Here is U.S. News and World Report (yes, it’s still in business!) introducing our topic — the Obama Library:
Chicago: Obama Library Infrastructure Could Total $175M
CHICAGO (AP) — Private dollars will pay for building former President Barack Obama’s library, but road and other work near the Chicago site could cost taxpayers.
The city’s transportation department estimates that the cost of widening streets and building at least four new underpasses near the site in Jackson Park may total $175 million.
From the same article (this is embarrassing):
In January, more than 100 University of Chicago faculty members signed a letter urging the Obama Foundation to find a different location for the center.
For years I have questioned the need for presidential libraries, and this entire Obama library episode is a perfect example of why.
The word boondoggle fits well:
boon·dog·gle
ˈbo͞onˌdäɡəl/Submit
noun — work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.
verb — waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.
Here are two other synonyms: useless, trivial. While Wikipedia has its problems, their page on the word boondoggle is kind of funny.
American Thinker’s founder and editor Thomas Lifson has been on the case of the Obama Library since at least 2014. His writings about it has been both entertaining and informative. Here are a few of his early headlines:
Illinois voters don’t want tax money going for Obama library
Report: Obama library to be built in America’s most corrupt major city
Longtime Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin has been closely following the progress of this monument to our former president — a list of his sympathetic columns on the topic can be found here.
Thomas Lifson hasn’t been as supportive. Here is what he wrote last October:
Ironic: Obama Presidential Center sparks community opposition in the cradle of community organizing
On the very turf that gave birth to Saul Alinsky’s version of community organizing, community activists are rising in opposition to the impact of building a huge mausoleum-like memorial to Barack Obama. Young Barack Obama relocated to Chicago in order to study at the feet of Saul Alinsky, who had powered the Woodlawn Organization to historic prominence as a prototype of community organizing.
Members of a local organization, the Midway Plaisance Advisory Council (MPAC), have been critical of plans, and the feared Friends of the Park has aligned itself “with local causes” related to the Barack Obama Presidential Center.
If Obama thought a Republican-run Congress was difficult to deal with, now he’s up against the Friends of the Park (FOP), a group notorious for their hardcore stances on projects related to Chicago’s lakefront. Here is part of a recent statement from FOP:
Friends of the Parks remains extremely excited about the Obama Presidential Center coming to Chicago’s south side. And we’re glad that our hometown, former president considers equitable investment in Chicago’s parks to be important. We agree with him on that. What we don’t agree on is the appropriateness of long-term disinvestment in parks that culminates in the all-too-common argument that the only way to fix a park is to build a building in it.
. . .
We are saddened by Obama’s dismissiveness toward the many Chicagoans who dare to express opposing views or the need for appropriate vetting and review, not the least of which is the federally-required Section 106/NEPA review. Apparently, he’s been away long enough that he has forgotten how the “City that Works” works. On a daily basis, we Chicagoans suffer the consequences of poor public policy decisions that stem from inadequate long-term planning, transparency, and oversight.
Whaaat? Obama is being accused of “talking down” to people and being dismissive of opposing views?
Wait, there’s more! Again, here’s Lifson:
High-handed Obama Presidential Center is losing community support
[Obama’s] desire to have a monument to himself in the form of the “Obama Presidential Center” (not a library, and not part of the National Archives System) is roiling community organizations who are not convinced that their park should be sacrificed to build a large shrine to the 44th president.
In fact, revisions to the initial plans have not mollified the opposition. Revised plans unveiled made the project even taller and more grandiose (and less white)…
It’s no wonder Barack likes to travel overseas, where his audiences are less aware of his real legacy and probably also more unaware of his arrogance and narcissism.
If you wish to learn more, follow these links:
Black activists shout ‘Shame on you!’ at Chicago aldermen supporting Obama Presidential Center
Plans revised for ‘Obama Presidential Center’: Taller, uglier, and a little bit less white
Obama non-library ‘presidential center’ in Chicago devolving into a fiasco
