Obama Presidential Center

The mayor and governor didn't discuss how they'd employ local residents for the infrastructure projects ahead of the center's groundbreaking. "So why am I there?” Ald. Jeanette Taylor asked.

The suit was filed Wednesday, the same day officials announced work would begin to prep for the Obama Center's groundbreaking later this year.

The work is starting five years after President Obama chose the Jackson Park site. "There has truly never been a better time to invest in our South Side," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

Organizers and aldermen have a laundry list of protections they want to ensure before the Obama Center's planned opening in Jackson Park.

Years of federal reviews have come to a close, and construction could begin as soon as August, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday.

Public comment on an environmental review of roadway closures and plans to replace Jackson Park land lost to the Obama Presidential Center will be accepted through Oct. 30.

As more than 50 vacant lots in Woodlawn are redeveloped, 30 percent of the units will be reserved for "very low-income" renters.

A final plan to address the Obama Center's adverse effects on Jackson Park is expected "sometime this fall," but that "is not a hard-and-fast answer," a spokesman said.

With an affordable housing ordinance in place for Woodlawn, South Side organizers say they also want to help lower-income residents in nearby neighborhoods. "This is a small step in the right direction," an alderman said.

The latest proposal to protect the area around the library includes extra measures aiming to help low- and middle-income earners buy homes in the neighborhood, where home prices have more than tripled in the past five years.

Attendees set up tents for an all-day protest at a vacant, city-owned lot. Community leaders from across the city called for affordable housing protections for Woodlawn that go beyond the city's recent proposal.

Protect Our Parks is appealing a district court judge's dismissal of its lawsuit seeking to block the Obama Presidential Center's construction in Jackson Park.

The report is meant to serve as a framework for preserving affordable housing, not be "the final say." The specifics must be hashed out in an ordinance.

Neighbors at Tuesday's meeting on the city's affordable housing proposal for Woodlawn held a variety of opinions, but many agreed a plan of action needs to be decided soon.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hyde Park High School, 6220 S. Stony Island Ave.

The event series was planned "to create this healthy racial identity — you are black and you are somebody," organizer Candice Washington said.

"I’m going to fight [the Mayor] and everybody else on making sure that this doesn’t pass," Ald. Jeanette Taylor said. "It is either get right, or get right out of office.”

"I don't want to kill [the city's plan], but if that's what needs to happen to make sure we're not displaced, then that's what's got to happen," Ald. Jeanette Taylor said.

Stakeholders will provide new input in response to the completed report next week.