After decades of aggressive “urban renewal” by rich institutions in low-income communities, Columbia’s 1968 protests ushered in an era of community benefits agreements. Why won’t the Obama Center sign one in Chicago?
It was a major inflection point in urban history: university-driven urban renewal paused; anchor institutions realized they needed to approach their relationships with their low-income neighbors with more sensitivity and respect. But friction between major institutions and neighboring communities has ramped up in recent decades—from South Los Angeles to West Philadelphia to Chicago—caused in part by private police forces, rapid gentrification, and unrelenting development that is perceived as insufficiently involving the surrounding community.
This long, fraught legacy hangs heavily over the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), a $500 million development slated to be built in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. Supporters of the project include the University of Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well as the Obama Foundation, which is executing the design and construction. These stakeholders have been criticized by community activists for downplaying neighbors’ concerns about gentrification and refusing to negotiate a community benefits agreement.
Although most critics say that few, if any South Side residents are against the Center locating in the area, many are unhappy with how the project is being executed. The OPC’s team has refused a legally binding community benefits agreement (CBA) requested by a coalition of community organizations; another group recently sued to halt the project, citing an improper use of public lands; and over 100 University of Chicago faculty members signed an open letter supporting the CBA coalition and criticizing the plans for leaving taxpayers on the hook for more $175 million in transportation improvements. Meanwhile, the OPC continues to move closer to realization, recently winning decisive approvals from the city’s Plan Commission and Board of Aldermen.
As the planning process continues, the Obama Foundation will try to win over these dissatisfied factions in the South Side; the neighborhood where President Obama formed his political identity, and where his wife grew up. But as it stands now, the most visible, permanent symbol of the nation’s first black president is in danger of being seen as yet another institutional development project that neglects the needs of existing residents, rather than a source of pride and prosperity.
....