Obama presidential library goes to Chicago

A University of Chicago bid, where Obama taught constitutional law, beat out rival proposals.

The Barack Obama presidential library will be built in his adopted hometown of Chicago, the Barack Obama Foundation announced in a video message posted online Tuesday.

A bid by the University of Chicago, where Obama taught constitutional law before turning to politics, beat out rival proposals from Hawaii and New York to host the location of Obama’s presidential archives and museum.

All the strands of my life came together, and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago. That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in the communities in public service,” Obama said in the nearly three-minute video. “That’s where I met my wife, that’s where my children were born, and the people there, the community, the lessons I learned, they’re all based right in this few square miles where we’ll be able to now give something back and bring the world back home after this incredible journey.

The South Side location — in the neighborhood Obama represented as a state senator hosted by the school where he taught law — had long seemed like the obvious favorite. Obama’s motorcade even took a detour to drive by the area during his last trip to Chicago in February, and the local papers have been reporting that the choice was a fait accompli.

But in Chicago itself, the announcement closes a chapter on months of political drama. The University of Chicago doesn’t actually own the land it wants to use — one of two city parks — and citizens’ groups have objected to taking away local green space. It took the personal intervention of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, to broker a deal to transfer the park land over.

The runner-up was Columbia University, Obama’s alma mater, which offered to site the library on land it owns on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The University of Hawaii in Honolulu also offered a seaside location for the library in the city where Obama spent much of his youth.

The University of Chicago has touted the economic benefits of the library, which would be near one of the epicenters of the city’s gun violence epidemic. According to its proposal, the center would generate millions of dollars in annual economic growth, drawing 40 new restaurants and stores to the community and creating 1,900 jobs. The evidence that presidential libraries actually draw the promised crowds is mixed.
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