Ummm, so what happened to library?
If the working title for the project was Ronald Reagan Chicago Auxiliary Presidential Library there would be no problem.
Are shady Trump loving donors funding this harassment suit? After all, these scum want to obliterate President Obama’s legacy.
Lot of holes in this story. I can tell you one thing, though. I’m a pretty committed advocate of preserving land and historic buildings. But some people are just rabidly reflexive about it, and in a big city I don’t entirely blame them. They don’t want to see the first shovelful of dirt turned over in any green place, and they’ll use any legal argument they can to keep that from happening. The location sounds nice but I’m sure there are others that could work.
That was my question. Apparently this article leaves that out for some dumb reason. I would think a Presidential Center though would be a useful addition to an area that voted overwhelmingly for Obama. It would be an inspiration to many. Maybe they can work something out with the Park Service there. Seems shortsighted to eliminate this opportunity to highlight the 44th President’s service to our country.
I’ll add, living in Grand Rapids, we have the Gerald Ford Museum here and even though he was a clod at times, pardoned Nixon (big mistake), and was and still is a hometown hero…the museum is used for all kinds of stuff (art shows for example), but what it is good at is honestly telling the history of the times without being overtly biased in the telling. Its also a good place to visit for children learning about government. And the grounds are right on the Grand River where its a nice backdrop for many other local things happening there that boost its prominence in the city.
There’s a really nice Constitution center in Philly that I’ve been past many times, although I blush to admit I’ve never gone. But it’s a beautiful building in what was a central but fairly marginal area that’s been revitalized by that and other things. Some sort of place that’s ripe for redevelopment might actually be a better place to put the Obama center, as forward-looking as he was and is. No reason it can’t be landscaped into a nice little natural oasis, too. When the money’s there, and I’ll bet it would be, you can do cool stuff like that.
I personally do not believe ANY Obama Presidential Library should be built, because Michelle bare arms, tan suits, and mustard on hamburger.
“Reagan Library”. LOL! As if that idiot ever read a book in his damned life. Reagan was about the only man in history who had to have Reader’s Digest condensed versions of Bazooka Joe comics.
It’s like Paul Ryan and all those other right-wingers screaming about how they read “Atlas Shrugged”, when you know they never got past page 87, and they had a copy of “Nasty Cycle Sluts” stashed in between the pages.
Chicago Trib does not name who is behind this “not well known” group. It certainly does make you wonder.
Protect Our Parks is not a an environmental or civic use group – it’s a “taxpayer” (read: NIMBY) group. It has an interesting history of selective lawsuits with interesting results – I was tangentially involved in the first of them. Several years back, the Park District wanted to build some artificial turf soccer fields near the south end of Lincoln Park, south of the zoo, along the edge of the Gold Coast (you can guess by the name the type of neighborhood it is).
There had already been soccer fields at the site, as well as some (still existing) basketball courts and baseball/softball fields, but the new artificial turf fields were projected to increase use of the area substantially. In any event, a local private school right across the street offered to pay for a good chunk of the construction, including installation of new lights, and to take on some of the ongoing maintenance costs, if they could use the soccer fields for their JV/Varsity games – the fields would otherwise remain for public use at all other times. Protect Our Parks – really just very wealthy NIMBYs from the Gold Coast whining about the potential of more people at the park and a little more traffic – was formed to file a lawsuit objecting to the construction of the fields by the private school.
The upshot? In the end, the Park District mooted the case by tabling their deal with the school, and the Park District built the fields on its own, at its own cost, and then rented them back to the school for their games. So instead of the school picking up a big chunk of the tab, taxpayers paid for the whole construction and all the ongoing maintenance. So the NIMBYs in Protect Our Parks cost the Park District millions in taxpayer money, yet the fields and light towers were still built, and the school gets to use the fields. Huzzah!
I can’t say anything because I gave money to a group who filed a suit to try to stop the W library from being built here.
The case was lost, too. The library is here.
Oh yeah, my first thought…
Can’t swear I know all the people involved, but as a resident of the Hyde Park neighborhood where they’re seeking to build, I know there’s been ongoing, perhaps overly picayune (or perhaps not) resistance to one aspect or another of the proposal. This is motivated not by opposition to Mr. Obama as such, but by environmental and preservationist concerns.
If there’s a politician in the crosshairs, it’s more likely Mayor Emanuel.
I can’t wait to vote for Paul Vallas. (I live in Streeterville).
The amount of open public park space in Grand Rapids and south side Chicago is vastly different. While it would be a great tourist destination for tourists locals would lose a park that they currently use. It’s the powerful taking from the powerless because of how noble the effort is except how noble can it be if this is how it gets accomplished. Being south side there are plenty of buildings that could be bought, torn down and have a museum built there and it would prevent a park from being transformed into museum grounds where park like fun is discouraged or banned.
I need to run out to GR to see the museum. A couple of months ago, I went to Ford’s Presidential Library on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, for the first time since I was an undergrad (mid 90s). It has a nice little teaser of a display, that made me want to get more details on the events discussed.
Yep – the group is being represented by Robert Fioretti, a former Chicago alderman who ran against Rahm and got absolutely trounced.
As I type this I’m sitting about 400 yards from the planned site for the Obama Library. I can tell you that an extraordinary amount of thought and consideration has gone into selecting this site -and that is an understatement. The discussions have gone on, ad nauseam. The site, in my opinion is the least obtrusive that could be found. Technically it will be in Jackson Park (yes, it’s named after Andrew Jackson), but it is on an island of land separated from the main park by surrounding roadways. Currently the area is occupied by a football field with artificial turf.
There is no doubt that the library will be a major asset to the surrounding community. I’m not sure of the motives of the specific group that is filing the law suit, but my guess is that it’s more of a publicity stunt than a real threat to the project.
About the issue of it not housing the official library, I think this is because the “official library” is the actual presidential documents. Obama’s will be the first to be fully digitized and hence not contained within bricks and mortar. The administration and security of the files will be maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration from an off-site location.
So Latin won after all? They get the nice field, but only have to pay nominal rent for use of a facility that they were willing to pay much more for? Now there’s a Board of Trustees that knows how to play a good game, -and I don’t mean soccer.