Posted on 09/13/2022 4:09:50 PM PDT by Libloather
Even before he left office in January 2017, President Barack Obama had laid grand plans to build a presidential library on the South Side of Chicago. As early as 2015, the Chicago City Council (and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff from 2009 to 2010) announced that “the City defers to the sound judgment of the President and his Foundation as to the ultimate location of the Presidential Library.” Obama ultimately decided to build on 19.3 choice acres in historic Jackson Park, designed in 1871 by great American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. By that time, Obama’s “library” designation had been ditched because federal law imposes strict limitations on the size of presidential libraries. Freed of those restrictionss, the Obama Foundation unveiled a new plan with a 235-foot tower, joined by three other buildings. The Foundation claims that its new complex, the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), will generate huge economic returns to the city. But don’t bet on it. The Jackson Park site is landlocked, and the nearby land is fully occupied. If the larger Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry didn’t transform the South Side, neither will the OPC.
Without economic growth, the planned site is destined to cause maximum disruption, expense, and degradation to Jackson Park and its immediate environs. The project will require cutting down perhaps up to 1,000 old-growth trees; Cornell Drive, a six-lane north/south artery, will become a bike path. To expand the already-overtaxed DuSable Lake Shore Drive (U.S. 41) to the east and Stony Island Avenue to the west to offset, but not neutralize, the looming traffic crunch will require major roadwork, costing $172 million in 2018 dollars. A high water table guarantees that dewatering the Center’s deep foundations will be a constant source of trouble...
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
That’s our Barry.
Shouldn’t they be building that in Kenya where it belongs?
“...the looming traffic crunch will require major roadwork, costing $172 million in 2018 dollars.”
Ahh hahaha. Chicago construction job, minimum 3x budget estimate, using dollars worth about 1.35x current dollars, this number goes to a $700 million by my calculations and I would frankly disappointed if it doesn’t punch into $1 billion.
“The guy shows up like a plague of locusts.”
That he does.
LOL!
Trees stop bullets. Can’t have that in Chicago.
A BILLION ADDITIONAL?
The only way the whole thin should come to more than a few Mil, is if Obama is SELLING his documents to this so-called library.
ML/NJ
Pray tell, where does Obi One find the time to manage the construction of his library while he’s running the government for Joe?
Do the workers wear Kevlar vests?
They may need to scratch the Larry Sinclair Wing and put that exhibit in the penthouse of the 235 ft. tower.
Maybe Mayor Fish-Eyes will do what Daley did in the middle of the night to Meigs Field- bulldoze it all under cover of darkness.
Jackson Park is a little bigger than Meigs, however.
Love it! With his face on the Sphinx!😝
Jackson Park. John Wayne Gacy’s old hunting ground.
I remember they tried him here in Winnebago County.
My supervisor back then was called for jury duty, and when he found out it was for Gacy in the pre trial jury picking, he told them to fry the sob, and they excused him.
He didn’t want any part of it.
It is just peasants like us that have to follow the rules and save the planet.
Go back to Kenya!!
Last I read the financing fell thru because NO $$$ was advanced by Hussein Obqma as the contract called for.
Let it ROT
Not one dime more
Buried deep in Inflation Reduction Act II, $1 billion for the Obama Presidential Center. You know it’s coming.
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