Funding, tax questions loom over Obama Center opening

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in Chicago on Thursday, but financial questions are looming over the facility and the people who live nearby.

Groundbreaking for the development on the city’s South Side was held in 2021, but the project was delayed several times. Construction cost estimates rose from around $350 million to at least $830 million.

Emily Talen is professor of urbanism at the University of Chicago, which is nearby. Talen said you can see the changes in the neighboring Woodlawn community.

“You have, for the past few years, brand new condo development kind of interspersed with vacant lots, dilapidated buildings, historic buildings,” Talen told The Center Square.

Talen said long-term residents have been crying out about what new investment is doing to their neighborhood.

“You know the usual story about being displaced. The gentrification going on is very real. You can really see it, and as with all gentrification issues, in my opinion, there’s a good side to it and a not good side to it,” Talen said.

Talen said it’s not up to private developers to stop gentrification.

“That’s not their thing. That’s not their responsibility, so I don’t see them as the evildoers by any means. We need that investment in neighborhoods,” Talen said.

Talen said government officials must step up to prevent negative impacts.

“So, you know, it’s really up to the public sector to make these strong commitments. And I guess the political means hasn’t been there to make sure that that’s happened,” Talen said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle took a preview tour of the Obama center and called it “a wonderful place.”

Preckwinkle expressed hope that visitors to the nearby Griffin Museum of Science and Industry would also visit the presidential center.

“But I’m not sure how much impact it’s going to have on the surrounding community,” Preckwinkle said last week.

In addition to displacement, residents have complained about traffic congestion and higher property tax bills.

Christian Maxwell is a Republican running for the U.S. House seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago.

Maxwell said Obama promised a $470 million endowment for the presidential center, but a 2024 financial report showed the fund with only $1 million.

Maxwell said the Obama center’s deal with the city contains no anti-displacement measures for residents who have seen their property taxes skyrocket.

“This is not normal change. This is not normal, slow progression. This is not normal gentrification. This is government-sponsored displacement,” Maxwell said at a Chicago City Council committee hearing last week.

Maxwell said, if elected, she would introduce legislation providing that reparations be paid by Obama Center developers and benefactors to affected South Side residents.

According to a Fox News Digital report, multiple contractors and subcontractors claimed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the Obama project.

Talen said, despite the concerns, it is exciting that the center would be opening in the neighborhood.

“If we can just work a little harder to balance the negatives, higher housing costs, and speculation, traffic and not paying enough attention to public transit, and displacement, of course, then it could all be a win-win eventually someday,” Talen said.