A group of leftist students at the University of Chicago are demanding their university pay over $1 billion in reparations to Chicago’s South Side residents for displacing black people living in the area. There’s just one problem: The university, which has been located in Chicago’s Hyde Park since 1890, is not what’s displacing the residents. It is Barack Obama and his presidential center that have caused the median home price to more than double in the South Side, forcing people to leave the area.
Obama claims that his $500 million presidential center, scheduled to be complete in 2025, will change Chicago’s Woodlawn and South Shore neighborhoods for the better, but residents told The Federalist that isn’t true.
“I just think it’s a crime,” said one resident. “Black Americans are not going to be able to afford to live over here [because] property tax is gonna be higher.”
“The cost of living is definitely going up,” another resident told The Federalist, adding that she believes the center is being utilized to “move crime around.” “[The locals] are gonna be able to stay here, some of them, but they won’t be able to participate because they won’t be able to afford it.”
Resident Lynn Franco described the center as “a land grab” since it took 19 acres of land away from the historic Jackson Park. “What is very heartbreaking is that a part of our park, Jackson Park, was taken from us,” stated Franco. “A lot of the green has been taken … This was just
