Despite Local Pushback, Obama Breaks Ground On ‘Presidential Center’ In Chicago
Obama doesn’t care what the little folk think.
We have covered the tribulations related to Obama’s plans to build his ‘Presidential Center’ in the historic Jackson Park area of Chicago, including demands by local citizens for an environmental assessment.
Obama finally broke ground on the center during a ceremony this Tuesday.
More than four years after leaving office, Barack Obama broke ground on Tuesday on his presidential center on the South Side of Chicago, a legacy project that has been bogged down by a lengthy discord over its use of a public park and its potential impact on a historically neglected part of the city.
In an hourlong ceremony that was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Obama and Michelle Obama, the former first lady, scooped up dirt with commemorative shovels at the 19-acre site in Jackson Park, near the shores of Lake Michigan.
Joining the Obamas for the groundbreaking, which was streamed online, were Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.
“This day has been a long time coming,” Mr. Obama said. “The pandemic had other plans, so we’re keeping this small for now.”
Biden appeared in video, and several other Democratic partly leaders were there to celebrate. Giving the recent failures of Biden, the celebration seems appropriately devoid of any meaningful sentiment or lasting achievement to highlight.
Before the couple addressed the public, Obama’s former vice president and current Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden gave a shoutout to Chicago through a videotaped message.
Recalling Obama’s first presidential election victory party in Grant Park in 2008, Biden said, ”Hope and change are not just slogans and expectations. Hope and change is an ethos, a conviction. And that’s what today represents: It’s not just breaking ground on a new building. It’s breaking ground on the very idea of America as a place of possibility.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot kicked off the in-person remarks, celebrating what she said was the “transformative investment” of the presidential center.
Indeed, locals still haven’t warmed up to the project. Obama had to defend the construction just ahead of the opening ceremony.
In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America on the eve of the groundbreaking, Obama dismissed the criticism of his legacy project, including multiple legal attempts to block construction.
“The overwhelming majority of the community has been not just okay with it, but are hugely enthusiastic about it,” Obama said.
“The truth is, any time you do a big project, unless you’re in the middle of a field somewhere, you know, and it’s on private property, there’s always going to be some people who say, ‘Well, but we don’t want change. We’re worried about it. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out,’” Obama said.
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Comments
Environmental impact assessments are for those less important. You know, the Al Gore types have to be using their jumbo jets to fight climate change.
More importantly, do they provide full class 3 bullet proof vests?
Yes, but only for those who bought a full-price admission ticket.
This is a most hideous and obnoxious looking structure.
But that is rather fitting I suppose.
The local pushback involved court cases. Richard Epstein and others doing the work free.
Yahbut, that was only the first wave.
When Chicago residents decide to push back independently, it can be pretty intense.
This week looks like they may break 30 by the end of their recording week. I freely admit to being morbid: I tune the site in every day to see the scores.
I wonder when the murder clock will tick below 10 hours?
A monument to The Chicago Way and its export to Washington DC.
When asked if this is where he plans keep to his original long form birth certificate so it can be put on display and people can come and look at it, Obama said, “Hell no, I’m going to keep it in my computer where it’s safe.”
Think of all the bodies that could sealed under that foundation.
The snivel rights “leaders” re always talking about how this country was built on the back of blacks (slaves). With your idea, and given the demographic stats on Chicago killings, your idea may have some traction.
Obama could care about what others think. It’s all about him. That is what he’s been told since Harvard, and probably before. His persona is a ruse.
“Obama doesn’t care what the little folk think.”
The Kenyan never has cared about anyone besides himself. Power is, and always has been the goal.
On a side note; ever wonder why the former Democrat Presidents don’t live in the states they came from. Exception, the peanut farmer.
And LBJ, and at least one of the Bush’s was from Texas, I believe. Harry S Truman is another.
One thing I really like about Truman’s legacy: no grand show and pomp when he left office. He just put his bags in the trunk of his Chrysler (not Caddie like a good Democrat), he and Bess climbed in, and drove home.
Quick question: Why do conservative sites ALL insist on using left wing Disqus? It just entraps them and they all spit out pretty much the same stories. This site so far looks unique to the majority of them.
No one is entrapped. No one is holding a gun to anyone’s head and forcing them to remain as participants on those sites. Disqus, for all of its faults, generally leaves censorship up to the site operators. It also works.
When does the parasite class care what the plebes think? After all, we are just chattel.
South side of Chicongo? Perfect. I’m sure it will be jammed with his supporters, impossible to find parking (sarc).
I can’t even imagine what the Obama Presidential Library would contain. Most, if not all, of the documents associated with the Obama administration are under seal for the next 75 years to protect Obama from prosecution and the rest, well, the rest wouldn’t be much worth reading.
“Most, if not all, of the documents associated with the Obama administration are under seal…”
Not just documents associated with his administration, but with his life. His life is all sealed and will remain so. This huge magnifienct building will be for portraints, photos, dresses, suits and parphanalia to promote the granuer of the Great and Wonderful Obama—a shrine of sorts.
The real irony and humor….Obama doesn’t live there anymore. He isn’t that stupid.
Mr. “At a certain point, I think you’ve made enough money” had to spend some serious dough ($15 million on a Martha’s Vineyard beach house; $8 million on a D.C. mansion) to ensure that his and his odious wife’s paths don’t cross with those of undesirable “persons of color.”
It’s a movable scale and is adjusted upward as his assets increase,
Not to sound catty but Michelle looks ENORMOUS
In this case looks is not deceiving.
This “library” is an appropriate temple to a perennially infantile, obnoxious, arrogant, incompetent, self-reverential and odious pathological narcissist and demagogue-hustler. A legend in his own vapid mind.
at the end of the day, to borrow slick willie’s rather famous remark about obama:
” he’s just a chicago thug. “