44 AM PDT by AbolishCSEU (Amount of "child" support paid is inversely proportionate to mother's actual parenting of children)
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