It was supposed to be a library. Instead, Barack Obama is getting a bomb shelter.
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park was first pitched as a community beacon, a temple of hope to uplift one of America’s most beleaguered neighborhoods.
Cost: $350 million. Delivery date: 2021.
What Chicago actually got was a half-finished, windowless Soviet cube with walls so thick they’re rated against blasts— although that’s probably not a bad idea given the Left’s penchant for “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests.
And of course, the budget has more than doubled, now beyond $850 million with no completion until at least 2026… though most likely MUCH beyond.
But when compared against other Leftist projects that haven’t materialized— like California’s 20-year $35 billion high speed rail— the Obama library may end up being a bargain.
The construction crews who are working on the project joke that it looks like a “totalitarian command center from 1984.”
And the workers themselves might feel like they’re in 1984, with the Obama Foundation conscripting them into reeducation circles straight out of the Ministry of Love.
Crews were pulled off the job and marched into three, 90-minute DEI workshops—rituals of the Left where rants about “oppressors and oppressed” took priority over actual construction work.
One foreman recalled being walked through a parable about two men picking apples: one with a tall ladder, one with a short ladder. The apparent conclusion, as in all things on the Left, is that heterosexual white men are inherently evil.
“They told weird stories… I think it was supposed to show us that some people aren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths. I don’t know. We just kinda tuned out.”
But some of the sharpest criticisms have come from Obama’s own people—the progressive activists and community leaders who once chanted his name like a gospel refrain.
Now, those who used to be among Obama’s most ardent supporters complain that his monument is wreaking havoc in their community.
Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor, an early Obama supporter from his ‘Barry’ days, now reports South Side rents doubling from $800 to $1,800. Property taxes are crushing landlords. And “$400,000 homes that nobody can afford” are sprouting where more affordable homes once stood.
“Every time large development comes to communities, they displace the very people they say they want to improve it for,” she warns.
The center also bulldozed beloved parkland, playing fields, and neighborhood spaces— all razed to make way for the 19-acre Glory to Obama campus. Residents complain that culture and community were “washed away” in the process.
And then there’s the money. The Obama Foundation’s donor rolls read like a Forbes cover—Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey, George Soros. And the Left is complaining about this too.
You’d think progressives would welcome billionaires donating their fortunes to fund a community project. But no: the same chorus that insists the rich don’t pay their “fair share” now sneers at their philanthropy too.
Billionaires are evil when they don’t pay enough tax. But they’re also evil when they do contribute.
Why? Because the project raised property values, and with them, property taxes.
How dare they improve a place! How dare they ignore a place!
How dare they keep their money! How dare they donate their money!
Activists demanded the city sign a Community Benefits Agreement—binding promises of affordable housing, local hiring, and protections against predatory development—before the first shovel hit dirt. They were ignored.
This from the same political movement that lectured America for decades about “inclusive growth,” “community-driven change,” and “nothing about us without us.”
Obama himself built his career as a community organizer, insisting that ordinary voices deserved a seat at the table. Yet when it came to his own legacy project, the tables turned—literally bulldozed—while luxury hotels sprouted down the street.
One activist, Ken Woodard, describes the project as a “monstrosity” that simply landed on top of the neighborhood, erasing its landscape of trees and flowers.
Another, Tyrone Muhammad, calls it a modern Tower of Babel: all noise, no connection.
The Left’s great paradox is that it cannot stop attacking the very heroes it elevates.
Obama, the community organizer who promised to listen, builds a monument that silences his neighbors.
The activists, trained to see injustice around every corner, denounce the former President with the same fervor once reserved for his enemies.
It’s hard to imagine what they’ll do when they take power again.
