CHICAGO (AP) — Public park advocates have filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago seeking to stop construction of the Obama Presidential Center.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the federal lawsuit by Protect Our Parks Inc. seeks a court order barring the Chicago Park District and other city agencies from approving the building of former President Barack Obama’s center in Jackson Park. The group also wants to bar the city from giving control of the center’s site to the Obama Foundation.
The lawsuit says the original plan was to transfer public park land to the foundation for the purpose of housing an official federal Obama library, but that now the center will not include Obama’s official presidential library.
A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the center is an opportunity to invest millions of dollars on Chicago’s South Side.
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.