The lights at 65th and Stony Island Avenue have been burning late — not because anyone’s throwing a party, but because the folks who’ve lived in the Chaney Braggs Apartments for decades are watching their neighborhood get swallowed whole. And the man whose name is on the shiny new building causing all the chaos? He’s too busy planning a grand opening to notice.
Here’s the setup. Barack Obama’s Presidential Center is still under construction on Chicago’s South Side, and like clockwork, the vultures have started circling. A California investor — because of course it’s California — has swooped in with an offer to buy the apartment building where longtime residents pay $700 to $800 a month in rent. His generous offer to these families who’ve called the place home for decades? Two grand in cash and a pat on the back. Pack your bags, peasants. Progress is coming.
The residents aren’t having it. They’ve done something that would make any good community organizer proud — they’ve formed a tenant union. Ironic, isn’t it? Obama built his entire political career on community organizing, and now actual community members are organizing against the consequences of his legacy project.
The Man Who Vanished and the Center That Displaced
Here’s the kicker nobody talks about. According to The Triibe, the tenants of Chaney Braggs have been maintaining the building themselves because the actual owner vanished. Read that again. These people have been fixing their own pipes, patching their own walls, keeping the lights on — all while paying rent into the void. And now some out-of-state investor wants to waltz in, double the rent to $1,400 for a one-bedroom, and cash in on the Obama Center hype.
Organizer Infiniti Gant with the housing advocacy group Southside Together laid it out plainly:
“We have been talking about how there is a danger that the center will displace community members if we do not act to have provisions to make sure that people can stay. We have started, but it’s still not enough.”
Not enough is right. The Woodlawn Housing Ordinance passed in 2020 as part of the Obama Community Benefits Agreement was supposed to protect these residents. The Jackson Park Ordinance followed last September. Two ordinances, and people are still getting squeezed out. That’s government efficiency for you — moves slower than a DMV sloth on a coffee break but somehow fast-tracks displacement.
Airbnbs, Unpaid Volunteers, and a $740,000 Salary
And here’s where it gets stupid. The Obama Foundation has been hosting information sessions promoting the conversion of properties into Airbnbs. You read that correctly. The foundation attached to a presidential center built in a historically Black neighborhood is actively encouraging people to turn housing into tourist rentals. Residents and organizers rightly criticized the move, but the Foundation kept rolling.
Obama announced March 7 that the center will open to the public on June 19. A Juneteenth opening — the symbolism practically writes itself. Meanwhile, the center has been costing taxpayers more and more money, and its leadership recently put out a call for unpaid volunteers. Unpaid. Volunteers. At a center run by an organization whose CEO, Valerie Jarrett, pulls down a $740,000 salary. Let that marinate. Nearly three-quarters of a million dollars for the boss, and they’re asking locals to work for free. The neighborhood gets gentrified, the rent doubles, and if you want to participate in Obama’s grand vision, you can do it for the low price of zero dollars an hour.
Trump has talked endlessly about how Democratic politicians use Black communities as campaign props and then vanish. This is the textbook case. Obama stood on the South Side of Chicago, told everyone he was one of them, rode that story all the way to the White House — and now his presidential palace is pricing those same people out of their homes.
The Real Legacy
The residents held a rally. They contacted city and state officials. They formed a union. They’re fighting back. Good for them. But the bitter truth is that they shouldn’t have to. A presidential center is supposed to uplift a community, not bulldoze it financially while its namesake collects applause from a safe distance.
Obama’s neighbors aren’t staying quiet anymore. They’ve seen the promises, read the ordinances, and watched the investors circle. And they’ve figured out what a lot of Americans learned a long time ago — when a politician tells you he’s building something for the community, check whose community he actually means.