The Obama Presidential Center and Its Adverse Effect on the Area

width=436 Is former president Barack Obama beginning to lose his luster? Lately especially during the current Democratic presidential debates we keep on hearing about Barack Obama. You know the Great One the Rock-Star President the messianic leader much beloved overseas though not so much in America and even about his wife Michelle as a presidential hope" for the Democrats sometime in the future. That is odd considering that Obama legacy-to-be his projected mammoth presidential center in Chicago would have an adverse effect" on the surrounding area according to a new study completed by the city municipal planners. The issue is not new and several publications have signaled it repeatedly. On July 29 2019 the city posted its draft report as part of their overall approval process. The Obama Presidential Center would be built on land currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places reported the Chicago Tribune. The design includes three buildings: a museum library and forum. The report states that building the Obama center at the current desired location will have an adverse effect to Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance because it will alter directly or indirectly characteristics of the historic property that qualify it for inclusion in the National Register. … The changes alter the legibility of the design of the cultural landscape in ways that diminish the overall integrity of spatial organization in the property as a whole." The edifice would encroach upon local streets and would detract from the intended prominence of the co-located Museum of Science and Industry and Jackson Park. Jackson Park was the site of an 1893 worlds fair. Another problem is the huge costs for the project $1.5 billion three times the cost of the George W. Bush Center. But the report even negative signals that the project is still alive and the city has restarted the review process after months of inactivity. Even so the fact that the study has been released to the public means that the residents can give their honest feedback on the desirability of this behemoth of memorial to Obamas presidency. Meanwhile Obama enjoys travelling overseas to tropical islands and fancy venues for the rich where exulting crowds less familiar with his thin legacy have the opportunity to be showered with his proverbial arrogance and ferocious egotism.   NOTE - A version of the article was previously published in AMERICAN THINKER.   TIBERIU DIANU has published several books and a host of articles on law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.   *****    
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