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Obama is getting ready to fuck over the (poor, black) residents of Jackson Park, South Shore, Woodlawn, and Washington Park in Chicago, and he’s thriving on the political and historical ignorance, and illusion of black inclusion in this country to do it.
I am a resident of Jackson Park, and I live about four blocks north of the proposed site of the Obama Presidential Center, which he is promoting as a “hub” for “training of future leaders” to “bring economic activity” to the south side, with which he has a personal connection. I was present at his foundation’s community center’s meeting last night, as a concerned resident of the neighborhood that will be affected by the construction and impact of this center… and I was disgusted by what I heard.
For context- the South East side of Chicago has been the ONE place in the city that someone could get CONSISTENTLY affordable rent and not have to live in a shoe box, have roommates, or need welfare via a housing voucher or subsidization to do it for the last thirty years. It is a place with a lot of multi-unit buildings, so the majority of the people that live here do not own their homes, they are renting.
