Look up “oblivious” in a good dictionary, and you may very well find an accompanying photo of former president Barack Obama. We’ve covered his massive, brutal monolith in Chicago, the Obama Presidential Center, which looks more like an evil villain’s headquarters in some dystopian science-fiction film than a presidential library. (That may be more appropriate than it seems.) But now there’s a new twist: Tenants in at least one housing complex in the area are worried about being priced out of the neighborhood.
Way to care for the poor and downtrodden, Mr. Obama.
Chicago residents in rent-controlled housing near a site being constructed to honor former President Barack Obama have reportedly unionized in response to the controversial project.
Residents of a longtime Woodlawn apartment building organized to resist possible displacement and rent increases they say are being driven by development pressure surrounding the Obama Presidential Center.
Tenants at the Chaney Braggs Apartments rallied earlier this month outside their building near 65th Street and Stony Island Avenue, saying a potential sale of the property could upend the lives of families who have lived there for decades, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Here’s the thing: This was easily foreseeable to anyone who was involved in the planning and construction of the Obama Monolith. This kind of structure, in the middle of what can only be described as a poverty-stricken part of the city, was inevitably going to jack up property values in the neighborhood. That’s how these things always work. Property always rises to its highest value, and properties near this monstrosity are suddenly now far more valuable for purposes other than subsidized housing. And, that’s just what’s happening here.
A California-based investor is seeking to buy the building and might either renovate or demolish it, according to residents. Tenants say they have been offered $2,000 per household to move out, a proposal they say falls far short of what families would need to relocate in a rapidly changing neighborhood.
Many residents currently pay between $700 and $800 a month in rent. Some say they have lived in the building for 30 or 40 years and fear they will not be able to find comparable housing in Woodlawn if rents rise or the property is redeveloped.
In response, residents have formed a tenant union to push back against the threat of displacement and preserve affordability in the building. They say the union first came together after the previous landlord abandoned the property about two years ago, forcing tenants to organize around maintenance issues and basic services.
What say you, President Obama? Where is your vaunted caring about the poor now?
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There’s a great irony in all this. Most presidential libraries are placed somewhere that has significance to the president in question, and Barack Obama did live in Chicago for a time, although if you want to look at a location that had great influence in his upbringing, Hawaii, where he was raised mostly by his wealthy white grandparents and attended the elite Punahou school, was a greater influence. Plus, in Hawaii, he may have been less likely to price some poverty-stricken families out of their homes.
Instead, the Obama people chose Chicago, and a (formerly) downtrodden neighborhood at that, and now the long-term residents of that neighborhood are not only living in the shadow of the brutal outline of the Obama Monolith, but they are likely to be priced out of their homes as well. And not a raised finger from the fantastically wealthy Obamas to help them.
Obliviousness, thy name is Barack Obama.
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