Posted on 02/25/2026 8:17:09 AM PST by Libloather
As former President Barack Obama’s namesake foundation prepares to roll out the welcome mat to huge crowds of tourists flocking to the South Side when the Obama Presidential Center opens its doors in a few months, it is promoting Airbnb, a company with close ties to the Obama family that has faced international protests for its impact on local rents and housing supply.
“(We’re) committed to making sure that South Side residents and entrepreneurs are ready to take full advantage of this influx of new visitors,” Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation, said in a December release announcing a series of community tourism prep sessions.
But for residents and organizers who have fretted about gentrification in Woodlawn and South Shore and pressed for housing protections since Obama announced Jackson Park as the site of his museum in 2016, the Obama organization pitching more short-term rentals as a good way to deal with tourism adds to their conviction that the center will exacerbate housing shortages and raise rents.
Ald. Desmon Yancy, 5th, worries about a future in which large numbers of short-term rentals become part of the landscape near the Obama center. He said he’s already seen outside investors snap up units in buildings where condo associations have dissolved.
If landlords and investors see so-called home sharing as more lucrative than renting, “it could make the community more transient, because you’ll have folks who’ll be seeking this additional income and, probably because property taxes are so high, they need the money,” Yancy said. The most recent round of residential bills went up 49% in Woodlawn compared with the year before, and 36% in South Shore.
“We already know there’s a shortage of stock..."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I wonder if he will have family pictures. We can see his trashy parents and his typical white granny he had snuffed to shut her up before taking office.
Maybe the limo he shared with Larry Sinclair while they did blow and other stuff along with a Moochelle boob belt display too.
All that is worth a pricy AirBnB. 🤪🤡
Piled higher and deeper.
Is is true that the main attraction is th Gay Bath House exhibit??
It seems to me that the Library is not on my bucket list!
This is only the Hussein Center, Massage Parlor & Adoration Temple. The official liebarry will be MILES away. In a locked vault, I would guess.
And after 30 or 40 years, it will be demolished.
“Pelosi explaining to stupid Dem reps that they need to pass the Obamacare to find out what’s in it.”
And Pelosi explaining that we can all become poets because we’ll never have to worry about health insurance ever again.
That is the ugliest building I’ve ever seen.
If I were a federal law officer I might visit that crap hole if I was assigned to arrest and frog-march the obamas for their flight to GITMO for a long term stay. I can think of no other scenario where I would step foot in that place.
ANY CHANCE FOR A 9.0 EARTHQUAKE IN CHICAGO???
With the improperly spaced rebar, that thing would fold like a house of cards.
The “huge crowds of tourists” had me thinking this was a Babylon Bee article.
The brutalist architecture is designed for robots not humans.
There might be a useful exhibit explaining how to forge birth certificates.
Lol.
Flak tower works, but North Korean guard tower might work better, as a descriptor.
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