Myth
The Obama Foundation is ready to break ground on the Obama Presidential Center in September 2021.
Fact
The legal hurdles for the Obama Presidential Center as proposed in Jackson Park are far from over and the planned construction is in limbo.
A series of Federal reviews administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), and including representatives from the National Park Service (NPS), Department of Interior, and Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) began in 2017 and concluded in 2020.
In February 2021, Protect Our Parks sent letters to The Honorable Pete Buttigieg, United States Secretary of Transportation and The Honorable Scott de la Vega, United States Secretary of the Interior about the flawed reports issued by the FHA, the NPS, and the City of Chicago.
These flaws form the basis for a second complaint filed on April 12, 2021 by Protect Our Parks in concert with six other plaintiffs in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against further planning, construction, financing, or other activities related to the construction of the Obama Presidential Center.
Myth
In order to get the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago it needs to be built inside of a public park.
Fact
There is a lot of open land all over the south side of Chicago where the Obama Presidential Center could be located that is outside of a public park.
Many options that would be better for the Center, the community, and the city were provided by interested parties way back in 2015; including a location adjacent to Washington Park. That alternate location is also more easily accessible by foot, public transit and automobile; it would expand park land rather than taking it away, and it would result in greater positive economic impact for the neighborhood.
Myth
The only viable location for the Obama Presidential Center is inside of Jackson Park.
Fact
We still don’t know whose idea it was to propose locating the Obama Presidential Center inside of Jackson Park.
What we do know is that in 2015, without any prior community discussions or input, then mayor, and former Obama Chief-of-Staff, Rahm Emanuel announced that Jackson Park would be the location of the Presidential Center.
Earlier proposals including one from the University of Chicago suggested the use of vacant, privately held land outside of Washington Park; and another from the University of Illinois at Chicago suggested using 23 acres of city owned land in North Lawndale.
Myth
The Obama Presidential Center is a Presidential Library.
Fact
The proposed Obama Presidential Center would be a private facility owned and operated by the Obama Foundation.
In 2017, the Obama Foundation made the decision NOT to construct a Presidential Library to house the President’s paper records and physical artifacts. Instead it will provide funding for the digitization of records and they will be made available only online. Learn more here about the history of Presidential Libraries.
Myth
The proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is like a gift to the city of Chicago.
Fact
The only gift-giving is from the Chicago Park District and the cash-strapped city of Chicago to the Obama Foundation. This gift includes the following items:
1. A gift of over twenty acres of priceless and irreplaceable lakefront public property, for 99 years, to a private entity for $10.
2. The OPC would not pay real estate taxes to the Park District or City for its upkeep as do other Chicago residents, nor will it pay a subvention in place of taxes for general services rendered.
3. The Park District will pay all the costs of keeping the park in condition to accommodate the needs of the proposed OPC.
4. The City will:
- pay all the remediation costs of the development and make the existing unstable groundwork suitable for supporting the construction of a 235-foot high tower inside Jackson Park
- foot the bill for setting up public utility connections to the OPC
- pay the entire cost of relocating roads to serve the needs of the OPC, which was estimated, back in 2018, to be well over $200,000,000!
Myth
The proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is like existing private buildings in the Chicago Public Park System.
Fact
There is no existing building in a Chicago public park that remotely resembles the proposed OPC.
The Aquarium and Museum Act specifies that the only kind of buildings allowed in a public park are "aquariums (Shedd Aquarium), museums of art (Art Institute), museum of industry (Museum of Science and Industry), museum of science (Adler Planetarium), or museum of natural history (Field Museum). The names on those buildings - Shedd, Adler, and Field - appear to identify the donors, not elevate them as subjects of the buildings’ contents. Protect Our Parks calls out the proposed OPC as a violation of law and a breach of public trust.
Myth
The proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC) will be a tourist attraction and spur economic growth, create jobs, and bring lots of benefits to residents.
Fact
No one has put forth any credible economic study to substantiate these claims nor are there any independent sources to support these claims.
The fact is, there was never a convincing reason for building the OPC in historic Jackson Park. Locating the OPC outside of Washington Park, for example, would do far more to help neighborhood businesses than the Jackson Park site. It is more likely that the goal is to piggyback on the established attraction of historic Jackson Park as a unique local gem and tourist destination. The current risk is that higher land values will drive out or negatively impact current residents in the populated areas near Jackson Park. That risk of undue gentrification does not exist in the more sparsely populated areas in need of investment throughout the South Side.
Myth
There isn’t a superior or legal alternative site to consider for the OPC.
Fact
There are other superior sites all over the South Side near Jackson Park that could help anchor economic opportunities for under-served residents of the city.
A long-time resident of the South Side, an accomplished architect, and committed preservationist, Grahm Balkany has prepared a set of detailed plans for an area adjacent to Washington Park (see Supporting An Alernative Plan). This site would alleviate many of the substantive concerns with destroying the historical and environmental resources in Jackson Park and this alternative site affords real economic opportunity to build back better the broader South Side community. It would position the OPC as an anchor for growth and opportunity while fulfilling the stated mission of the Obama Foundation.