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The potentially high costs of reconfiguring streets around the Barack Obama Presidential Center are a small price for the city to pay given the opportunity the project represents for the South Side and Chicago as a whole, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.

The Chicago Department of Transportation on Wednesday unveiled plans to possibly add a lane to Lake Shore Drive near the Jackson Park site of the library and two extra lanes to part of Stony Island Avenue in a bid to offset traffic problems from the proposed closure of Cornell Drive nearby.

Emanuel declined to say what the tab might be for that work, but he called on Chicagoans to concentrate on the big picture.

"Remember the tremendous economic, educational and cultural investment and opportunities this will mean, not just for the entire city, but also for the South Side of the city of Chicago in specific," he said. "And so while we're going to talk about, correctly, this roadway versus expansion of that roadway, this park plan versus that park plan, to everybody, as the mayor, keep your eye on the prize."

"Because, as I always like to say, or quote somebody famous, 'Yes we can,'" the mayor said, referring to an Obama campaign slogan.

And Emanuel defended the Obama Foundation's proposal to pay for construction of a two-level parking garage on part of the Midway Plaisance across from the site where the presidential center will be built. Some critics have complained the above-ground garage with a green roof shouldn't count as parkland.

"Don't just dismiss the contribution of the parking garage to the community as a whole, and don't dismiss the fact they're willing to pay for it. That goes a long way," he said after an event at Prosser Career Academy to announce free mobile devices and wireless packages for public high school students. "And by doing a green roof I think it also goes a long way toward meeting other needs."

Lolly Bowean and Blair Kamin

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_johnbyrne

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Emanuel: Obama center infrastructure costs small price for cultural, economic benefits - Chicago Tribune