Hey, Mayor Rahm — North Lawndale is good enough for a presidential library

By Ben Joravsky | Chicago Reader

If Chicago truly were a meritocracy—where planning decisions were based on an idea’s virtues as opposed to clout—Mayor Emanuel would be steering the Obama Presidential Library to North Lawndale.

To help you out with your local geography, Mr. Mayor, North Lawndale’s the predominantly black, low-income community on the west side, which is that huge swath of land west of the Loop.

Just in case the mayor thinks the city only extends as far west as the United Center.

But, no, the mayor seems determined to muscle through a proposal by the University of Chicago to put the library in either Jackson Park or Washington Park.

So in the name of gaining a library, we lose some parkland.

I’d say this was the worst planning of Mayor Rahm’s tenure, if not for his plan to spend tens of millions of property tax dollars in order to lose untold millions of property tax dollars by building a DePaul basketball arena/Marriott Hotel in the South Loop.

CONTINUE READING AT CHICAGOREADER.COM