African-American residents living in the Chicago lakefront neighborhood where the Obama Presidential Center is planned are excited about the center honoring the nation’s first black president but many worry they will be pushed out by gentrification.
In this Tuesday, July 23, 2019 photo, activist Jose Reuena, center in back row, holds a placard during a news conference and rally in Chicago.
Fear of gentrification — and the racial disparities that often come with it — has existed for decades in Woodlawn and other South Side Chicago neighborhoods slow to recover from the recession. Woodlawn, 10 miles from downtown and just steps from Jackson Park, is over 80% black, with nearly 40 of its 25,000 residents living below the poverty line, according to Chicago demographer Rob Paral.
While Obama has touted the center as a youth leadership hub that’ll attract new businesses, some residents fear a resurgence that would push out longtime residents. Some groups have demanded a community benefits agreement to protect residents. At a meeting the Obama Foundation held in September 2017, then-activist Jeannette Taylor asked if Obama would sign such an agreement.
“It is morally wrong to get investment in a community that’s long overdue investment and then to displace the very people who have been dealing with disinvestment,” Taylor said. “It is a conversation that should have been had way before this, way before the library.”
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