June 03--If the Barack Obama Presidential Center is built in Washington Park, the city envisions a walking community, where visitors would step off a CTA Green Line train and stroll along decoratively landscaped sidewalks, lined with pedestrian scale lighting and seating areas.
In Jackson Park, visitors might spend an afternoon biking from the lakefront to a well-lit, paved trail through the Midway Plaisance to the Obama center. Others might prefer to take the No. 10 CTA bus from downtown to the Museum of Science and Industry and then on to a new stop at the presidential library.
The two ideas are among a list of proposals Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office submitted to the University of Chicago last year to strengthen its bid to place the Obama library and museum on the South Side in one of the two parks. Most of the proposals address transforming areas fraught with crime and neglect into a safe and inviting environment where visitors feel at ease -- a key challenge for the first presidential center built in a low-income, urban neighborhood.
But while the specific plans were just proposals, Emanuel also promised in a letter to the Barack Obama Foundation that the city would make infrastructure improvements and that he would lead the way in bringing new investments to the surrounding neighborhoods, creating jobs and spurring economic growth. The documents were obtained by the Tribune through the Freedom of Information Act.
Now that the South Side bid has been selected, the mayor faces the daunting task of delivering on those promises at a time when the city is trying to work its way through a financial crisis.
Many of the mayor's proposals would have to be approved by the library foundation and the National Archives and Records Administration -- the federal agency that oversees presidential libraries -- and incorporated into the architect's design. Still, the documents offer a look at how the city envisions easing safety concerns about the South Side and making the areas near the library aesthetically appealing.
"Chicago's reputation isn't the greatest when it comes to travelers wary about safety. And both sites suffer from being out of the sight of tourists," said Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who specializes in urban planning and economic development.
A study commissioned by the U. of C. last year suggested that the library and museum would have a $220 million a year economic impact on the city, primarily due to an increase in visitors. To reach that goal, the Obama center would have to draw 800,000 visitors a year -- more than the combined number who visited the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton last year and significantly higher than the 491,000 who visited the newest presidential library -- that of George W. Bush.
Sustaining such high attendance would also be difficult, since the number of visitors to presidential libraries tends to decline over time.
Schwieterman pointed to the United Center on the West Side and U.S Cellular Field on the South Side as examples where large-scale economic development failed to follow major projects.
"It's hard to predict whether people will spend money in the neighborhood. You've got 20,000 people going to games at (U.S. Cellular Field), but we don't have a vibrant seven-day-a-week retail environment around the stadium. For economic growth to occur around the library, the city has to figure out a way to keep people from buying peanuts in the parking lot on the way and then escaping into their cars when they're done."
To spur public and private investment in the area, Emanuel said in a letter to foundation board Chairman Martin Nesbitt that he would create a citywide steering committee of business, civic, planning and government leaders to draft a community economic development strategy for the selected site.
He also promised that World Business Chicago, an economic initiative that he heads, would establish an office in the neighborhood to assist local business owners and entrepreneurs develop business plans geared toward capturing the new tourism market. The city's Department of Planning and Development also will establish office hours there to help local real estate developers and retailers gain financing for new developments and refurbishments, he said.
Emanuel made it clear from the beginning that he would move "heaven and earth" to land the library. The city likely was willing to make large commitments to obtain the library because of its great symbolic value to Chicago, especially being the starting ground for the first African-American president, economic experts said.
The mayor's office said the city will work with the foundation and community to determine how annual infrastructure investments can be targeted in the surrounding communities.
"The city and sister agencies annually spend significantly on local infrastructure, educational and parks programming, and job-creation activities," said Shannon Breymaier, a spokeswoman for the mayor. "Further, this work fits in with our overarching objective to improve public access to green space and link cultural institutions on the South Side to the rest of the city."
There were signs of the mayor's growing involvement in the bid in the months leading up to the official announcement that the library would be built in Chicago. Emanuel took the helm late last year when the foundation made it known that there were problems with the U. of C.'s bid -- notably that the university did not own the parkland it had proposed using.
The mayor orchestrated a plan to transfer about 20 acres of parkland owned by the Chicago Park District to the city, giving Chicago the right to enter into a long-term lease with the foundation.
