Obama’s library a tough choice between 2 historic parks

The parks preservation group said it remains opposed to using parkland for the project but will not put up a legal roadblock.

Concerns about a potential lawsuit first sprouted earlier this year, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel suggested the legal battle over the Lucas Museum could be a preview for the Obama Library.

The foundation says Obama believed Jackson Park would have the greatest long-term impact. “The South Side of Chicago is home to rich traditions of arts and culture, a strong community spirit and sustained social engagement”. She contends that the Washington Park neighborhood will lose out on the economic development opportunities that the presidential center could have brought to the neighborhood had the Washington Park site been selected.

Emanuel added, “I think this is an opportunity for the whole city to come together to embrace this opportunity economically, culturally and educationally”. Or, rather, his presidential library is. The South Side is home to the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry as well as businesses, but many neighborhoods are plagued by poverty and crime.

A mile to the west is Washington Park, also designed by Olmsted, who originally conceived of the two expanses as one park.

Officials say the Obama library, with a planned opening in 2021, would benefit far more than just the Woodlawn community. Some ingenuity will be required to develop a transit system that provides easy access to all elements of a museum campus that includes the Museum of Science and Industry and The Barack Obama Presidential Center. “Furthermore, any design should upgrade the park’s facilities and preserve existing recreational uses by the public”. “If that’s the case, wouldn’t Washington Park have been a better choice?”

Washington Park would have been at the center of the world this week if Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics had succeeded. That would have meant less of an impact on the historic park landscape, said Gerald Adelmann, president of Chicago-based Openlands.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Nesbitt noted that, “For the first time in this country’s history, a presidential center will be in the heart of an urban community”.

As NPR’s Cheryl Corley told our Newscast unit, the site “is located near the shores of Lake Michigan, a short walk from the University of Chicago where President Obama once taught and [with] neighborhoods slowly gentrifying”.

But Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Obama Foundation, which will develop the presidential library, seemed to interpret the decision not to file suit as a green light. “This is actually one community”, he said. “I don’t know that there’s much more to discuss”.