The Indicator from Planet Money
The Indicator from Planet Money

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

July 3, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Just last month, students at Hyde Park Academy on Chicago’s South Side walked out of class to protest after three of their classmates died in a single month. The school had cut community groups offering support services. Right across the street, on Stoney Island Avenue, sits the sprawling, $850 million Obama Presidential Center, set to open to the public on Juneteenth. The contrast is stark: a state-of-the-art playground, a sledding hill (Michelle Obama, who grew up nearby, never got to sled as a kid), a museum, and a public library branch — all built with private money, though the city contributed for parkland costs. But from the moment the location was announced a decade ago, there has been pushback from multiple directions: concerns about gentrification, about private development on public parkland, and about whether the shiny new campus would serve the people who already live there.

The neighborhood and the school across the street

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:05) **Introduction: The Obama Center Opens on the South Side** - Wayland Wong introduces the episode, sharing a Code Switch episode about the Obama Presidential Center's opening and its impact on the neighborhood.
  • 2 (00:35) **The Scene: Hyde Park Academy vs. the Obama Center** - Describes the stark contrast between the struggling Hyde Park Academy high school and the $850 million Obama Center across the street.
  • 3 (02:08) **Pushback from the Start** - From the moment the location was announced, there was significant pushback from multiple directions.
  • 4 (03:06) **A Resident's Perspective: Displacement and Unease** - A 2019 Hyde Park graduate shares her mixed feelings, noting the center is a good thing if used by the community, but her family has been priced out.
  • 5 (05:00) **Introducing the Local Experts** - Gene and B.A. Parker bring in two South Side journalists, Natalie Moore and Myra Kwaja, to dig into the center's complicated local legacy.
  • 6 (07:15) **The South Side as "Capital of Black America"** - The guests discuss the South Side's historical significance as the destination of the Great Migration and why Barack Obama was drawn to it.
  • 7 (09:48) **The Vibe of the Obama Presidency in Chicago** - The guests recall the excitement of the Obama years in Chicago, but also note critiques from those skeptical of the presidency's imperial nature.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

How do residents of the South Side of Chicago feel about their new neighbor: the Obama Presidential Center? A mixture of pride and excitement, tempered with some concerns about what it could do to housing affordability. On today’s show, we’re bringing you an episode from our friends at Code Switch on the new center and its relationship to the historically Black neighborhoods around it. 

Connect with The Indicator
— Sign up for The Indicator’s brand new newsletter 
— Buy the Planet Money book 
— Find our socials, YouTube and more!
— For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+


See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy
The Indicator from Planet Money

More from this podcast

The Indicator from Planet Money →