In April, he helped shepherd a bill through the Illinois General Assembly in an effort to close loopholes that could have been used in a lawsuit against placing the library on parkland.
But City Hall documents show that the mayor's office held meetings and telephone conversations with the U. of C. months before the university presented its bid to the foundation in December. The documents also show the extent to which the mayor's staff helped to develop certain aspects of the university's bid, from proposing public school collaborations to suggesting bike lanes in the surrounding neighborhoods.
While the Obama Foundation is responsible for raising money to build the library before turning it over to the federal government to run, the group must negotiate financial responsibilities with the city before the first shovel of dirt is turned.
Issues such as which entity will be responsible for clearing the parkland for construction, who pays for increased police protection around the construction site and who pays for such prep work as environmental studies must be worked out. If Chicago follows the path of other cities that have hosted presidential libraries, such costs could also fall on the city.
Nesbitt said the South Side was chosen in large part because of the potential for the Barack Obama Presidential Center to be a driver of economic growth within the surrounding community.
"The Obama Foundation will independently raise all of the funds needed to construct the Obama Presidential Center, and we intend to work collaboratively with the city and community to ensure that every aspect of the future project maximizes benefits to the South Side and to all Chicagoans," Nesbitt said.
No specific dollar amount was included in the correspondence, but the documents outlined potential partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, the Illinois Department of Transportation and other agencies.
The library project comes as the city faces a projected $1 billion budget shortfall next year and agencies such as the CTA are dealing with reduced aid from the state. Efforts to squeeze funding from the state would meet strong resistance in the General Assembly, which is dealing with the budget crisis.
The U. of C. has offered only one financial incentive -- a 6-acre swath of land between the Green Line tracks and Martin Luther King Drive. Susan Sher, senior adviser to U. of C. President Robert Zimmer, said the university has no plans to offer any financial assistance or aid in fundraising.
Regardless of where the Obama center goes, the mayor's office has promised to beautify the area and enhanced transit.
In Washington Park, for example, the city proposed widening and redesigning sidewalks to make it easier and safer for people walking from the Green Line.
The document pointed out that a plan already is in the works by the U. of C. and the city's Transportation Department to beautify the area along 55th Street between Cottage Grove and Lake Park avenues with landscaping and lighting. The mayor's office suggested that the plan be expanded through Hyde Park to Washington Park and the library site. The project also could continue west of the park along Garfield Boulevard to the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Potential elements would include pedestrian center islands, protected bike lanes, improved public spaces to foster community events and gatherings and improved traffic signal timing to accommodate traffic flow.
While no new transit facilities would be needed at the Washington Park site, the mayor's office suggested a variety of service enhancements to improve CTA buses and trains and commuter rail access to the library, particularly increasing the frequency during high demand.
Another idea was to restore the CTA's former East Garfield/55th Street circular route (No. 174 bus) connecting CTA rail stations, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the U. of C., the Museum of Science and Industry and nearby Metra stations to the Obama center.
The mayor proposed upgrading existing bike lanes around Washington Park and extending bike lanes on State Street that currently end in Bronzeville farther south.
A presidential center in Jackson Park would bring myriad improvements to Woodlawn. The mayor's office suggested improving the sidewalks along Stony Island Avenue and trails within Jackson Park and along the Midway Plaisance with better lighting, wider walkways and better accommodations under the viaducts. That would help connect the site to the university and the Museum of Science and Industry. The city also would improve pedestrian crossings on Stony Island, Midway Plaisance and other nearby streets to make it easier for people to cross the busy roadways and get to the library.
The city suggested working with Metra to renovate the 59th Street and 63rd Street Metra stations and enhance service on the South Shore Line.
Wallace Goode, executive director of the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce, said he has experienced firsthand the difficulty of changing perceptions some people have about the South Side.
"The challenges that any economic enterprise experiences when locating in a low-income area are the same," said Goode, who has worked with the U. of C. to bring in retail shops, offices and restaurants to Harper Court in Hyde Park.
"Some people on the North Side of Chicago still have a fear about coming down here," he said. "When people get down here, they enjoy it. But changing perception is a very slow process."
dglanton@tribpub.com
